For his debut release on Kris Davis’ Pyroclastic Records, maverick NYC axe ace Brandon Seabrook augments his feral Die Trommel Fatale ensemble and allows his imagination free rein.

Tempering gung-ho gusto with pronounced lyricism, the guitarist-banjoist leads a crack octet down exuberant labyrinthine passages where a medieval-sounding mandolin-and-recorder gambol segues into hot-to-trot klezmer staccato and stately Japanese gagaku. The slithery bassline slink of ‘I Wanna Be Chlorophylled II: Thermal Rise’ and bowed banjo-led ‘Libidinal Bouquet’ echo the ritualistic minimalism of Julius Eastman, before tenderising it into icky-sticky taffy pats via whiplash whirls curdling with splenetic fret action, clattering percussion and twisted knots of Bettis’ zoic blather. With brutalovechamp, the perennial livewire Seabrook has coughed up a crackpot reverie, dangling images like a dreamlike treacle trawl through a [Ukrainian experimental film-maker] Maya Deren flick. In the process, he proves to be a composer of some complexity, offering parts of himself heretofore concealed, without relinquishing too much of that customary chutzpah.