Gorge Trio

Like other Skin Graft acts before them, Gorge Trio are a rock band playing jazz prize fighter-style: equal parts pummelling power and fancy fretwork. The band, three-quarters of the dismantled Colossamite, has an arsenal that goes beyond its power trio past to include more acoustic instruments as well as occasional electronic flourishes. The 22 tracks consist of brief spasms of full out rocking/computer distress, surprisingly tender acoustic sketches that fade out gracefully, while other longer ideas toy with elements of both of the above. "Intimate Addition” resembles George Shearing’s Peanuts themes played simultaneously by a metal band. Ed Rodriguez and John Dieterich both have guitars strung too tightly with barbed wire and they often seem to tangle together in lacerating battles for supremacy, as on "Paris Trap.” Recuperation comes in the form of "That Pilot Set,” a gently shifting acoustic pastoral that Loren Connors would be proud of. In essence the trio seems to be updating the interplay pioneered by such ’70s jazz units such as Brotzmann/Benink/Van Hove, who polarised their work with dexterous complexity and elbow-in-the-ribs humour. Open Mouth, O Wisp outshines the like-minded, more narrowly focused albums by the Flying Luttenbachers and Don Caballero. The band is not interested in boundaries, seeing only lines they can cross at high, noisy speeds.