My stomach shrivels at the first sign of nine-minute cuts that fail to resolve into beat or melody by 1:05. Darned, though, if I don't oblige Swedish multi-instrumentalist
Tjernberg's most expansive assumptions, trusting that anyone who would launch a nouveau-voodoo groove with a
Dr. John sample isn't hiding behind pretension. And the grooves are sufficiently wicked that when bandmember Tommy Adolfsson floats in on a Jon Hassell-style trumpet ("The One," "Full Moon") I'll even forgive the didjeridoo. What keeps this disc of rhythmically charged excursions from degenerating into a Scandinavian Planet Drum are songs that are more than dressed up sketches -- or else retentively reworked enough to do Ryuchi Sakamoto proud.