Black, Jim – “Alas no Axis ” – [Winter & Winter]

Thurston Hunger   10/1/2005   CD, Jazz

Get ensnared by another drummer-led project.
Jim Black (of Ellery Eskelin’s recent Hatology
releases and much more) has a real firecracker
attack on the kit, even on more paced numbers
like “Maybe” things eventually fulminate! Hilmar
Jensson flat-out rocks…big ripped distortion
chords, squeezed feedback binges…and best of
all, dualing catfights with sax/clarinet. Chris
Speed provides the reeds with claws…this guy
is so fiercely good. You wind up with a Sonic
Youth ECM album almost. Definite alchemy and
energy here, borders blown-up, labels stripped
off…Black Magic. Abraxis, Alas No Axis!