HIGH INFIDELITY

This mostly instrumental album is challenging, to say the least. It is very much a jazz album, with the ten man line-up including brass (a flugelhorn!) and cellos. The music cascades and sweeps, and while often strident and harsh is never anything less than powerful.

This is not easy listening, but rather music that has to be worked at to be enjoyed. It may not be an album to listen to often, even for those who enjoy jazz more than I do, but there is something in it that is strangely compelling. Themes move, disappear, and then come back again later. There are only three tracks, but the shortest is more than nine minutes in length while the longest is more than twenty-seven. A friend I have lent it to is enjoying playing this at very loud volume, and is a big fan of the horns, but for many this will be an acquired taste. Not for the fainthearted, find out more at www.netbeat. com/carbon7.

Originally appeared in Feedback #66, Feb 02