Krakatau! Oh man, yes. Volition is the ECM album for peeps who hate ECM ... ECM with *feedback* and bullroarers ... homemade wind instruments (including the "krakophone", an 8-foot organ pipe with a baritone mouthpiece). A band that understands the importance of the bass end of the spectrum; the opening cut, "Brujo", is a slow pattern on the floor tom, a wailing Brotzmann-on-lithium repeated riff on "toppophone" (another of those low-end wind instruments), and wails of sustained feedback careening overtop like a banshee (a subtle banshee) ... on the other hand, "Bullroarer" wouldn't sound out of place on a Molecules or Dr. Nerve record, choppy overdriven guitar chords, flailing drums, free-jazz skronks on tenor. Also features some straighter-jazz moments like the title cut just to give you a chance to breathe ... but you never lapse into the coma a late Garbarek record can send you into. The Krakatau Alive! from 1990 is also worth seeking out, if only for the extended solo guitar freekoot that leads it off, one of the great leasebreakers in my collection, up there with Ascension for sheer 6-string chaos theory. [JF]