Marking their position against the Swedish psychedelic troop and the Greek war metal band – and there must be many more examples – with the introduction of the (jp) mapping their country of origin, this Japanese quartet returns to the country riding the generalised astonishment and admiration of 2023’s ‘Joy In Fear’. The return of the Osaka combo eight years after the release of ‘Rhythm & Sound’ – an apt name in its simplicity and comprehensiveness, to tell the truth – and a sharp reaffirmation of a genreless but perfectly resolved language. Starting with a relatively traditional line-up in terms of instrumentation – guitar, bass, drums, woodwinds – the band led by Koshiro Hino tcp YPY reconfigures the approach to this template into music that is as hypnotic as it is physical, with a changing polyrhythmic pulse as the basis for excursions so focussed that we more easily associate them with more exploratory electronica – from Autechre to Beatrice Dillon – than with a “real” band in the most conventional sense.

If we can think of the probes launched by the post-punk of This Heat or 23 Skidoo in the exploration of rhythm, and whose spiritual legacy is today reflected in names like Moin, as a possible antecedent, the flow of sound and rhythm created by goat (JP) reveals a clarity of process and a sense of direction so unique and focussed that it makes a large part of the percussion armada seem like a mere jam band in a circle. Glassy textures, decisive timbral explorations and melodic motifs coming from various angles that mutate in time and space, in a collusion that is as orderly as it is unpredictable, where the mirage of Miles Davis’ moored and fluid jazz circa ‘On the Corner’, the obstinacy of minimalism, the evocative power of Jon Hassell’s ‘Fourth World’ and the virtual powers of electronics meet in the same movement. Music that patiently takes on an urgent, detailed character without ever slipping into technical and ultra-cerebral sterility. Rather celebration and psychedelicism like never before imagined. BS

Saxophonist of unstoppable run and vital energy for several movements in this and other cities, Pedro Alves Sousa is recognized as having a rare and natural ability to inhabit and confuse several musical spheres, which in its passage through jazz in various forms, through the more daring electronics, through skewed rock and improvisations without name or place, never loses the collection and personal stamp of the most honest and nonconformist. From the long-time partnership with Gabriel Ferrandini – in duo, Volúpias, Casa Futuro, or more or less perennial formations – to EITR, occasional collaborations with bands like Black Bombaim to the most recent collusion with Simão Simões. And so on, back and forth in an expansive network that has sublimated a language as continuously new as it is singular. Blessed craft. BS