(((O))) : Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders – Liquid Donnon

Remember when SST records ruled the independent rock scene in the late eighties, early nineties and when those sounds created by the bands like The Meat Puppets, where everything sounded like it was going to fall apart any second, but never did, creating effervescent-sounding jams somewhere between elastic folk and spaced-out jazz?

If you do, rejoice, as Philadelphia’s Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders are back again with their latest (umpteenth) offering Liquid Donnon. If you are yet to get to such a sound, listening to this one, you will not only go for that sound, but will revive your Grateful Dead collection (if you have one, if not, make one) as well as the vast set of offerings Alexander and his crew have on offer.

Here, Alexander and his Lidders go anywhere and everywhere, mostly from vast desert spaces to space itself and back, covering an immense ground between left-field bluegrass and blues to spiritual jazz (and then back again), through a set of jammed-up improvisations that have substance as well as sense and sensibility. Again, it all sounds like it is going to fall apart any second, but never does, creating music that you can easily label as a truly beautiful mess.

Essentially, it is improvised music of any and all kinds that really works, and yes, it makes you delve into Jeffrey Alexander + The Heavy Lidders catalogue in full.