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Reviews

Uroboro — The Bass Speaks
(Discus Music 193CD, 2025, CD / DL)

Uroboro — Outside
(Discus Music 213CD, 2026, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2026-08-01

The Bass Speaks Cover artOutside Cover art

This is one of those cases where I’ve spent at least a year trying to wrap my brain around a band’s previous album, listening periodically to try and find something to run with, and then the next album of music comes out and I’m left in a situation where all I can do is contrast and compare, but I would be remiss to completely ignore that earlier recording, even though it never really spoke to me. And that would be Uroboro’s mid-2025 release The Bass Speaks, a somewhat complex intertwining of bandleader, primary composer, and sax player Keith Jafrate’s poetry recitations with his compositions and the music of this seven-piece outfit featuring Anton Hunter (guitar, electronics), Laura Cole (piano), Johnny Hunter (drums), John Pope (bass), Faith Brackenbury (violin, vocals), Sylvie Rose (flute, vocals), and Jafrate on saxophone and vocals. The nine tracks are grouped into a couple different sets: the first four are “Five Songs” (go figure, I think it’s because the opening track is a two-parter), and the last five are the five parts of “The Bass Speaks,” all containing elements of composition and plenty of free space for improvisation, all essentially in the jazz idiom, but that’s not always the case; the  parts where the two female vocalists sing together are often quite stunning, and throughout there is an enchanted wandering feeling that offers the listener plenty of space to dream. It’s a two disc set with a run time totaling 112 minutes.  That’s a long album by any measure, but as I went through it for about the seventh time a couple nights ago, I realized my main impediment seemed to be the mix of spoken words and the music that surrounds it, and that the music would have been far more enjoyable on its own. It should also be noted that the texts herein are all printed in the sleeve notes, which are beautifully illustrated by Luca Jafrate.

Onward to the new album, Outside, which trims back a lot of its predecessors excesses. The crew is about the same, minus Sylvie Rose’s flute and voice, making it a six-piece effort. The eight cuts are again mostly Keith Jafrate compositions, with opener “Winter Dusk Spell” and closer “The Sky Is Always Open” being group compositions. The more concise nature of the compositions and arrangements, as well as the improvised sections are far more ear-friendly than on its predecessor (“Hobgoblin,” “Gog and Magog,” and “A Spell to Unknot Buds” are standouts), and there are spoken parts as well as sung parts throughout, but not in excess, giving a better balanced picture of all of what the group does best. “Adobe House” is another standout, highlighting Jafrate’s sax solo (multi-tracked) alongside Cole’s piano early on while the rhythm section slowly builds a powerful edifice beneath it all. The only cut here (besides the closer) that breaks the ten-minute mark is the near-fourteen minute “Imagine a Forest,” one that opens with a dark, powerful piano figure amid Brackenbury’s vocals and lyrics by W.S. Graham, and following that wanders through many different sections embracing elements of jazz, classical, funk, and even rock, all gracefully merging, with sax making its first appearance around the six minute mark; all taken, a beautiful sidelong piece masterfully executed. Again, all of the lyrics are provided in the associated materials, again with illustrations by Luca Jafrate. If I had to choose, I would say that Outside is easily Uroboro’s best release since 2023’s A Story Like Fire, possibly surpassing it.

Filed under: New releases, 2025 releases, 2026 releases

Related artist(s): Uroboro, Johnny Hunter, Laura Cole

More info
http://discusmusic.bandcamp.com/album/outside-213cd-2026
http://discusmusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-bass-speaks-193cd-2025

 

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