Steve Reid, a veteran improvisational jazz drummer collaborates with seven other artists on this new release, which was recorded over three days in Africa. The ensemble also features Steve Reid’s self-confessed soul mate Kieran Hebden (Four Tet), who has already enjoyed successful collaborations with Reid.

The album opens with the cheerful melody of the appropriately named Welcome a song that allows the warm vocals of Isa Kouyate to melt over the rhythm.
Other tracks like Dabronxxar entertain; with its bass heavy, keyboard prominent riff and Steve Reid’s emphatic drumming. Don’t Look Back, the album’s concluding song allows Kieran Hebden to exercise his aptitude for all things electronica, which except for the echoing indulgence of Jiggy Jiggy is kept to a subdued minimum.

Daxaar is an album a lot more accessible then Steve Reid and Keiran Hebden’s previously released volumes of The Exchange Sessions and will appeal to a wider market then perhaps those of the Experimental, Free Jazz orientated.

Shauna O'Brien
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