js From a lot of the new CDs coming out these days you can’t help but notice a popular trend amongst the nu jazz crowd, as well as the post 70s fusion bands, is dark ambient flavored jams led by an electronic trumpet player. Miles Davis’ mid-70s psychedelic rock band may have had zero impact on the world of jazz back in its day, but its legacy has grown in modern times to one of today’s most influential groups in the world of fusion. Today’s nu jazz bands also look to the sonic electronic trumpet explorations of Jon Hassel and Don Cherry too. With a lot of artists exploring this sort of sound, there will be those artists that stand out from the crowd and one of those is Naked Truth, particularly on their new CD “Ouroboros”.

“Ouroboros” has a massive sound that may seem formidable at first, but repeat listens begin to unveil the creative mysteries and variations in texture that keep things interesting. Although all the musicians on here are great, the real star is trumpeter Graham Haynes. Graham is very capable of high speed bop/fusion runs, but he keeps all that in check as he provides just the right long held tones with perfect timing. Unlike most nu jazz trumpeters, Haynes eschews the typical breathy sound and goes for a full brassy sound that is more Freddie Hubbard than ECM. Haynes' subtly echoed tone is one of the nicest I’ve heard in a while and his mature soulful timing is what makes this whole thing click. The rest of this all-star band provides creative electronic backdrops, particularly Roy Powell with his non-cliché approach to classic keyboards and drummer Pat Mastelotto with his subtle techno sounds. Bassist Lorenzo Feliciati leads the crew and adds tasteful post-rock guitar chimes.

There is a nice variety of music on here ranging from heavy dub, to psychedelic fusion grooves, twisted avant-garde rock and more. I think one of the nicest things I can say about a piece of music is that the more I listen to this, the more I like it.

js This album stands a chance of blowing up really big in the world of jazzy psychedelic rock/groove music, it has a lot of the musical elements that people are looking for these days, plus some well-known group members and a big solid production that lets you know these guys aren’t new to this. On “Shizaru”, Naked Truth combines the dark dub/ambient grooves of Bill Laswell with some "Agharta" flavored cosmic trumpet jams, some modern open-stringed post-rock guitar and a huge wall of sound that recalls the big sound of rock bands like King Crimson. The overall atmosphere on here is definitely on the dark ambient side of things, which puts them in line for a lot of attention as that sort of sound has been growing in popularity lately. Likewise, the recent increased interest in Miles’ mid-70s psychedelic music works in Naked Truth’s favor as trumpeter Cuong Vu’s dry soft tone floating on top of a spacey hip-hop beat backed by droning guitars and electronics will definitely make many think of Miles albums like “Pangea” and “Agharta”.

Although at first one might get the impression that this is just a jam session, there are actually a lot of nice composed moments that mix in quite unobtrusively including some very interesting abstract melodies on the trumpet and string-synth keyboards that recall 20th century expressionist composers. All through the album the band members change up the texture and keep things interesting in ways that may not hit you at first. After many listens this album still has some surprises which is unusual in the world of modern jam music.

If there is a main fault with this album, it is that sometimes the dark tone can get a little dreary and predictable, also a few more chord progressions here and there would also add some interest. Still, “Shizaru” is far more imaginative and inventive than your average plug-in and play psychedelic jam