Jan Kopinski (saxophones),
Steve Iliffe (keyboards),
Karl
Bingham (bass), Stefan Kopinski (bass), Steve Harris (drums)
Slam CD 266
147:24 (2 discs) £££
With its members involved
in extracurricular projects, Pinski Zoo hasn’t
released an album since the stunning De-Icer, captured live in 1993.
After Image,
drawn from concerts
across England between 2002 and 2005, has been worth the wait.
The classic quartet has for some while been augmented by Kopinski junior
on additional bass. He and Bingham constitute a sharp, well-focused unit,
threading
lines of clarity and strength through the band’s crowded, swirling,
polytonal canvas.
PZ is still uncategorisable (I’d plump for post-punk-funk-harmolodicism
if pressed), still uniquely exciting, danceable and darkly atmospheric, still
powers irresistible pulses without stooping to tediously inflexible beats,
still conjures nebulous, magical, mysterious soundscapes from forbidding ranks
of hardware, still enchants with tender melodies plucked from the rowdiest
melee. Less ferocious than of yore, perhaps, but there’s a much-extended
palette. Harris is nimble and texture-savvy, Iliffe a master of colour, Jan
Kopinski’s saxes as gorgeous and passionate as ever.