Approachable, even catchy, improvised music from some of the foremost English practitioners. These sessions from 1980 feature the quartet playing an impressive assortment of instruments to produce improv with humor and grace. The notes state that the band then was rebelling against the creeping Puritanism of the improv scene at the time, a Puritanism which disdained all regular beats, chord progressions, and even electronic effects. So the foursome here pushed in the opposite direction – trying to bring those elements into improv without turning into the dreaded “jazz-rock fusion”, the primary enemy of free improv at the time. Great stuff.

1. Guitar-n-drums pounding away with a tuneful bass solo suffixed
2. Tweaking and squeaking – guitar, piano, balloons
3. Hinting at a piano sonata
4. Toop blows a small melody on flute, Beresford tickles the ivories, then some bass belches lend a funny tone
5. Bass and drums do some heavy hitting before game calls and other funny noises intrude
6. Mostly piano, relatively “nice”, plus an obnoxiously noisy guitar stutter; then they somehow change places; excellent
7. Quick crunchy guitar interlude
8. Heavy-handed piano runs compete with honking sax
9. Ear-piercing whistles ease into more pleasant piano and bass textures
10. Admirably jazz-inflected tune
11. Guitar noise, mostly
12. Wicked tense guitar noise
13. Sort of bouncy sax bleats create rhythm, piano and, later, sax mellow things down
14. Rapidly brushed guitar, piano, and flute interweave
15. Aggressive guitar feedback laced with “faulty guitar pedal”, a record player playing some movie fantasia, and assorted horns