For a band that features a good deal of New York composer/ saxophonist Tim Berne’s signature methods – knotty, muscular horn and guitar polyphonies bumping off hard-accented staccato rhythms, spacey improv meditations, changing duo dialogues within the ensemble Snakeoil’s five recordings over their eight-year life all sound absorbingly different. Berne, not a character given to reckless claims, thinks that The Fantastic Mrs 10, the band’s debut on Switzerland’s Intakt label, is their best release yet and these sometimes free, sometimes tightly-wrought, and imaginatively diverse tracks are powerful endorsements of that.

The Monk-to-Zappa-like title piece is an instantly arresting example of Berne’s stamping, interval-leaping melodic style, its core theme quickly badgered by the brilliant Matt Mitchell’s piano chords and Marc Ducret’s crunching guitar sounds; clarinetist Oscar Noriega then enters a more ethereal space in conversation with Ducret, before the band roars back to show just how joyous and exhilarating sharp-end jazz can be. ‘Surface Noise’ builds from barely-audible piano ripples to a churning free-sax melee, while the short ‘Dear Friend’ and the yearning, Ornettereminiscent ‘Rose Coloured Assive’ are gracefully tender soliloquys. The players’ intimate improv exchanges, and the architecture of Berne’s taut and provocative ensemble parts, have never been better balanced than on this scalding set.