Agents At Midnight - Agents at Midnight [Quodlibert/ Fagone - 2006]Agents at Midnight is the First release from this Jazz/ noise duo of : Ed Chang, who bends and frays and brutalises his saxophone and Ed Howard who is in charge of electronics and Harmonica abuse. All making a captervating and brutal mix of sounds, falling in improvised jazz sates some times and at other times in skin burning noise state, sometimes both at the same time. Terrible meditation II opens the album up with seething and streached sax tones, slowly been built upon by walls of electronics and modified sax, really a nice powerful opener. Midway the wall of sound drops out for a moment where Chang does some neat swril improvised playing, with the noise element as more as a background element, like a distant storm. Changs sax is chattering , hissing, cut up and forced in odd angles. Almost drifting into an unconformable Meditative state towards the end.
Damaged symphony for Karl Stockhausen the longest track on offer here at near on twenty minutes. Starts off with electro piter- patter and sax sliding in and out like a cruel dental tool. The whole track has a great damaged chaotic feel, always on the edge of really exploding, but the pair keep hold it back on the edge of chaos. Chang painting some quite macabrely beautiful melodic and seething shapes with his jittering man-on- the edge- of- madness playing. At about the 12 minute mark they pull out some really nice set your teeth -on -edge high pitchs , guaranteed to loosen those fillings.
A very enjoyable and brutal cross breed, which has some surprising melodic elements, buried with- in its spine. To find out more and buy direct go here – but be quick as this is only limited to 500 pressing.    Roger Batty
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