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Ian Sinclair reviews 'You've Been Watching Me'

Tim Berne’s Snakeoil You’ve Been Watching Me (ECM) 3/5

IF YOU like your instrumental jazz to be challenging, then the latest album from saxophonist and composer Tim Berne’s New York group is perfect.

Adding guitarist Ryan Ferreira to make Snakeoil a quintet, it’s a dynamic, challenging set. Opener Lost in Redding surges forward, its clattering percussion and atonal electronics bringing to mind the mayhem created by Miles Davis on his much maligned On The Corner record.

The 18-minute Small World in a Small Town slowly builds from quietly interlaced sax and piano to a thunderously loud climax, while Embraceable Me employs screeching guitar licks and martial drumming to create an unbearably tense musical journey that wouldn’t sound out of place on Chris Potter Underground Orchestra’s majestic Imaginary Cities.

At more than 75 minutes long, You’ve Been Watching Me is a kinetic, focused and demanding noise collage. Definitely not for the faint-hearted.

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