Connection, Marc / Ceramic Dog Ribot, CD

Connection is the 5th full length album from trio Ceramic Dog, and it's also their best. Marc Ribot, Shahzad Ismaily and Ches Smith have created a work that doesn't resolve the tension between their punk/new music/free jazz points of departure and the pop ambitions they've always buried beneath the surface... so much as push to the breaking point. Tracks such as "That's Entertainment" devours/deconstructs the Hollywood standard's psychotic cliches, while "Ecstasy"-whose Boogaloo inflected groove recalls Ribot's earlier work with the Cubanos Postizos, run up against post-apocalyptic landscapes and minimalist polytonal disco. On "Connection", they gamble with/for it like there's no tomorrow. Along for the ride are a few longtime Ribot comrades Syd Straw, Anthony Coleman, Oscar Noriega, and features more recent collaborators Greg Lewis and James Brandon Lewis.