Twelves - The Adding Machine

Formerly 'Twelves Trio', the group have changed their name to accommodate a new member and come armed with an astounding follow up to their acclaimed 2008 debut. More exploratory and rockier than the last record, the new music links as much to the sounds of Ornette Coleman and John Zorn as the John Coltrane styled ballads of their first release. The album's highlights include opening track Many Splendoured Thing: Part 1 setting the scene with a dark rocky guitar intro that flips into a free-boppy theme. With no segue it cuts straight to the second part of the suite where it finds Hanslip's introspective and lyrical deep tenor. The excellent and dramatic Spiders oscillates between an upbeat theme and more spacious ECM territory, with fractured solos that are reminiscent of Dave Hollands' 'Conference of Birds'. Kerfuffle is a more overtly modern jazz tune that doffs its cap to Steve Coleman � with a strong solo from Hanslip over Giles skittery broken grooves. The traditional folk song Shallow Brown is the album's only 'cover', a warm almost folk bass solo brings to mind Charlie Haden at his most lyrical while the band slowly start to join with expansive guitar, breathy tenor and restless drums. Twelves are Riaan Vosloo on bass, Tim Giles on drums, Mark Hanslip on tenor sax and new recruit Rob Updegraff on guitar.