Alexander Flood is a much-lauded young Australian drummer and producer, whose debut album was released under the patronage of no less than Christian Scott aTunde Adjuah via the very hip Ropeadope label. This second offering was, inevitably, recorded in one of the many tough Oz lockdowns, and, like other forward-looking and tech-savvy musos, Flood has made the most of his enforced sojourn behind the computer screen to hook up with collaborators around the world via the wonders of remote recording.

The basic template is a 21st century version of jazz-funk, spiced with international flavours and production tricks derived from club music. Flood’s crisply recorded drums drive tracks like 'LDN' and 'Re-wired' along with a user-friendly stomp, with washes of keys and unusual textures like Zhao Liangs’ zither-like guzheng adding ambience. Aussie rapper Nelson Dialect contributes some pithy bars to ‘All For The Pocket’ andChristian Scott aTunde Adjuah himself adds declamatory trumpet to the epically widescreen ‘Pathways’, while fellow trumpeter Josh Chenoweth acquits himself with honours on ‘LDN’. ‘Starseed’featuring multiple groove changes and an impassioned vocal from Vivian Sessions, also has the ambition, scale and drama you’d associate with the stretch music brand. Everything is superbly recorded and at its best the record combines an ambitious sense of scale with a meticulous ear for detail, but for all the virtuosity on display, not least on the prog-metal‘Weighing of the Heart Ceremony’, over the course of 10 tracks, the album sometimes sounds like a production session of tasteful studio moves in search of a unifying frontline personality.