The chemistry Brotzmann, Parker and Drake have as a trio is significantly altered when they are joined by Toshinori Kondo to form Die Like a Dog Quartet. Kondo's electronically altered trumpet adds a surreal iridescence to the molten energy the trio achieves on its own. On Aoyama Crows, recorded at the 1999 Total Music Meeting in Berlin, Kondo occasionally lends the proceedings a gritty '70s-vintage Milesian flavor; but far more often than not, Kondo's ricocheting smears and blasts have no jazz antecedent whatsoever. Conversely, Kondo's presence tends to prod Brotzmann toward mournful chant and work-song-related thematic fragments that countervail the infinite skittering of Kondo's digitally delayed textures, which is the case deep in this gripping set' - Bill Shoemaker, JazzTimes