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Doubt’s first album found them mixing a refined approach to free jazz with progressive rock strains, an odd mix, but one that worked well for them. On their follow up album, “Mercy, Pity, Peace and Love”, Doubt changes things up a bit, turns up the volume, and becomes a hard edged modern jazz-rock trio with a penchant for free improvisation. Somewhere in between the good times far out jams of Hendrix, and the more explosive chaos of Sonny Sharrock, lies the new sound of Doubt, with some Vernon Reid, Terje Rypdal and Wayne Krantz thrown in as well. Keyboardist Alex Maguire adds to the intensity with acoustic piano solos that recall Herbie Hancock‘s more outside work, as well as distorted electronic keyboard rides that recall Mike Ratledge and Dave Stewart.
Not everything on here is free and aggressive, “The Invitation” is a nice laid back lounge number with a haunting noir melody that recalls Kenny Garret’s “Detroit” from earlier this year. Overall I think fans of modern jazz rock will like this, as well as fans of modern free jazz. In the 1980s, the NYC downtown/Knitting Factory scene took the freedom of 60s avant-garde jazz and mixed it with the no-nonsense ascetics of punk rock and the electric volume of 70s jazz-rock and the resultant fusion has become a lasting style for bands like Doubt and others around the world.