It's been more than 30 years since the Red Krayola's first release, The Parable of Arable Land. Two things have stayed constant for the group since then: the presence of maverick leader Mayo Thompson and an acute sense of the intricate link between leftist politics and art. Along the way, the band has managed to remain a blip on the fringes of the mainstream's radar while influencing generations of adventurous musiciars – first with abrasive, free-form psychedelia, then with cerebral post-punk.

Thompson's strength is that he has never surrounded himself with yes men. Instead of picking anonymous musicians to serve his vision, he has always enlisted people with thriving careers in the avant-garde community. During the last three decades, Thompson's collaborators have included writer Frederick Barthelme, agitprop cultural group Art and Language, members of Pere Ubu, indie-rock luminaries such as Epic Soundtracks and the Raincoats' Gina Birch, and German artist Albert Ohlen. Now lining up for the privilege of playing with their spiritual godfather are the crème de la crème of the instrumental post-rock scene: Jim O'Rourke and David Grubbs (both of Gastr del Sol), and John McEntyre (Tortoise, the Sea and Cake), not to mention veteran drummer George Hurley (the Minutemen, fIREHOSE), all contributed to Hazel.

Considering the band's past, the '97 Krayola vintage is deceptively subdued. A few tracks, such as "Duke of Newcastle," with its lilting reggae beat, or "Another Song, Another Satan," crooned by David Grubbs, are even borderline pop. Of course, the band built its reputation on rejecting the very idea of traditional song structure, so its version of pop involves snubbing the verse-and-chorus foundation ("Jimmy Two Bad"), turning grammatical rules into poetry ("Dad") and Kurt Weill-ian sing-songing about the oppressed ("Larking"). By remaining elusive and elliptical, both lyrically and musically, Mayo Thompson involves the audience, which must pay close attention to the record's intricacies, thus setting up yet another collaboration. And you thought listening to music was a one-way experience. (RS 754)

ELISABETH VINCENTELLI