Drummer Jim Black, along with clarinet and tenor saxophone virtuoso Chris Speed, shared stage and studio for years in Tim Berne’s Bloodcount as well as Human Feel (with Kurt Rosenwinkel and Andrew D’Angelo) before coming together for Black’s quartet project AlasNoAxis. This eponymous 2000 debut, with guitarist Hilmar Jensson and bassist Skúli Sverrisson completing what became a long-standing line-up, revealed a kind of abstract avant-rock energy, a sonic stamp that persisted and evolved over the course of its six recordings for the German Winter & Winter label. Black’s drum sound is among the most unique of his generation, with a low tuning and a loose, thudding quality to the attack—the drum solo at the start of “Luxuriate” yields a particularly clear example. This lends a distinctive feel to everything Black plays on, and AlasNoAxis is no exception. The album begins with a noisy blast before arriving at the supremely lyrical and spacious “Ambacharm”, which foregrounds the sound of Jensson’s guitar and Speed’s tenor in unison, the band’s key delivery system for Black’s lovely melodies (“Icon” is another mellow track in this vein). There’s also ambient soundscaping (“Trace”), groovy space-folk (“Garden Frequency”), jangly guitar-driven indie pop with clarinet (“Boombye”), scratchy and hypnotic rock (“Auk and Dromedary”) and uninhibited beat mania (“Nion”, “Angels and Artiface”). Sverisson on electric bass (and certain Moog-like effects, on “Nion” for example) is a secret weapon, easily shifting between steady and propulsive lines, atmospheric harmonics (“Melize”) and interior melodic parts. As the AlasNoAxis catalogue grew (with Splay, Habyor and others well worth hearing), Black explored new sounds and novelties (chaos pad, handsonic, etc.), not just for him but all the band members to mess with. As years went by this became more digitised, with Black credited on laptop as well as drums.