Oliver Lake, NTU: Point from which Creation Begins (side A)

NTU: Point from which Creation Begins seems a bit out of time and place. Its repetitive, groove based tracks sound in some ways like mid-'70s Marion Brown or Archie Shepp, though it was recorded in 1971 in St. Louis (it remained unreleased until 1976, by which point it was less stylistically incongruous). It has elements of early-'70s Miles Davis, especially in the electric guitar playing, and it also reminds me a bit of the Kalaparusha Maurice McIntyre records on Delmark (there was a connection between the Black Artists Guild and the AACM, so this similarity makes sense). NTU sounds great too, with neither the murkiness of the '60s nor the polished sheen of the '70s, but the cover art does not look so impressive.