BArney mcAll

Hearing the Blood (Extra Celestial)

As both an improvising pianist and a composer Barney McAll has mastered the fine art of fulfilling and subverting expectations. Here his superb compositions are brilliantly combined: his love of subverting expectations existing not only from one note, harmony, rhythm, texture or mood to another, but also from piece to another. You are continually surprised at the juxtaposition of ideas, while also thrilled by the boldness of the imagination behind them. On the title track, for instance, a chant-like opening melody sung by Daniel Merriweather quickly metamorphoses into soul-inflected, high-drama rock, before changing again to music haunted by ghosts and echoes. The core band (Mike Rivett’s tenor, Carl Morgan’s guitar, Jonathan Zwartz’s bass and Hamish Stuart’s drums) is supreme, and the breadth of music wondrous.