Alasnoaxis

Jim Black | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD (October 17, 2000)
• Original Release Date: October 17, 2000
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: Winter & Winter
• ASIN: B00004WIG2
• In-Print Editions: MP3 Download
• Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #266,464 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars IT'S ALL IN THE NAME., July 20, 2006

By 

Yanek (GLASGOW, Scotland) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alasnoaxis (Audio CD)

It was by pure chance I bought this album. Whilst browsing through a local music store, I bumped into a friend - a fellow musician - and he brought my attention to this CD saying, "This is right up your street, you'll love it". I looked at Alasnoaxis and instantly noticed Skuli Sverrisson's name on it, so I asked the guy behind the counter to play me a bit. Within seconds I bought it!

I wasn't familiar with Jim Black at all [shame on me!], considering I was a working drummer at that time. Hilmar Jensson was on guitar, with Chris Speed playing sax and clarinet. What can I say? On first listening I was hooked! It's one of these albums you'll either love or hate. I loved it.

The album is perfectly titled. I guess that Alasnoaxis means; music impossible to categorize. I hate categories anyway in music, but the closest description would be "odd", but in a nice way. This is simply beautifully crafted music. It's quite varied compositionally. It can be both challenging and relaxing at the same time.

Although it may sometimes sound VERY experimental, it's actually all composed. Alasnoaxis explore a whole range of musical styles, without ever sounding disjointed. As far as the musicianship is concerned, the whole band shines. If you've heard Skuli playing in Allan Holdsworth's band, you'll see another side of this enigmatic bass player! He does some extremely strange things using a combination of bass and weird electronic devices - ingenious stuff.

Jim Black is both drummer and composer. His drumming style is unique. He also incorporates all sorts of percussive things into his acoustic drum set up, creating bizarre sounding beats. There is complex writing on this album, but it's cleverly disguised. Hilmar was a familiar name to me, having heard him being very experimental with his guitar on other recordings. He's not quite as far out in this band though. Chris Speed switches between sax and clarinet and plays "unusual" melodic lines.

To conclude - this album is likely to be something fresh and new and probably different from anything you've heard before. It's worth a listen at least. It's best listened to late at night through headphones from start to finish, and you just drift into another world. The band was gigging in London soon after this was released, some of which was broadcast on the radio. They carry it off live. Fantastic!

Yanek

4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Moody and atmospheric., December 4, 2000

By 

Douglas T Martin (Alpharetta, GA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Alasnoaxis (Audio CD)

Not as much of jazz recording as an avant-rock recording. One minute the quartet is playing some riffs built around a simple theme then suddenly the bottom drops out and the piece becomes more ambient (Auk and Dromedary). There's some rock thrashing (Poet Staggered), some spikey jazz (Nion), haunting ballads (Icon), and pieces I wouldn't know how to describe. Hidden in track 15 is an unlisted wicked groove. Hilmar Jensson's style on this recording is somewhat like Bill Frisell's making the more atmospheric tracks sound like something from Frisell's recordings with Joey Baron and Kermit Driscoll. Everyone gives an excellent performance, particularly the leader.

3 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An Awesome Recording, March 1, 2005

By 

John Grunwell (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
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Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Alasnoaxis (Audio CD)

I saw Jim Black perform some years ago with sax-player Assif Tsahar and violinist Mat Maneri, and he absolutely blew me away. When I found out that he had his own band I immediately rushed out to get this CD, and I wasn't disappointed. While it obviously owes a great deal to free jazz, that's only one point of departure. If you could imagine free jazz spiced with ambient, heavy metal, Morphine and "Moving Pictures"-era Rush, it would probably sound something like this.