SLAP AND TICKLE

Offonoff is a band established by ace drummer Paal Nilssen-Love, bassist Massimo Pupillo and guitarist Terrie Ex. The trio first met as part of the Jim O'Rourke/Thurston Moore/Mats Gustafsson improv-noise vehicle Original Silence, later going on to record and release their own debut album Clash. Slap And Tickle is the follow-up, capturing the group's performance at the Kongsberg international Jazz Festival of 2007. Divided into two structureless, rampaging tracks (one clocking in at thirty-two minutes, the other at sixteen) the album breaks out of any conventional free-jazz boxes by occupying itself more with the timbral and tonal qualities of sound rather than instrumental performance in any conventional sense. As ever, Nilssen-Love puts in an outstanding performance, supplying enough high energy sticksmanship to accommodate whatever abrasive, shambling dissonance his two companions can muster, but its the barrage of distortion and all-round screeching nonchalance of the electrified string instruments that sets this record apart from so many of the other Paal-related Smalltown Superjazzz releases; in spirit this is closer to the roving experimental noise-rock of the the first MoHa album. (Chronique du site Boomkat)