On the album, Shaw is joined by saxophonist and flutist Oliver Lake, trumpeters Floyd LeFlore and Baikida Carroll (listed as Baikida Yaseen), trombonist Joseph Bowie, guitarist Richard Martin, pianist Clovis Bordeaux, bassists Kada Kayan and Carl Richardson, and percussionist Danny Trice.

[2] Writing for DownBeat, John Corbett called the album a "seminal work of St. Louis' BAG," and commented: "Open, a tad funky and venomously strong with room for drift, it was a tornado of a recording that should have been heard, though with its tiny private pressing it remained the domain of specialists alone.

"[6] Clifford Allen of All About Jazz described the album as "a raw and far-reaching set that provides an excellent window into the activities of the Black Artists Group," and stated: "If you were to compare the AACM and BAG aesthetics on the basis of a single title, BAG music would come off as being significantly rougher and more unhinged.

Though the use of 'little instruments' like flutes, harmonica, bells and noisemakers is prevalent, there's a sense of raw urgency in the proceedings, a combination of urban squalor blues and an attitude reminiscent of Lester Bowie's 'good old country ass-kicking'.

"[7] In an article for Arthur, Byron Coley and Thurston Moore noted that the recording is "filled with some of the craziest electric guitar ever, courtesy of the late Richard Martin," and remarked: "The sonics have the same raw galacto-fidelity associated with Arkestral recordings of the same period, and this is a great goddamn explosion.