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	5UU's: Crisis In Clay Code:ReR5UU2 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Second Installment from monster band 5UU's, featuring rock complexity, extraordinary production (by bassist and singer Bob Drake) and high energy precision mixed with eccentric song-writing. People that work this hard are becoming an endangered species. Extraordinary.
	5UU's: Hunger's Teeth Code:ReR5UU1 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
The re-formed 5UU's first CD, featuring, one-of-a-kind drummer Dave Kerman with new line-up- Sanjay Kumar (keyboards) and Bob Drake (Bass, Guitar, Vocals) and guests Susanne Lewis, Tom Dimuzio, and James Grigsby. Power, complexity and intelligence - an express train that can pirouette on a dime.
	ABSOLUTE ZERO: Crashing Icons Code:M=R.2 Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Based in Miami, this is a very interesting American band, ploughing its own furrow - whose accent is what they call 'prog' over there, but whose language is more complex by far. Pip Pyle adds a seasoned sophistication - in fact I think this is a great environment for him, he shines - but the whole ensemble is way past the foothills and keeping the oxygen packs handy. An excellent first CD, in a style that, features densely composed, layered, slightly post 5UU-school music - with some sung parts, high level rock/abstract improvisation. virtuoso playing and excellent clean, powerful production. In fact close and intelligent attention to detail - compositional, performative and sonic - is its hallmark. These are long-considered, sustained pieces. A fine debut. Listen to a sample of this release Listen to sample #2 of this release Listen to sample #3 of this release Listen to sample #4 of this release
	BINARY SYSTEM: Invention Box Code:ALP127CD Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Roger Miller (Piano, Guitars, organ, cornet) and Larry Dersch ((Drums, Metal, Percs) with a few guests (voice, shawm, saw). Powerful pieces, very nicely recorded. Full of detail and texture; rhythm and chord based. I could hear some more variation in the sound and mood, but that's me. Track one is the killer.
	Dr NERVE.: Skin Code:RUNE70 Price: £12.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Pretty unremitting, pretty extraordinary. Complex and gripping group music with trumpets nicely used. Successful deployment of computer controlled drums, approaching at times a techno brink. Memo- John Oswald's Metallica. Goes far enough to arrive.
	Dr NERVE: Every Screaming Ear Code:RUNE88 Price: £12.00 Quantity in Basket: none
Live recordings - studio quality - from Mainz, Tilburg and New York, Didkovsky compositions with New Ear (one of the best pieces on the CD), Isso Yukihiro Group, Meridian Ensemble, and his own Dr. Nerve. Fast and furious, tightly composed, devilishly complicated pieces performed with hard rock energy and virtuoso precision. Impressive...
	KERMAN, DAVE - 5UU's: Regarding Purgatories Code:RUNE135 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Dave's first solo record, with some assistance from singer Deborah Perry, bassist Keith Macsoud, and keyboardists Sanjay Kumar and Charles Turner. Not really 5uu's - the sound is very different, as is the approach to much of the material - and there are more minimal pieces. Though Dave's signature melodies and big orchestrations are here too. He plays a lot himself, which is welcome, and there is more open improvised and studio manipulated material (my favourite part of the record, I think, because the most different).
	KERMAN, DAVE : Abandonship Code:Rune158 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Dave plays all instruments (drums, of course, bass, guitars, keyboards and who knows what else) Thinking Plague's Deborah Perry sings. Full band material, well arranged with Kerman's trademark angular melodies, oblique texts and a curious tribute to Present (track 3). Mostly instrumental.
	MUFFINS, THE: Bandwidth Code:Rune161 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Back after 20 years, sounding not so different, but less light, more disparate; a collection of sketches rather than an evolved CD, but with engaging stretches.
	THINKING PLAGUE: In Extremis Code:RUNE113 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
After 9 years, a new collection of (mainly) Mike Johnson pieces of fiendish complexity, impeccably performed and mixed. Personnel changes: Susanne Lewis' signature voice replaced by Deborah Perry, Bob Drake's bass largely replaced by Dave Willey and his place at the drums by the maestro Dave Kerman. It's sure that Americans now do what used to be the 'progressive' thing better than anybody else, in fact forming a kind of family (highly distinctive similarities between U Totem, 5uu's, and Plague are easy to spot - and not just because of shared musicians but also through compositional, harmonic and melodic affinities. Which is interesting I think, and going somewhere). Mike Johnson is an inventive and painstaking composer and there are sections and moments here which are sublime. As well as things which - for me - could do with crueller pruning (some instrumental prodigality, general prolixity and occasional lapses of taste). But I criticise only because this is a Rolls Royce of a band which sets a standard hard to match and they deserve to be taken seriously.
	THINKING PLAGUE: In This Life Code:ReRTPCD Price: £12.50 Quantity in Basket: none
Remarkable song group from Denver whose state-of-the-art work is breathtakingly well represented on this CD, which features new pieces (a new 'LP') plus 'Moonsongs' completely remixed and remastered. 71 Minutes. 20pp Booklet. Listen to a sample of this release
	THINKING PLAGUE: A History of Madness Code:CN20180 Price: £14.10 Quantity in Basket: none
2003, a mellower, sometimes rather romantic programme, and again with a changed line-up -Dave Kerman and Bob Drake are both missed. There is some impressive playing here, great precision, the usual surefooted compositional skill and some tricksy use of effects and arrangement detail - in this TP are light years ahead of the prog. Field - but in that field they toil, perhaps even more so than they did in earlier incarnations. And though unfair, one can't help but compare: the clarity and power of the early band (both in the sound and the arrangements) has given way to a more thoughtful but flattened music; impressively crafted but not inspired.
	THINKING PLAGUE: Early Plague Years Code:Rune141 Price: £14.69 Quantity in Basket: none
Every now and then a landmark group emerges. Thinking Plague in my opinion belongs in that category. Being an interesting group isn’t a matter of learning to imitate some favourite bands' style, it's having an original musical vision and the skills to bring it into being; it's breaking new ground. That's why Thinking Plague qualifies in my book. These are fully realised compositions whose innovations are as much in their use of recording technology as in the organisation of musical materials. Songs like Warheads are textbook examples of an original voice that comes apparently out of nowhere, fully formed and brilliantly executed. After a long period of unavailability, these two original LPs have been re-mastered on one CD by original group member Bob Drake.
	U TOTEM: U Totem Code:RUNE24 Price: £12.00 Quantity in Basket: none
West Coast state of the art chamber?/rock? group. Now consisting of 5uu's Dave Kerman (Drums etc) and Sanjay Kumar (Keys, Sitar) and old hands James Grigsby (Bass, Guitar, Vibraphone etc), Eric Johnson (Bassoon, Contrabassoon, Soprano) and Emily Hay (Singing, Piccolo, Flute). The closest thing to Henry Cow in complexity 'Attractors' is their most impressive collection so far; beyond chamber rock and toward a meeting of extremities. World class playing and singing and inspired drums from 5UU David Kerman. There is nothing else like this now.