Tim Berne's Snakeoil - Incidentals

The Guardian 80

(ECM)

New York composer/saxophonist Tim Berne has been dramatically expanding Snakeoil’s original acoustic chamber-jazz sound world lately – and on this live set, all the way to thundering timpani climaxes, avant-rock guitar howls and squelching electronics, though the Berne trademark of implacably interweaving horn lines tugged by sly rhythm-bends constantly resurfaces. The 26-minute Sideshow (originally conceived as part of an hour-long epic, the other half of which appears on the band’s 2015 release, You’ve Been Watching Me) juggles staccato motifs mixing quacky sax sounds and deep clarinet murmurs with spacious meditations, culminating in producer David Torn’s guitar wails, against Ches Smith’s booming timps. The contrapuntal Incidentals Contact cuts Matt Mitchell’s piano spontaneity loose, as rocking guitar riffs barge into a tightly seesawing melody, while Stingray Shuffle explores Berne’s bleary kind of lyricism, as deep, slow-bending alto sax lines are harassed by bustling percussion, before the group sound swells to bittersweet wails and sighs. This fourth Snakeoil album for ECM is one of the most viscerally direct and exciting chapters in a consistently creative story.