Track of the day: 'Cutbag' is perfect if in a particularly destructive frame of mind: the pulverising Bagman sound revolves around loud slabs of piano punctuation ever accelerating, wildly free saxophone and multi-directional drums. English free improviser Pat Thomas is more like Matthew Shipp than he usually is while Swedish saxist Sture Ericson's fast and furious playing is reminiscent of the approach of Mats Gustafsson of The Thing and like a seagull in full, dramatic, cry. Highly uncompromising, stimulating, free-jazz - issuing label 577 describe Bagman, the collective name for the trio who represent this fictional personage, as ''an imaginary character… [who] roams around in the figurative soundscape, collecting sonic debris.'' Drummer Raymond Strid, a fellow Swede of Ericson's, surely must need towelling down after all this mayhem recorded approaching three years ago at Dalston redoutable bastion of the avant-garde Ashwin Street's Cafe Oto. The full album Bagman Live at Cafe Oto is out next month. Get this especially for the incendiary role Thomas, one of the UK's top free improvisers, so mesmerisingly plays at the heart of the sound.
Pat Thomas, photo: Dawid Laskowski