Naked Truth - Avian Thug (2016)

Recorded in the south of England at the end of their 2013 European tour, Avian Thug is the third studio album by jazz-­ rock ensemble Naked Truth, after Shizaru in 2011 and Ouroboros in 2012. Founded by Italian bassist, producer composer and Lorenzo Feliciati, Naked Truth sees Graham Haynes resuming his role as trumpet/cornet player, Roy Powell man the Hammond organ, analog synths and prepared piano and finally Pat Mastelotto deliver his usual energy on acoustic and electric drums and percussion. Avian Thug develops its themes across seven compositions, stretching from intensely furious electric jazz cavalcades, whose ancestry can be traced back both to Miles' electric work but also more recent European progressive jazz and progressive rock, to extended soundscapes, whose colors are reminiscent of the work of Jon Hassell or Nils Petter Molvaer. Over the last four years, Naked Truth's writing style has become progressively more incisive and focused, aided by the very tight co-production work of Lorenzo Feliciati and Bill Laswell, who also is responsible for the final mix of Avian Thug. Graham Haynes' trumpet tone has acquired clarity and expressiveness, Feliciati's bass work is now more essential as are Powell's presdigitations on analog keyboards and prepared piano, supported by Mastelotto's polyrhythmic ever inventive and powerful electronic and acoustic drum and percussion work. Naked Truth's music was always recognizable as erupting from a magmatic cauldron of inventions; with Avian Thug it reaches a new maturity where instrumental prowess and poetic insight are tightly knit into a vigorous but balanced weave of form and substance.