In a review of
Road on the
Best of Jazz website, Paul Medrano wrote that the album's first CD introduces the listener to the trio's music. It starts out with elements of jazz-rock sounding not unlike
King Crimson and
Frank Zappa, then progresses into experimental jazz and the group's "other dimension". Medrano said the inclusion of Anker and Santos Silva ("two extraordinary guests") on the second disc brings another layer of possibility to the trio's music, enhancing its "spirit, sound, and intention". Medrano called
Road "an amazing album", which, despite being recorded live, is "purely electrifying". Writing in the British music magazine,
The Wire, Clive Bell described the mood on
Road as "kick-ass", and the intensity as "high". He said the improvisation switches seamlessly from "hard scrabble" to "lyrical [and] tonal". Bell added that sometimes Frith's guitar appears to "float off into a reverb-drenched dreamland", leaving the rest of the group sounding, just for a moment, "slightly lost". Reviewing
Road in the Swiss jazz and blues magazine, '''', Ruedi Ankli called the trio's performance at the Week-End Fest in the Köln town hall, "breathtaking". He said their improvisation with snatches of melodies and rhythms that grow and collapse is "extraordinary". Ankli complimented Anker and Santos Silva's contributions to the concerts on the second disc. He said their saxophone and trumpet rhythms give the trio new ways to improvise. Ankli said both CDs are "refreshing" in their complexity and boldness. Daniel Spicer wrote in the British monthly,
Jazzwise, that, as on the group's two previous albums, Frith once again displays his "lateral thinking and restless creativity". Spicer said on the first CD, the trio "wanders unhurriedly from lumbering riffage to diaphanous soundscape", while on the second, guest Anker "slides from an assured, earthy tone to keening cry" and Santos Silva "unlocks a trove of extended techniques, from liquid ululations to blustery barrages". Spicer concluded that "It’s rare indeed that improvised music is simultaneously as accessible and cerebral as this." ==Track listing==