Radical Risk is the third album I have reviewed on this website from Beat Love Oracle. They are certainly extremely prolific, and if you take yourselves along to https://amarxe.bandcamp.com/album/radical-risk then you can continue to enjoy, or discover, Frank Nuyts and his talented combo, this featuring Liang-yu Wang on acoustic piano.

Okay then, to a discussion of the second of the áMARXE products we are reviewing this week. Six tracks for us to enjoy.

We start with Bar Foot, the piano of Wang instantly making an impact. This is a playful piece of music, and it is interesting that the piano becomes a natural extension at times of the fine rhythm section of Stijn Deldaele and Ronald Dhaene, and Frank Debruyne provides for some lovely sax textures.

Hammer Abandonment is up next. It is a long nine-minute piece, and the hammer in question is the keys hitting the piano hammer of Wang, who even at this early stage of the album can be seen as a very positive addition to the BLO canon. This is a virtuoso pianist, for sure, and the way that she interacts, particularly with the percussion, is a joy to listen to, a fine fusion of classical and more free-flowing jazz music. It is embedded below and is a strong candidate for my “instrumental of the year” award at year-end. Music to dream to which creates a strong sense of drama throughout.

The title track is split into three distinct parts, adding up to over 22 minutes of music, so, in truth, a super-epic for us to enjoy.

Part One opens with a playful sax and improvisation, with much of the opening passage surely a loving homage to the glorious Mael brothers before moving into an extended piece of mysterious interplay between piano and band, some of the work on the marimba vibrant and very complex. I have embedded this wonderful jazz number below, a treat in every sense of the word.

Part Two is eight minutes long. It opens with some intricate piano work, an extended solo piece, but underpinned by BLO pulsing away, and the sax begins to duet with Wang. This is more spartan than the first part, laid back, but not in a particularly dreamy way, distant somehow, this personified by some more wonderful marimba work which is distinctly understated as compared to that in part one.

Part Three is the shortest at just over five minutes, and bursts into life with urgent improv between band and piano, some of this incredibly complex. We witness with this band some serious musicianship, up there with the finest jazz/progressive rock in the modern era. As the piece moves on, the energy levels pull back for a short while, but this is merely the prelude to some seriously upbeat and urgent fun between them all, the percussion work shining through, and as we move into the closing passage, they produce a lovely noise which strongly reminds me of music to cartoon animations I loved as a child.

We close with 19th Sonata Part Four, a classical joy for piano, and a fine way to close this inventive album.

There is a reason why Beat Love Oracle are among this website’s favourite acts. It is simply because of the quality of their music, their honesty, their sense of fun, and the unalloyed pleasure of hearing them time after time.

Very highly recommended.