Slate Trio at the Albert, Stroud

Guitarist Neil Smith ( This is the Kit, Brackish, Helele) leads this instrumental trio featuring truly exceptional drummer Matthew Jones and multi talented bassist Alex Heane. With influences ranging from jazz, psych, motorik , African and systems music, Scofield to Thurston Moore, you're in for an angular, pointy ,and occasionally hard 'n heavy treat.                                                              Gig review by Tony Benjamin... 'Slamming straight into the poignantly titled ' Hippies Need House' the trio set out their stall: hyper-manic guitar bursts, slam beat drumming, sudden mood swings and moments of melodic beauty. It was a formula that ran through the rest of the set, a fine balance between collective interactions, tight scored passages and free improvisation. Neil has an almost infinite grasp of what the electric guitar can do, with the minimum of pedal effects and maximum of sheer technique, while Matt and Alex have the skills to go with that flow, keeping a three-way integrity to their sound. And they all had their moments, Matt bursting into a flurry of hard rock bombastics against Neil's feedback interlude, Alex slipping an elegant bass solo line over distant guitar and clicking rim shots.