Ribot,Marc / Ceramic Dog Connection 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.

1. Connection 2. Subsidiary 3. Soldiers in the Army of Love 4. Ecstacy 5. Swan 6. No Name 7. Heart Attack 8. That's Entertainment 9. Order of Protection 10. Crumbia