Almost big-band scale free-jazz conceptions from a group led by these legendary drums/sax shooters and featuring James ‘Chumly' Hunt on trumpet and plastic castanets, Matt Moran on vibes and percussion, Mike Murray on guitar and long-term collaborator Richard Downs on bass. A pretty singular instalment in this on-going saga, with the music existing in some kind of flux between all-valves-exploding high-energy gush and slightly more elaborately conceived big band geometries. A beauty, for sure.

First album in almost 10 years for these old brothers in arms, saxophonist Paul Flaherty and drummer Randall Colbourne. Over the past decade or so Colbourne had virtually given up the drums in order to focus on the clarinet but the beautiful force with which he commands tonal time signatures is immediately recognisable. It’s a studio set, recorded in April 2007, and as such the dynamic is a little more thoughtful and specifically nuanced from track to track, with Flaherty’s alto work touching on the kind of austere muscular style of players like Julius Hemphill or even Ornette as much as the more referenced post-Ayler fire music gambits. It’s probably the most overtly compositional performance of Flaherty’s I’ve heard since his last solo album on the same label and there are some extremely beautiful sections where Colbourne skirts the very edges of Flaherty’s inventions, implying almost orchestral extrapolations and all sorts of phantom melodies. This is a great side from two hard-thinking free musicians and it’s a blast to hear em back locking heads.

First time reissue of this very obscure free music LP, saxophonist Paul Flaherty’s debut recording, originally released privately in 1978. Orange were a garage band that existed between the years 1975 and 1977 and featured Flaherty on bells, alto sax and voice, Bob Laramie on electric bass, Barry Greika on electric guitar, trumpet and fife and a dude called Hobbit (“long red beard and really long red hair in case you’re wondering” sez Paul in the liners). The group’s identity fluxed between a jazz group that played heads and then went on out, a fusion of various electric and acoustic high-energy strategies and all-out totally improvisatory Godhead, all cut by a buncha heads shooting in various mutually-obliterating directions. The recording session for their LP was their most evolved shot at all-out freedom moves and it doesn’t really sound like anything else from the era/ilk other than what you might figure was going on in various basements amongst the kinda Americans that dug rock ‘n’ roll, free jazz, total artistic liberty and probably a buncha drugs too. The CD comes with extensive – great – liners from Paul and also features Dan and Dave Flaherty sitting in on bongos and steel drums respectively on a buncha tracks. Recommended.

Torrential three way free jazz/rock pile-up that tracks all the way back to Thurston’s epochal Barefoot In The Head date with Sauter and Dietrich while instant-visioning the future via minimal, psychedelic interventions, classic Sonic Youth-sounding guitar clank and explosive sax/string bulldozing. Some of the playing here is straight-up gorgeous, with the way the group build luminous form from a bed of hovering guitars and Flaherty’s bold tenor sax form sounding like a classic late-Coltrane take on devotional hymn forms. Bill Nace (Vampire Belt/Northampton Wools et al) and Thurston’s guitars are often indistinguishable, with Nace’s up-close modified guitar style pulling Thurston into gravities of microtonal detail and subtle textural invention while Flaherty takes the lead and just bleeds all over the goddamn room. A fantastic set, way more than a mere jam, and one that feels sourced from deep inside the classic free jazz tradition. Recommended.

New solo album from one of the major contemporary fire music voices, saxophonist Paul Flaherty, who has worked with everyone through Chris Corsano, Joe McPhee, Thurston Moore, Randall Colbourne, Spencer Yeh and Bill Nace. This one presents four long improvisations recorded across 2007. Flaherty is at his most lyrical when playing on his own, carving intricate blues-based speed-of-thought instants straight into the air while bolstering them with enough emotional and melodic muscle to make them really seem to speak. Recordings of single instrument improvisations can often be grueling but there’s a focus and a drama to the bulk of Aria Nativa that makes it an absolute pleasure to revisit. Edition of 500 copies with free MP3 download. Recommended.