UK improv from Liverpool on Exoskeleton (WHI MUSIC whi018) by Bloodcog…woodwind player Phil Hargreaves is joined by Fran Bass, Richard Harding, Richard Harrison and Pete Smyth on these 2023 studio recordings.
With the addition of live electronics and loops, plus the use of the Chapman Stick so often used by Tony Levin in King Crimson, the group tend towards the sort of progressive-rock-inflected jazz group improvisation which Martin Archer and his pals have been doing since 2016, if not earlier. Admittedly Bloodcog are a lot “messier” in their sprawling, hyper-active sound, which may have something to do with the way it was recorded in an “open and resonant” studio. Hargreaves (saxes and flute) is holding up the free improvisation end of the spectrum in among all these heavy-progster and Kevin Martin moves, but he’s no stranger to cross-fertilising styles and splicing methods, for instance in his recent Graculus project with Richard Harding.
Of note: the voice of veteran improvising-mouthster Maggie Nicols appears on ‘Buttons of His Livery Coat’, and it’s very striking to hear her Schwitters-style recits (or maybe it’s a reading of Hugo Ball) fed through a distorting telephone in amongst the percussive clatter and errant bass guitar plucks. Not sure if she was sampled, or what. The same question mark hangs over the voice of Isla Cameron on ‘Legend of the Unknown Solider’; she was a Scot-born folk singer with a beautiful voice who left her mark on some of my favourite English folk revival records in the later 1950s and 1960s. Someone had the good sense to include her voice on the 1967 movie Far From The Madding Crowd, which is where many of you may have heard her. I’m not sure if I can make her out on this deliciously overcrowded and jumbled track, which combines spoken-word recits (again quite distorted) with the free-form scattergun music.
A good effort overall; despite the off-putting “insects” cover with its vile colour scheme which isn’t guaranteed to entice the curious customer, this one sounds a lot better than the rather flat recording Fall Through The Infinite record from 2021, and it’s good to hear this kind of collaborative music played in real time by musicians obviously enjoying it, using electronic devices in a much more joyous and splurgy manner than many modern ambient droners, and Bloodcog come within a hair of fostering the same sort of spirit that prompted Fripp to invite players such as Keith Tippett and Jamie Muir to play in King Crimson in the 1970s. (15/03/2024)