Given that most popular music is consumed in easily digestible bits, there's something nicely uncompromising about Bluffs, the 2005 two-CD magnum opus by Japanese guitar/bass/drums trio Altered States: the longest track is over 53 minutes long. Plus, said 53-minute track is entirely improvised, as are all the pieces (given catchy titles like "One," "Two," "Three," "Four" -- you get the idea) on Bluffs. It should also be stated, however, that guitarist Uchihashi Kazuhisa, bassist Nasuno Mitsuru, and drummer Yoshigaki Yasuhiro are fully capable of concision; the shortest track ("Seven," which concludes disc two) is only three and a half minutes in length. But there is a particular pleasure in hearing this band stretch out, and remain endlessly inventive, for nearly an hour. Kazuhisa's name should be mentioned in the same breath as any electric guitar god you'd care to name -- Fripp, Torn, and Frisell are three who immediately come to mind -- with true mastery of a battery of effects that are somehow never overused and never become clichéd. Kazuhisa often has a massive celestial tone and is particularly skilled with a delay pedal, creating loops that he, Mitsuru, and Yasuhiro improvise both with and against. However, despite the looping, Kazuhisa's arpeggios, and Mitsuru's ostinato basslines, Altered States are never overly beholden to repetitive vamps; they know when to stretch out into vast stretches of space or move into new rhythmic territories, and they have an almost telepathic ability to navigate one change after another, organically and seamlessly.

1		One
2		Two
3		One
4		Two
5		Three
6		Four
7		Five
8		Six
9		Seven