The Neil Cowley Trio play Jazz, sure, but it’s a new wave of UK Jazz that sits as comfortably alongside the best works of Seb Rochford’s gaggle of bands (Polar Bear, Fulborn Teversham, Acoustic Ladyland) and Portico Quartet as it does with ECM greats such as Chick Corea or Marcin Wasilewsk.

After winning the BBC Jazz Award with 2006 debut Displaced, bandleader Neil Cowley was always going to have to live up to high hopes for his followups, and Radio Silence wastes no time in fulfilling those hopes admirably. Opener ‘Monoface’ begins with portentous dissonance, rumbling, clanging bass and then explodes into a central motif that increasingly threads snatches of melody into the mix. It’s highly evocative, the contrasts of pitch and dynamic artfully evoking, according to the official myspace, “the sudden and stark realisation, that someone you love is no longer close to you”. If anyone can pull that off with a three piece alone it’s Neil Cowley, bassist Richard Sadler and Evan Jenkins on drums, for sure.

Don’t believe for a second however that Radio Silence is all lofty evocative concepts. There’s plenty of good old fashioned playing in here too. There is a quirky, cheeky style underpinning the whole effort and it’s nowhere more evident than in ‘A French Lesson’. Subdued percussion underpins staggered, off-kilter piano hits that become wonderfully fluid, then suitably manic before twinkling into rapidly ascending riffs of harp like beauty. The song is emblematic of the best quality of Neil Cowley Trio; they have the confidence and panache to shift effortlessly between so many different tones.

There is little to fault, if at all, with this album, without seriously reaching for it. It could be said that ‘Hug The Greyhound’ is a little too close to jaunty music-hall to be taken seriously (though is that so bad?) and final, fourteen minute closing epic possibly takes a little long to hit its stride. Ultimately though you’re listening to these guy because you like forward thinking, melodic Jazz (and you’re proud of the ridiculously good UK scene right now) and this album will satisfy almost immediately. The LP can be touching, raucous, wry and silly, and it never stops short of Neil Cowley’s signature energy and verve.

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