The acoustically restrained bias of New York's Village Vanguard club seems to be getting steadily subverted in recent years. Surely Ribot's trio have produced some of the most extreme sounds ever heard in this Greenwich Village basement joint. This was the guitarist's debut appearance as a bandleader at the Vanguard, so it's unsurprising that he's recorded and released such a crucial set. A pair of Coltrane numbers open and close the album, Grimes bowing resonantly to introduce ‘Dearly Beloved’, joined by Ribot to make a circulatory investigation of the space, the leader mixing flamenco with free in his low-toned arpeggios. It's 15 minutes of slow climaxing, peaking with choppy slashes and razoring spirals. ‘Sun Ship’ provides a suitably manic closer, Ribot spewing out convoluted phrases. In between, here are a couple of Ayler tunes, with ‘The Wizard’ possessing alarming hoedown properties as a base for freedom, while ‘Bells’ takes seven of its 19 minutes before Ribot starts to tease out its marching theme. Then, there are two old faithfuls, ‘Old Man River’ and ‘I'm Confessin'’, to provide some typically mellow transparency for those hallowed Vanguard depths.