HAIRY BONES is a live recording of a concert at the Bimhuis in Amsterdam, an imposing modernist cube sitting on the IJ (the riverfront), on September 6, 2008. Peter Brotzmann, the German saxophonist, is here reunited with Japanese electric trumpeter Toshinori Kondo in a quartet similiar to the Die Like a Dog Quartet of the 1990s. But where Die Like a Dog included the Americans William Parker on bass and Hamid Drake on drums, this date features the Italian Massimo Pupillo on electric bass and the Norwegian drummer Paal Nilssen-Love.The music is in two parts -- "Hairy Bones" (31'43) and "Chain Dogs" (37'33). The first begins as an all-out onslaught, only breaking up into smaller parts, solos, and quieter passages well into its powerful arc. The second begins quietly, with Kondo sounding nostalgically like old-school Miles for a bit, and this section is only partially successful, but it builds in intensity (of course!), and rattles the walls in the central passage before subsiding again into a more subdued section at the end. The only thing I could do with less of is Brotz on the taragato, which sometimes sounds like a turkey gobbling incessantly. So overall "Chain Dogs" is less concentrated and not quite as impressive.The quartet sounds fantastic! Pupillo's electric bass creates a more rock-sounding ambience than Die Like a Dog, more like Last Exit (which was Brotz, Sonny Sharrock on guitar, Bill Laswell on electric bass and Ronald Shannon Jackson on drums). The most dramatic and novel element, though, is Kondo's electric trumpet, which can generate a wide range of stunning electronic washes and effects, and the electronics are used to maximum effect in "Hairy Bones." At the heart of the band, as with Die Like a Dog, is the contrast between the very non-electric, rooted Brotz, who is in fine form throughout, blowing lungful after lungful of air, mainly through a tenor sax, and the quicksilver, soaring electric Kondo. Nilssen-Love has played extensively with Brotzmann in recent years, and sounds superb.As the titles and cover art woodcut by Brotzmann indicate, and as the slightest familiarity with Brotz's music makes clear, this is elemental music -- raw, muscular, and in-your-face. The live Bimhuis recording makes the band sound huge, dark, and somewhat mysterious, like prehistoric demigods at play.In short, another excellent entry into the Brotz catalog!(verified purchase from the Downtown Music Gallery, NYC)