Total Improv is right: no words could possibly describe the music you'll experience on sextet 1, 2, 3, 4's latest (yeah, some of it is overdubbed, but who's cares?). Taken from a series of recordings made in various Chicago "studios" during 2002, the disc echoes the ideas of both jazz and avant-garde pioneers working in a fusion-type fashion, developing bits and pieces of melodies into a slow developmental pastiche. It's the type of situation laid out by names such as Cage and Davis and Lucier, where it's not about where we're going (climax, destination) -- it's what 1, 2, 3, 4 are doing to get us there that counts.

"A Pleasant Conversation Concerning the Weather" begins the work as a blueprint of what you'll experience throughout: a calculated evolution filled with sax scales, the occasional reed squeak and effects processing. Other than one spunky piece ("Are You Feeling Better?"), the majority of the disc continues this gentle, unfolding, twilit exploration of electronics and horns -- which 1, 2, 3, 4 somehow pull off without any sort of traditional rhythm section. The music is both intimate and inviting, generally ignoring the in-your-face-attitude favored by many of the genre's artists.

If you hate/don't attempt to understand free-jazz, you're still going to hate it/show your ignorance...possibly even more after listening to Total Improv. That's fine. If you don't want to achieve a spiritual awakening through music, that's your own damn problem.