Gravitons

Raw Reads is explosive and meditative at the same time. Mani Mazinani and Jill Aston’s guitar and drum attack is a relentless current, with Mazinani’s drumming in particular being wave-like in its construction. His attack isn’t so much aggressive as vigorously inquisitive — there’s always a sense of exploration in his playing but with a sure-handed knowledge of the subtle tones of his smallish kit. Aston, on the other hand, shreds hard. Her distorted tone, with more than a touch of line hum, is pretty much unchanged throughout the album. Like Manzani, her strength is in phrasing, not notes but abstract and compelling riffage that perfectly complements Mazinani’s rhythmic sensibility. In some ways these two half-hour improvs are the height of ambient music. There’s very little rise and fall of energy (the only slow spot is about 20 minutes into track one, and it lasts for about two minutes) and the two display remarkable stamina maintaining the stasis. Yet their continuous telepathic communication will have you craning your neck forward, wondering what’s going to happen next.