Alto saxophonist and composer Tim Berne, a protégé of Julius Hemphill, has influenced generations of improvisers with his angular, rhythmically charged, dissonant and altogether perplexing musical language and body of work. Instrumentation and approach have varied between such projects as Bloodcount, Big Satan, Caos Totale, Paraphrase, Snakeoil, Science Friction and more. The Shell Game marks the first appearance of Hard Cell, Berne’s trio with Craig Taborn on keyboards/electronics and Tom Rainey on drums. It was one of the definitive albums in the Thirsty Ear label’s Blue Series, the Matthew Shipp-curated subcatalogue bridging boundaries between avant-garde jazz, underground hip-hop and experimental electronica in the ’00s. Without a bass player, Hard Cell operates in some ways like an organ group, though Taborn’s aesthetic on synth and Rhodes is fairly abstract, defying idiomatic classification. The distorted subtones and Mellotron-like harmonic pads on “Twisted/Straight Jacket” lend the outing a futuristic quality, something that Taborn would also exploit in Berne’s Science Friction band (with Rainey and guitarist Marc Ducret). Berne’s alto-playing is busy, restless; ripping through long, challenging, through-composed themes and fierce, freely improvised episodes. Rainey’s flexible beat and resourceful use of timbre makes him readily identifiable at the drum kit. “Heavy Mental (for Wayne Krantz)” is a relatively short blast of funky intricacy, with Taborn’s grungy bass-register accompaniment playing a key role. “Thin Ice”, the concluding epic, is downright spooky at first: Berne uses high-register split tones against Taborn’s outer-space melodies as Rainey eases into a slow groove, switches to brushes for the more relaxed middle section, then picks up the pace in the final third. Under the chaos, Berne will often state a new written theme that eventually gets picked up by the full group and the whole vibe suddenly changes. It’s a signature Berne move, like the beat dropping during a DJ set.