Union Of Knives

★★★ Endless From The Start THREE HANDS. CD/DL/LP

Scottish electro trio’s first album since 2006.

Derailed by record company shenanigans, Union Of Knives took a break after their Atticus Ross-produced second album was shelved, allowing leader Chris Gordon to raise his daughter and, eventually, re-form Baby Chaos. Now joined by American import Anthony Thomaz and artist/drummer Peter Kelly, he’s off again. Ladytron’s breathy singer Helen Marnie guests on A Tall Tale (where she’s strangely under-used) and the more satisfying A Little Life, but Gordon’s vision remains intact. Taking their cue from fellow electro Scots Secession and Finitribe as much as from Massive Attack’s bruised threat, Union Of Knives clatter with abandon, most notably on the gigantic opener There’s A River. The attack is too massive at some points, and when they attempt to shine a little light into the stentorian shade on High On Account Of 0 it doesn’t quite work, but as a force of nature, they’re unstoppable.

★★★★ Tempest Revisited RUNE GRAMMOFON. CD/DL/LP

Idisoyncratic Norwegian jazz guitarist reports in on heavy weather.

Tempest Revisited begins calmly with Sun On A Dark Sky, where a shimmering electric piano weaves through saxophone flurries and gauzy guitar. Tension arrives, winds approach and agitated seabirds spiral. A suite reflecting the distinct phases of a storm, this is closer to the band arrangements of Mike Westbrook and Michael Gibbs than the metal-infused wig-outs Norway’s Hedvig Mollestad is more normally associated with, though sections are stuffed with her wild guitar. The inspirational springing-off point is storied Norwegian composer Arne Nordheim’s 1979 score for a ballet interpretation of Shakespeare’s The Tempest, performed in Mollestad’s home town of Ålesund in 1998. On the 20th anniversary of that recital, she was