A merging of free jazz and free improvisation in the UK/US West Coast quintet of legendary AMM drummer Eddie Prévost, guitarist Henry Kaiser on "ismguitar", N.O. Moore on "guitarisism", Blinker Golding on saxophone and Olie Brice on double bass, in a rollicking album of electric jazz recorded in the studio in London for two exhilarating "Doors" of quick shifting improv.
Label: 577 Records Catalog ID: 5860-1 CD Squidco Product Code: 30086
Format: CD Condition: New Released: 2021 Country: Italy Packaging: Digipack Recorded at Westpoint Studios, in London, UK, on March 12th, 2020, by Shane Shanahan.
"Eddie Prévost, a preeminent musician in the UK improvised music scene and founding member of legendary AMM, might be equally renowned for his generous, decades-long mentorship. Both talent and Prévost's mentorship are on display in this new album, The Secret Handshake with Danger, Volume One which features five musicians (Binker Golding on Saxophones, Henry Kaiser on Guitar, N.O. Moore on Guitar, Olie Brice on Double Bass and Eddie Prévost on Drums) improvising from a lifetime of collaboration.
The album's two extended tracks are largely influenced by Miles Davis's On The Corner electro-jazz era, but the volume is entirely spontaneous composition, recorded and mixed in a single day in a Westpoint London studio, hours before the official national lockdown. The tracks stretch from classical arrangement to avant-garde electronic manipulation at disorienting speeds and exhilarating rhythms, navigating the confusion with confidence and trust. A second volume, recorded during the same session, will be released soon."-577
"Two tracks running at around 20 or so minutes allow all manner of experimentation to arise from locking five talented musicians in a room. The first track is called 'Door 1' and the second is 'Door 2'. I have no idea what these refer to nor what the cryptic title of the album means (a fruitless trawl through the corners of the Web hinted at thrillers, horror films, free masonry...) but this is a blinding performance that creates an exuberant, sometimes overwhelming assault on the senses. It is the sort of performance that would have been spell-binding live - and the recording does an excellent job of conveying the excitement of the group as they swirl around each other.
The press release suggests that a jumping off point for the music was Miles' On the Corner electro-jazz. This might, perhaps, explain the two guitarists, but the style, the sound, the sheer breadth of experimentation suggests much deeper reaches of the avant-garde and, to be honest, a great deal of AMM in the ways that the pieces develop - which is no great surprise seeing Eddie Prevost in the line-up (the only absence being AM radios scurrying across the wavebands). Not only this, but the presence of Kaiser, with his huge array of electronic effects and tricks and loops, guarantees that the music will find all manner of wormholes to pop into and then reappear in a completely different place (perhaps exiting through Door 1 and coming back through Door 2...). Moore's own experimental take on the guitar is as much to do with the deconstruction of all the idioms in which you might find the electric guitar as it is with his delight in combining sounds. And, of course, Olie Brice's own work with the double bass has him using the whole of the instrument to not only find ways to anchor the pulse of the music but also the create innovative layers and sounds. Among this veritable history of improvised music, Golding revels in the unexpected and shifting mosaic of sounds as if he has only ever played in full-on improv units.
There is a 'volume 2', recorded in the same manner, to be delivered in the near future. For the time being, this is a recording that will be repay repeated listens and which has depth and space and its own peculiar logics."-Chris Baber, Jazz Views