One of my deepest musical regrets of last year was not catching the Stick Men when they came to the Baked Potato in tour, This album, recorded at the Blue Note Nagoya, Japan, just before the world lockdown on February 28, 2020, and while on tour for the latter makes me kick myself even more. The team of Tony Levin/chapman stick, Pat Mastelotto/dr-perc, Markus Reuter/touch-g and Gary Husband/key is in a vintage fusion mood, with the Crimsonites and Soft Machiners going wonderfully spacy on “Crack In The Sky” and exotic on “ Swimming In T”. The Crimson classic “Larks’ Tongues in Aspic Part II” is aggressively kinetic and acidic, and “Cusp” has more angles than a Rubic’s Cube. Steady rock with an edge is pulsated on “Hide the Trees” and Levin’s bass teamed with Mastelleto paints wide panoramas on “The End of the Tour”. These guys keep the fuse of fusion sparkling!