New releases today: Jazz

Review: Agharta snares Miles Davis and his electric septet in full volcanic mode, recorded live at Osaka Festival Hall during a 1975 afternoon set. Sonny Fortune, Michael Henderson, Al Foster, James Mtume, Reggie Lucas and the incendiary Pete Cosey conspire with Davis to pour molten funk, noise and free improvisation into a dense, swirling suite moulded across four untitled sections. Davis barely leads; rather, the ensemble pushes forward through locked, polyrhythmic surges, Cosey's snarling guitar and FX rig driving much of the intensity. Teo Macero oversaw the recording, though here there's little of his trademark splicing; the chaos is left intact. Though once derided, Agharta is now rightly recognised as the hellish high watermark of electric jazz that it is. This 50th anniversary edition is limited to 2000 copies on translucent blue vinyl.