js Doubt’s first album found them mixing a refined approach to free jazz with progressive rock strains, an odd mix, but one that worked well for them. On their follow up album, “Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love”, Doubt changes things up a bit, turns up the volume, and becomes a hard edged modern jazz-rock trio with a penchant for free improvisation. Somewhere in between the good times far out jams of Hendrix, and the more explosive chaos of Sonny Sharrock, lies the new sound of Doubt, with some Vernon Reid, Terje Rypdal and Wayne Krantz thrown in as well. Keyboardist Alex Maguire adds to the intensity with acoustic piano solos that recall Herbie Hancock‘s more outside work, as well as distorted electronic keyboard rides that recall Mike Ratledge and Dave Stewart.

Not everything on here is free and aggressive, “The Invitation” is a nice laid back lounge number with a haunting noir melody that recalls Kenny Garret’s “Detroit” from earlier this year. Overall I think fans of modern jazz rock will like this, as well as fans of modern free jazz. In the 1980s, the NYC downtown/Knitting Factory scene took the freedom of 60s avant-garde jazz and mixed it with the no-nonsense ascetics of punk rock and the electric volume of 70s jazz-rock and the resultant fusion has become a lasting style for bands like Doubt and others around the world.

kev rowland This is the second album from the trio of Alex Maguire (keyboards), Michel Delville (guitar, Roland GR09, samples) and Tony Bianco (drums, sequencer) and was recorded live in the studio over two days (more than six months apart) in 2011. Although it is instrumental throughout, this is in fact a concept album deriving its inspiration as much from William Blake’s visionary aesthetics (the title is taken from the poet’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience” – and Blake is thanked in the credits along with Stravinsky and Sen. Bernie Saunders) as from a diversity of 20th-century musical icons. One of these icons is Hendrix, and I am sure that he would have enjoyed the raucous, loose yet tight interpretation of “Purple Haze” that appears here; while instantly recognizable, it has been ripped to pieces and then reconstructed with loads of fuzzed guitar and a chaotic approach that is just wonderful.

But, they can go from one extreme to another so from a blasting rock out we can go to something quite gentle and reflective with Alex controlling the proceedings with some finesse and beautifully dated keyboard sounds. This is an album that is completely timeless as although it brings in influences from modern acts such as Tortoise it goes back to the invention of the Sixties and combines it with some over the top 70’s histrionics. It is only the sound clarity that leads one to the conclusion that this is a work of today as opposed to something from 40 years ago. This does take some perseverance, just because the styles they are using are often very diverse but the listener is rewarded. Well worth investigation. www.moonjune.com