*** PONGA

(Loosegroove)

Drum 'n' bass has given several improvisers an extended creative canvas, and it's little surprise that jazz-associated style scramblers Wayne Horvitz and Bobby Previte have taken the challenge -- both are fond of investigating unholy linkages. With this new quartet -- Tuatara reed player Skerik and freelance pianist Dave Palmer join the keybster and drummer -- each indulges his yen for jam-band abstractions and prog-rock merriment. If Horvitz's the President were about melody, and his Zony Mash were a trigonometry-tinged homage to the Meters, then the wily Ponga is Sun Ra's Magic City as dreamed up by the Orb. Known respectively for their expertise in ambiance and fascination with polyrhythms, Horvitz and Previte wax utterly musical in this sprawling technosphere. Computer beats are extraneous when you have a drummer as smitten with embellishment as Previte. His hi-hat/snare clatter on "Pick Up the Pieces of Saturn" makes this above-average white band something to respect. Although long touted as crucibles of progressivism, improv freakouts can be as trite as a low-grade folkie's whimper. Here, on a program where noise battles groove for marquee status, they're full of wonder, long on dynamics and dedicated to deviation.

-- Jim Macnie