They're a playful lot, this two-hornsno-chords quartet from Dublin. Never Odd or EveN, the title of their first album, like the name of the group itself, is a palindrome. The title of their second is an anagram – I Dig Monk, Tuned = United Kingdom – which is more meaningful than you might initially think: on the five principal cuts here, the boys from Ireland are joined by a series of guests who all hail form the UK. (There are also two short interludes on which the guests don't play; they're called variously ‘I, Lute Nerd’ and ‘End It Rule’, both titles being anagrams of the word ‘interlude’.) Anyway, enough with the wordplay. On opening track, ‘Twin Kodes’, the groove-and-freeimprov quartet are joined by Kit Downes (the title is, inevitably, an anagram of Downes's name) as they move persuasively between loose improv (splashy Rhodes from the guest, moody, meandering trombone work from Colm O’Hara) and a tight snaking horn motif that calls Thelonious Monk to mind. The other guests also add new, distinctive textures: Ben Davis's cello on ‘Bin Saved’ (an anagram of – well, work it out for yourself), Alex Roth's fluent guitar on the muscular, charging and comparatively straightforward ‘Velvet Pouch’ (no idea), and Alex Bonney's trumpet and electronics on two other tracks. There's abstraction and abrasion aplenty if you like that sort of thing, but they also know how to lock a groove and unwind an ear-catching melody. But never for too long – they wouldn't want you to get too comfortable now, would they?