My review of Interstatic's Arise, today at All About Jazz.

Its beginnings may have been a little closer to the jazz side of the jazz-rock equation with Anthem (PVY Records, 2011), but British expat keyboardist Roy Powell's and trio with Norwegian guitarist Jacob Young and drummer Jarle Vespestad has, since changing its moniker to InterStatic with the release of its first album on UK's RareNoiseRecords label, InterStatic (2012), ratcheted up the energy, the volume and the rock quotient. If InterStatic was the trio's first shot across the bow, then Arise is InterStatic's true statement of intent.

The trio continues to explore the space first innovated by drummer Tony Williams in his late '60s/early '70s Lifetime band with organist Larry Young and newly emigrated guitar legend-in-the-making, John McLaughlin, but just like fellow Nords Elephant9, InterStatic has far more up its sleeve. While Lifetime's Emergency! (Polydor, 1969) is a clear precedent and inspiration for InterStatic and Arise, it's far from the only one; if Lifetime's record was a dense, jagged and jumbled affair that never got off the ground as it deserved, InterStatic uses far cleaner lines and crisper delineations to make music that sometimes swings and sometimes rocks but is always delivered with 120% energy and commitment.

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