Great Aviaries

Album Review

The supremely addled Liverpudlian collective known as Super Numeri may look like gypsies or an Incredible String Band cover group, but they sound quite different, like a group of record fans who've ingested the trance-state ambience of Miles Davis circa In a Silent Way and the drum-heavy psychedelics of Krautrock. Great Aviaries, their debut for Ninja Tune, won't immediately impress many listeners; it opens with eight minutes of fusion noodling, and most of the songs don't resolve themselves. Multiple listens reveal much more going on, though. Similar to Can and Tortoise, a pair of obvious influences, Super Numeri spend long passages developing their ideas, using whatever's handy to advance their songs, whether it's a beguiling string quintet or a loose-jointed take on the Orb's dub experiments or lopsided guitar skronk in a similar vein to a different incarnation of the post-bopping Miles Davis, 1970's Live-Evil. Not the average Ninja Tune record, with its focus on the head instead of the feet, but with the way Ninja Tune puts them out, what's average anymore?