Andrew Lamb – aka the Black Lamb – has been active in New York for decades, but remains little known to wider audiences. Maybe that's due to his insistence on not pursuing the zeitgeist but instead mining the deepest, darkest seams of Afro-centric spiritual jazz. There's an intense ritual vibe to this set that feels like plugging into ancient wisdom. ‘Initiation’ begins with shakers and bassist Tom Abbs' grunting didgeridoo, with Lamb's clarinet rising like smoke curling from a prehistoric morning campfire. The aboriginal feel carries throughout even when, on the title track, Abbs switches to braying tuba and throbbing upright bass, with the two drummers flicking crisp trap patterns back and forth. ‘To Love in the Rain’ combines flute and conch shell embellishing a lilting groove like one of Sun Ra's early desert pieces; but, by the time the quartet gets into ‘Song of the Miracle Lives’, they've drawn closer to the source of free jazz, with Lamb playing an incantatory tenor over congas and vocal exhortations, summoning some of the lift-off of Coltrane's Om sessions. It's powerful juju.