As an electric guitarist who is looking to stretch parameters and create his own style of 20th century contemporary creative music, Arnold forges an alliance with bassist Ratzo Harris and drummer Tony Moreno to achieve his goal. Though it might not mean much to the average listener, Arnold is employing the 12-tone row device (thus the title) as a vehicle for improvising. This is complex, heady, adventurous, open-ended music fronted by Arnold's resonant, slightly steely, dusty, distant, single-note sound that straddles the line between jazz tradition and rock snarling. Arnold wrote all seven selections here. The title track states a very brief melody before hurtling into improv, also not coincidentally based on a 12-bar blues framework. Seventh Street starts as hard bop and drifts into a rock beat, with Arnold's ostinato chords and space signal effects as a foundation for Moreno's drum workout. Harris gets the spotlight in the middle solo for the ten minutes of Dialog with the extended techniques that only a master can employ. Guitar and bass counterpoint start this fracas with a beat, then no beat, then slight or suggested rhythms before Harris takes command on this most elaborate composition. More steady rhythmically is the 4/4 Afro-Cuban, churning Broadway Y2K with Arnold's Carlos Santana cum Robert Fripp/Adrian Belew assimilations. Numbers is in two parts: the prelude is a deep-space exploration in rubato with looped guitar effects and groaning bass leading to quick hand percussion accents; then the meat of the piece goes into black-hole territory with call-and-response snippets of guitar and bass alongside gonging cymbals. At its most serene, the slow waltz Reflection has Harris again in deep-blue mode, exorcising all spirits -- good and evil -- from his soul and strings. Though this is not for everyone, the challenged listener should find this unique and different among the plethora of same-sounding jazz or fusion plectrists. There's a balance of shared responsibilities between the three and perhaps a healthy cynicism that pervades Arnold's music, making it all his own. ~ Michael G. Nastos, Rovi

1		A Few Dozen
2		Reflection
3		7th Street
4		Numbers Prelude
5		Numbers
6		Broadway Y2K
7		Dialog

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