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With moods and registers ranging from heavy-rock riffs to cosmic grooves and on to more lyrical and pastoral flavors, douBt’s debut release, “Never Pet a Burning Dog”, sound like nothing less than the missing link between Sun Ra, John Zorn’s Masada, vintage Terje Rypdal, Sonic Youth and Ennio Morricone. The record also features guest contributions from Canterbury legend Richard Sinclair on vocals and bass.
A new power electric jazz trio featuring Alex Maguire (Hatfield and the North, Elton Dean, Michael Moore), Michel Delville (The Wrong Object, Comicoperando, TZGIV) and Tony Bianco (Dave Liebman, Paul Dunmall, Alex von Schlippenbach), douBt combines the energy of rock, the spirit of free-jazz and the lyricism of post-Canterbury Nu-Jazz.
Critics have praised Alex Maguire’s “encyclopedic breadth of references” (John Kelman, All About Jazz) and his capacity to be “at home in any style from rock to jazz to jazz-rock to free improvisation” (Steve Feigenbaum, Wayside Music). They have also hailed Michel Delville’s “artful compositions , quirky guitar work and super-flanged atmospherics” (Barry Cleveland, Guitar Player Magazine) and acclaimed Tony Bianco’s “improbable stamina and inventive phrasing” as well as his “supercharged and yet crisp metrical variations” (Julian Cowley, The Wire). The results of their combined efforts amounts to a intriguing and monumental album, full of unexpected twists and turns and yet driven by a common force that draws as readily from Tony Williams (the comparison with the original line-up of the Lifetime is inevitable) as from British and American post-punk prog-jazz aesthetics ("Cosmic Surgery", "Beppe's Shelter"), a concept also reflected in Bianco’s freebeat, a way of playing through many different time signatures that releases an interplay of energies accomplished in one pulse (one thinks of the aptly named "Sea" or the strangely ethereal sonic landscapes of "Aeon").
The sheer body of sound produced by the trio is amazing in its intensity and magnitude. As for the state of collaboration, cooperation and complicity between the members of the group, it packs a shock, especially if one knows that this CD consists exclusively of first takes recorded live in the studio. As for the vocals provided by Richard Sinclair, they confer to this disc a refreshingly paradoxical quality which bridges the gap between free improvisation and experimental songwriting, complexity and directness, as exemplified by the psychedelic bossa-nova "Passing Cloud" and the opening "Corale di San Luca", which unexpectedly leads into the polyrhythmic orgy of "Laughter" before the trio takes us into an unusual revisitation of Terje Rypdal's "Over Birkerot". Despite its being rooted in the traditions that have inspired the respective careers of Bianco, Delville and Maguire, “Never Pet a Burning Dog” is one of the most forward looking electric jazz albums released in a long time and sounds like nothing before. It is an ambitious yet eminently accessible release as this experimental power trio never loses sight of grooves and catchy melodies.