Lean Left - The Ex Guitars meet Nilssen-Love/Vandermark Duo Volume 2 - Smalltown Superjazz - STSJ186CD - ****

It's a tag bout to drive wrestling enthusiasts wild. On guitars, Holland's Terrie Ex and Scotland's Andy Moor, from Amsterdam's anarcho-punks The Ex; on drums, the Norwegian improviser Paal Nilssen-Love; and on tenor, Chicago's free jazz drill sergeant, Ken Vandermark.
The twelve minute appetiser Knuckle Cracking Party lets the guitarists spew electric sparks at each other uninterrupted.
Then the half hour Chunk Of Lung adds Nilssen-Love's pounding percussion and Vandermark's bubbling horn, a pot of coffee too long on a stove, and dares an unexpectedly exposing tenderness around the twenty minute mark. Seconds away!

(11/9/11)