John Dikeman / Pat Thomas / John Edwards / Steve Noble: Volume2

If ever oh ever there was a more ornery conversation between four highly-charged, time-defiant individuals, Volume2 sets the mark.

Arguing, as great men do, about all things seen and unseen, secular and sublime, consummate free jazzers saxophonist John Dikeman, pianist Pat Thomas, bassist John Edwards and drummer Steve Noble circle the wagons once again at London's Cafe Otto and chase the demons and angels that co-inhabit each and every one of us. "No," its half-hour plus mad rush mix of biblical testimony and real time havoc, breaks all boundaries. Dikeman, his fire hot and his fuse short, incessantly tears away with his hard, incantatory tone at whatever Thomas, Edwards, and Noble throw in his way. Noble, even in his quietest moments, (which are few and far between on this particular volume) cuts and slashes, bangs, pounds, and bashes with an energy capable of freeing us all from the scaffolding we have erected to define ourselves. And with the past as prelude, Thomas, ever the concussive genius, comes on like a battalion of piano men, each with a harmonic theory they want to bring to the stage and set fire to.

"Comment!" the second part of this willful, four-way dust-up, clatters and squonks, sputters and muses dark with Edwards twisting the subtleties, Thomas reckoning with silence, Noble riding the crescendos and Dikeman calling out in a voice that resounds with the collective voice of all within earshot. Available in vinyl, CD and digital formats.

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