Year: 2008 Record Label: Porter Records Style: Various Jazz Styles Review: San Diego, CA., resident and percussionist David Hurley’s 2008 release looms as one of my unanticipated favorites within the seemingly ceaseless expanse of experimental and progressive jazz genres. With African rhythms, resonating primal screams, Moog EFX and free-jazz sax lines by Zuri Waters, the music translucently incorporates various jazz-drenched and world music stylizations. The album artwork looks like something you’ve seen before, especially during the enterprising late ‘60s and ‘70s psychedelic or perhaps free jazz music scenes. Consequently, Hurley injects a nouveau slant into these works amid his arsenal of ethnocentric percussion implements, sometimes shaded with Preston Swirnoff’s droning organ phrasings. Highlighted by studio-based echo treatments and the sounds of what might be considered, music for an avant-garde rainforest, the percussionist’s game-plan also consists of spaced-out lunar sojourns. In effect, Hurley’s music jubilantly works its way into your neural network. On “Inner Nebula,” the musicians execute a turbulent free-jazz thematic foray amid Waters’ soul searching lines, yet Hurley tempers the flow via his quaintly rendered mallets and flute passages during “Wenckbach.” Ultimately, this largely upbeat session rings with a resounding breath of fresh air. Not overcooked or superfluous, Hurley shines as a forward-thinking artiste. And he’s a prophet of good cheer as the proof lies within. (Strongly recommended…) Record Label Website: http://www.porterrecords.com Reviewed by: Glenn Astarita