Preston Glasgow Lowe [CD]

British trio Preston - Glasgow - Lowe release their eponymous debut album with an energetic and technically thrilling record of original material.

Writing and performing together since 2012, London-based David Preston (guitar), Kevin Glasgow (six-string electric bass) and Laurie Lowe (drums) have steadily honed their own particular style of complex riffs and thunderous rhythms complete with subtle, low-level electronics and overdubs. The project's creative and developmental processes open up a panoply of textures and colours - from open, contemplative oases to heavyweight, blistering maelstrom - yet it all emanates from this close collaboration of just three musically-incisive minds.

The sheer, virtuosic rapidity of the playing found within these 65 minutes is striking - from the tumultuous, firecracker synchronicity of "C:\>PU" and "Colour Possesses" to the melodic guitar breadth and animated bass grooving of "Everything in Everything", and the breathless six-string bass velocity of "Elephant and Castle" to Laurie Lowe's viscerally penetrating drum eruption at the centre of three-part "Within You". Presenting a cool, synthy spatiality, "Song to the Citadel" prompts exquisite fretboard roaming and pitch-bending from both Preston and Glasgow; while the intensifying, rock-infused urgency of "The Priory" - written in part as a through-composed drum solo - features Lowe's relentless yet nuanced drumming.

In a fertile environment which melds the ethos of jazz-rock fusion with enthusiastic invention, this is a trio whose combined experience and prowess is distilled into an intuitive and invigorating program, fine-tuned from their live sessions.