ADC

Three albums in for Bologona band Accordo dei Contrari, and as expected of this Italian group, sublime and frenetic fusion displays are the order of the day (I'm fairly reluctant to use the `jazz' with that usual description though), and they've truly stepped up and taken their music in bigger directions than ever before. In addition to this perhaps being their busiest, noisiest fusion work yet, they've also added sophisticated classical flights, Post-Rock cinematic flavours, more Rock in Opposition/Avant textures and ambient passages to truly offer no better definition of a `fusion' of styles! Enviable technical displays played with passion and fire, it's constant never-ending musical eruptions effortlessly flowing from one seamless movement to the next and back, always melodic and endlessly groovy. There's still little references to other Italian fusion acts like D.F.A, Arti e Mestieri and the Canterbury sounds from the previous album, but the Accordo members are definitely forging their own path and have never sounded so tight and focused.

`Nadir' opens with groaning unfolding spacey electronics and ends on serrated jagged feedback, with wild guitar strums, slow-building giddy drumming, liquid bass and glistening electric pianos spiralling into controlled chaos throughout the centre of the piece. Some bits are like a schizophrenic take on the `Abraxis/III'-era Santana band, with moments of heavy grunt and softly building ambient builds back and forth too. The infectious playful `Dandelion' offers muscular twisting electric guitar/bass grooves over an exhausting mix of tempos that will have you grinning wildly! Violin and piano pirouette around the opening of `Seth Zeugma', offering a surprising dose of R.I.O/Avant Garde experimentation, but before long snappy drum lunges, molten bass spasms and hellfire Hammond rip through the fanciful classical sophistication, racing dizzying circles around the listener. Some of the Hammond aggression near the end even briefly calls to mind parts of Delirium's classic third album.

The overwhelming `Dua' will drive you to madness with a wicked glee, with surprisingly intimidating suffocating Hammond madness over endless looping piano/bass attacks. Improvisation `Tiglath' opens and closes with creeping late-night tip-toeing electric piano suspense to reverberating ambience along the lines of the Soft Machine's pitch-black `Fifth' album, with snarling slow-burn electric guitar strangulations, violated Hammond runs and intimidating rumbling percussion crescendos rising up from the pits of the Earth. `Piu' Limpida...part 2' closes the album with some sedate acoustic guitar, piano and droning cello Post-rock prettiness.

Sometimes a self-titled work can suggest an artist running low on inspiration, other times it can mean they are so confident with the results that they feel it's worthy of being considered their defining statement. The latter must certainly be the case for Accordo Dei Contrari here, and on the strength of `AdC', it's proof of a band slowly redefining what jazz/fusion can mean, not only for themselves, but for their listeners and lovers of the genre. Three great works from this talented band so far, and I still feel their best is yet to come!

Four stars.