Bavarian-born drummer Peter Gall has an impressive pedigree, which includes work with the New York Voices, Take 6, and the NDR Big Band, and is much lauded by the German media as well as by the DJ Gilles Peterson.

Love Avatar is his second album - the first, Paradox Dreambox, came out in 2018 - and it’s an intense, ambitious affair, featuring a virtuoso band of like-minded fusion jazzers.

The long echo of Kraftwerk can be heard in the synth backings to several of these self-penned tracks, such as ‘Closing the Chapter’. Even where the tunes start out quiet, as on the swing outing ‘Heroes’, it’s not long before everyone is pounding away in progtastic manner. Occasionally they go for pure swing, as on ‘Love Lines’, which grooves away foot-tappingly, with great fluid solos from Baas.

Lightning-fast chops and tricky time signatures are proudly brandished on such tunes as ‘Luz Solar’ and ‘Heartbeat’. In fact, the only approaches they don’t try are relaxation and space, unless you count the brooding ‘Echoes of a Dystopian World’. Put it this way: these guys are not going to be signed to ECM any time soon.

In short, the album is dazzling: the musicians are so slick and accomplished that one rather wishes they had stuck to exploring one style rather than splashing out in all directions.