Fans of Examples Of Twelves debut album, the four-part modal improvisation entitled The Way Things Were are brought into the present with this new CD The Way Things Are. Building on the success of Vortex and The Coast Is Clear, the opening track put Gilles Peterson into rapture when he started his show recently, lavishing praise on co-owner, producer and guru, Benedic Lamdin.

Also helping out in the studio is Mike ‘Prince Fatty’ Pelanconi while the band is on their usual fine form.

As close to the edge as Don Cherry, ZAUM, Elan Mehler, Norman Howard/Joe Philips or Jef Gilson, they’ve taken on some electronic whiz a la Kieran Hebdon on Daxaar by Steve Reid Ensemble.

That said, Part 1 is ‘Beginnings/Endings’ that takes us to the beginnings of fusion with a homage to Miles Davis. Fulvio Sigurta (Trumpet, Flugelhorn and Electronics) nails it superbly showing what you can do with training at the Luca Marenzio conservatory in Brescia, Italy and Berklee College.

Nowhere near Unsafe3 but ‘The Madness?’ starts with a dubby baseline and electronic snippets as Spall (Saxophones) gets hard post bop to Graham Fox’s beat.

It you think electronics and battling horns don’t work, these lot proves otherwise for a full 5 minutes before the return to an experimental mode; I’d love to be in this band, they are so great!

Talking about collaborations, in addition to Vosloo’s position in the Nostalgia 77 Octet has worked with an increasingly long list of jazz elete from Keith Tippett, Iain Bellamy, Andy Shepherd, Gary ‘Isotope’ Boyle, and Zoe Rahman.

As much as we enjoy the punk-jazz of Soil n’ Pimp Session, Led Bib, Acoustic Ladyland, Examples Of Twelves are the leaders in out-there modal jazz.

P.S. a great cover by www.scs76.co.uk

Hectic Mix nominations: ‘Beginnings / Endings’, ‘The Madness?’ (7 & 8), ‘Though Lovers Be Lost, Love Shall Not’.

Reviewed: Examples Of Twelves — The Way Things Are (Impossible Ark Records) Cat. No. IACD 005 Release date: 14th January 2008
Double Bass, Bass, Composed By, Electronics, Producer — Riaan Vosloo
Drums — Graham Fox
Engineer, Producer — Mike Pelanconi
Piano, Keyboards — Ross Stanley
Producer [Additional] — Ben Lamdin
Saxophone, Composed By [Additional] — Jonathan Spall
Trumpet, Electronics — Fulvio Sigurta
Tracklisting:
1. Part 1 — Beginnings / Endings
2. Part 2 — The Madness?
3. Part 3 — Though Lovers Be Lost, Love Shall Not

Links:
www.impossiblearkrecords.co.uk
http://www.myspace.com/impossiblearkrecords
The Vortex Jazz Club www.vortexjazz.co.uk
II Gillett Street, Dalston, London N16 8JH, Bookings 020 7254 4097. Doors open 8.30pm
Gilles Peterson :: 29 November 2007 :: Live from the Shepherd’s Bush Empire: Hypnotic Brass Ensemble
Examples of Twelve — ‘Beginnings/Endings’ (Impossible Ark)
LAL — ‘Raindrops (Arch-typ Remix)’ (Test)
Build An Ark — ‘Dawn’ (Kindred Spirits)
www.steve-reid.com
www.myspace.com/fourtetkieranhebden