Ansible Editions is a new label coming out of the socialist country of Canada, with these three albums finding a way to avoid draconian lockdown laws and create some artsy albums.
The Brodie West Quintet consists of Evan Cartwright/vib-dr-g, Josh Cole/b, Nick Fraser/dr,Tania Gill/p and leader Brodie West/as. West’s also is impressively warm while left of center, pretty on “Meadow of Dreams”, mellow with Gill on “Grotto” and crying over the tribal drums on “Inhabit I”. Gill is stark for “Inhabit III” and creates dots and dashes with Cole on ‘Inhabit II” while Cole broods on “Haunt”. A mix of modern jazz and mayhem, this is the most cohesive of the releases.
Kieran Adams plays sampler, drum machine and drums, Matthew Dunn is on keyboards and electronics with Andy Haas playing a variety of woodwinds and electronics for five tunes that sound like a Hawkwind rehearsal. Swirling saxes an buzzard shrieks dominate “Soft Nebula” with squawks and wooshing sounds on “The Eye Listens, The ears Hear”. There is more noodling on ‘Dynastics” than in a soup kitchen, with fiery fusion screaming for attention on the throbbing “Future Moons” and “Temple of Time”. Are we not men?
There are two songs performed by the Wagnerian team of Jason Bhattacharya/dr-p, Robin Hatch/ep, Tobin Hopwood/g, Benjamin Pullia/synth, Lauren Funions/perc, Joseph Shabason/ts, Christopher Shannon/b-p-synth and Nathan Vanderwielen/perc-synth. The marathon “727” mixes heavy metal, scratchy cymbals, sonic effects and eerie keyboards, while “16” has Shannon and Bhattacharya digging a deep groove that Shabason and Hopwood try, but fail, to dig out of, with keyboards circling around like vultures waiting for the kill. Is this the effects of COVID?