**** Derek Bailey

TAKES FAKES & DEAD SHE DANCES

(Incus)

Improvising guitarist Derek Bailey prides himself on defying the rules of guitar vocabulary, but I swear I hear some near-flamenco licks in the first two pieces on this album. That's before the clusters of darting notes surge in and he starts sliding a wet finger over the top of his guitar's face to elicit squeaks. He actually vocalizes on the last number, in which seven and a half minutes of slashing chords, frenetic picking, and a feedback finale frame his calm-but-creepy spoken intonations. On all of these tracks, which have been culled from two 1997 concerts, the distortion that's heard in his other recent releases is largely absent. But the same instant, fierce crafting of little melodies and sonic bombs plays out.

A few words about Bailey the artist: this Brit counterpart to Cecil Taylor remains one of the most aggressive guitarists around even as he ages into his late 60s. (His tastes run from music-hall tunes to Napalm Death.) Bailey's free-ranging tonalities and progressions are more defiant than anything the young jazz guns or woolliest punk-rockers are calling rebellious. And though he may seem traditional in his strict devotion to the guitar, pick, and amp as his only tools, under his command they produce more sounds than most arty string slingers can coax from a stack of effects. If you're a lover of guitar music and you're not hip to Bailey's brand of brain expansion, it's time to feed your head. (Write to Incus Records, 14 Downs Road, London E5 8DS, England.)

-- Ted Drozdowski