AMG Review of Live Aoiheya January 2003

Ned Raggett
All Music Guide

For this shorter effort by the collective, released on the Australian Chapter label as a one-off, Maher Shalal Halla Baz live up to their sometimes cryptic reputation as improvisational spirits of the sometimes most hard to grasp type. The plucked instruments and dialogue on "Mr. Michio" -- perhaps a sample, perhaps a conversation recorded on the fly, perhaps something else -- make for a good representation of the experience throughout, as does the mournful brass and guitar matched with the naked-feeling singing on "When I Die." At the same time there's also a sense of stronger focus at points -- "Asahana" may start the release with the feeling of an orchestra warming up, but there's an overriding serenity via keyboards that almost soothes the potentially rougher edges of the arrangement as such, if planned as one to start with. Piano similarly adds a little something more to the sloppy late-night rehearsal feeling of "Gratitude" as well as the concluding duet, "La Bruit de Mes Pleurs," a way to maintain just a little bit of clear beauty when one isn't sure what's about to happen next.