Duels 'N' Zeuhl

If you're anything like me, you tend to be wary of collaborations between "name" acts (man, oh man is that a relative term around this dump!). Never fear, folks-- that unwavering SLN quality and quantity is prevalent once again:

BEVIS & TWINK - Magic Eye

When you take two classic British Eccentrics of this stripe and throw 'em together, the margin for disaster would appear to be off the board. Is Nick Salamon aka Bevis Frond gonna stomp all over ex-Pink Fairy/Pretty Thing Twink's (John Adler to his mom) acid-damaged exaltations with his acrobatic fuzzed-out guitar leads or will it be the other way around? Thankfully, neither. This is a collaboration in the truest sense of the word. Opening track, "Sorrow Remembered", in fact, doesn't sound particularly like what we've come to expect from either man; beginning with some heavily phased drums, a Mingus-like bassline is then introduced before the duo journeys into a polyrhythmic Beefheart jam. Twink's autobiographical "The Fairy" is a churning, three-chord fuzz-punker that is almost the equal of "Do It!"-- it could, in fact, pass for a Pink Fairies outtake. What's most impressive of all is that they never cross the line from inspired lunacy into overindulgent wankery. Some of Salamon's most captivating soloing can be found here-- especially noteworthy being the coda of "She Darks the Sky" where he makes fine use of a Wah-wah pedal, his wailing completely unhinged, but restrained. A term not used very often to describe the man.

You know where to look, right?

DEREK BAILEY & RUINS - Saisoro

Whaddaya know? Another English Eccentric-- this time, Thee Legendary King of Jazz Improv-Guitar, Derek Bailey. What say we pair him off with Tatsuya Yoshida & Ryuichi Masuda of the equally legendary Japanese progressive noise-meisters, the Ruins-- two dudes who'd never improvised before? Most disheartening of all, this opus had the backing of John Zorn's Tdazik label, a company seemingly only interested in unleashing as many of the most stupefyingly dull platters of masturbatory art-dreck their budget would allow. Uh oh... sounds like a recipe for catastrophe, right?

Luckily, no. "Saisoro" is a triumph because no one in this trio has a bluesy bone in their bodies. That fact short-circuits the opportunity for prolonged, messy jamming and replaces it with some genuinely revolutionary instrumental interaction. This is true improv-- you can tell these guys are listening attentively to every note being spewed out. Bailey's axe sounds more like a damaged android trying in vain to communicate with Yoshida's wordless, creepy vocalizations than simple strings and wood. So strap yourself in for an album that takes the Ruins' Magma fetish several solar systems beyond the shores of Kobaia.

Look in the comments.