Spring Heel Jack - Masses

First time vinyl pressing of a supreme piece of early 21st century experimentation made in collaboration with a number of avant garde titans from the previous one. Perhaps it's my age talking, but before collective hope was so dramatically extinguished in the September, 2001 felt like a very future-forward time, new ideas and energy for a new millennium and all that. Really, though, what difference does the turn of a clock actually make? Masses is an intriguing record for where it stands in regards to tradition and the uniting of shared perspectives and eras. Spring Heel Jack, the duo of Ashley Wales and John Coxon, were London based producers & multi-instrumentalists that sat loosely between the commensurate vanguards of post-rock and electronic music, so the leap they made towards New York's free jazz underground on Masses feels, if not entirely sui generis, at least partially radical. Matthew Shipp, Evan Parker, William Parker and ECM affiliate Mat Mineri all contribute to an idea-rich collection defined by both its freeness and a sense of what's possible. If improv has its fault, it's perhaps that its players can be said to enjoy it more than its listeners (and honestly, what of it anyway?), but that's not the case here, the recordings pristine, the flow and feel more emotive than tricksy - yes, everyone is very good, but more so, they really mean it. Wales and Coxon are reverential towards not just the players, but the ideas they represent too, that openness of the 20th century avant garde a guiding hand (think of the New Music for Chamber Orchestra LP, perhaps?), though they know how to be playful enough to cast it in their own image, too, none more so than on the frankly astonishing 'Coda', the final six-minute closer that somehow manages to make gestures back and forward at the same time without being overly precious about it. Was there anyone else out there doing anything quite like this at the time? Gastr Del Sol might be the only halfway obvious comparison, and you argue for a shared ethos with the In The Fish Tank series. Aside from that, Masses feels mostly unique, ambitious, informed, forward-facing, back when the future was better and the past could still be enjoyed.