JUNE 2005 - Page 1

AMBIENT/TRANCE/TECHNO, etc:
SEAN QUINN: Skylines CD
The more I listen to this, the more magnificent and magical it becomes. This is an electronic music album - it's essentially a true crossover between "trad synth" music and early nineties "ambient" music, with more than enough to please the more laid-back and open-minded among you in both camps. That said, there are two six minute tracks on the CD that are founded on THE most awesome drum 'n' bass style rhythms and these, in conjunction with the synths and keys layers and melodies that are deep as the ocean and wide as the sky, just drive forward on an unstoppable rollercoaster of heady delights and are just fantastic. Elsewhere there are analogue and digital synths, string synths, mellotrons, electric piano, samplers and sequencers. The other 8 tracks spend most of their time as flowing, languid seas of layered soundscapes and melodic beauty, the occasional electro-percussive rhythm providing that extra drive or else the rhythm more implied in the musical creation as the pieces build and billow like emerging huge white clouds in a clear blue sky. Reference points are many and varied but the likes of Skyray, Jon Hopkins' first album, Michael Stearns' more melodic works and the more chilled-out parts of the wondrous "EM:T" label roster, come to mind. The tracks work as oft-repeatable plays, simply by virtue of the sheer depth of sound, the loving creation and assemblage, the clarity of production and the mix of accessibility and deceptive complexity that pervades the album from start to finish, all wrapped up in an obviously caring human touch. It's just so enjoyable with not a wasted second on the entire thing - a joy!!!

THESSALONIANS: Solaristics CD
With three guys on synths and samples, one guy on tablas and hand percussion, a track record from four musicians that includes PGR, Heavenly Music Corporation, Spaceship Eyes, Spirits Burning & Melting Euphoria, you won't be the least bit surprised to find that this is one of THE finest ambient albums of early classic Orb/hints of early T.Dream - influenced magic to come out in years. Right from the opening eight minute title track, you'll hear chunky electro-percussive beats and rhythms, swirling synths, electronic backdrops, a huge depth to the sound, plenty of layers and a constantly shifting, solid yet wholly atmospheric soundscape that just transports you to another dimension. The album as a whole consists of 8 core tracks with 7 short link tracks that glues it all together, so that the result is one epic sounding classic ambient/chill-out album. On the eight and a half minute 'E-Space', the introduction is all multi-layered space music with some of the swirls and atmospheres having a distinctly '74-era Fripp/Crimso feel to them and you almost expect to hear a searing guitar coming through, but instead the combination of synths and layers are joined by an exotic solid tabla rhythm as more synths swirl around in the mix and assorted textures and melodies, rhythms and beats all join the musical depth creating a fantastic slice of ambience that takes you "out there" and then some, ending in a well of throbbing bass depths and the stunning percussive presence. The near seven minute 'Dust' is altogether different again, this time with a sea of slowly clattering and crunchy drums of acoustic and electronic natures, with a hollow-sounding sea of samples on top as the piece goes from crunchy to ethereal and then fills out with miles of synths to provide a cosmic climax to the previously solid rest of the track. The seven minute 'Drowning Weather' is much more of a huge-sounding, expansive cosmic electronic affair, with deep rumbling, rolling bass and percussives above which a sliding organ-like tone and all manner of early seventies-sounding space and lead synths drift, drive and drone, while distant samples and rumbles make it all sound like '74-era Tangerine Dream in a parallel universe. Superb!! At five minutes the delightfully titled 'Mining Came' opens spicily enough before introducing a solid, skull-crunching bass line and equally strong, crunchy percussive rhythms and elctro-percussive beats as the space synths, swoop, soar and float while allsorts of electronics and echoed melody lines fill the mix with so much going on, that it's almost a crime that this track doesn't go on for a lot longer, as good as, if not better than, anything turned out by early Orb, for sure. Five more fantastic pieces between one and three minutes then take you to the final, six and a half minute '360', opening with jazzy sampled bass as the chunky percussion enters and what sounds like an echoed guitar lead (but isn't) adds melodic character before it, too, dies away, to leave a lead synth that flows in echoed fashion, before the guitar-like figure returns and the track carries on its gloriously downtempo drive through ambient heaven, sounding the most like a slice of classic mid-period Pete Namlook on the album so far. Overall, highly recommended.

CANTERBURY/FUSION:
GONG MATRICES-GILLI SMYTH: Parade CD
Searching for the perfect Gilli Smyth album is, I'm beginning to think, somewhat akin to the search for the Holy Grail. Now, that's no sleight on Gilli, god love her, it's just that what I want from this unique songstress, never seems to conform to a whole album's worth. I've been close - even up to a classic 80% at several points - but that perfect album has eluded me. "Until now?" I hear you cry. Nope - still eluding me - but not by much!!. You see, the idea of the siren call that is Gilli's soft, floaty, whispery, soaring, almost angelic vocal and celestial space-whisper, is simply wondrous in theory, but in practice, while the vocals are exactly that, the choice of material that is sung and recited, can veer towards the twee, occasionally towards the ridiculous. But, this new album is probably the closest we've got to the motherlode in many a long while. Musically, it's doing something that she's not done to date and, on the evidence of this, you wonder why on earth not. We've had psychedelic, fusion, jazz, trance and more - so, welcome to ambient. Yes, the Gilli Smyth chill-out album is among us - and it works, goddamn it. Across a variety of ethereal blissful soundscapes, often backed by some wondrously chunky downtempo rhythms, Gilli's gorgeous vocal sings, soars, floats and dances on what has to be the best selection of songs and stories she's yet composed and delivered, so much so that it's the first album since the trance ones that you can actually imagine putting on for repeat plays. Very much a sunny day or a late night affair, the effect is like total immersion as the soaring strains of violin, glissando guitar, treatments, loops and percussion flow majestically and serenely through the album. Apart from the fact that the storyline to the 'Demon Barbie' track earns a raised eyebrow or two, and that it's about three minutes too long at eight and a half minutes, the rest of the album is pretty well spot on and I have to say that I did play it all again for enjoyment purposes after I'd made my mind up what to say in this review. It does indeed have a siren-like quality to it, and for once that's justified. Oh yes, must make a special mention of the lyrics. Gilli's always had a way with words and has never been afraid to wear her social, emotional and political heart on her sleeve, but this time round, she's really come up with some writing that has you smiling in agreement as you see exactly where she's coming from. In short, her best album since…..well, for a very long time, let's out it like that. You might not believe this, but……….recommended!!

PIERRE MOERLEN'S GONG: Expresso II CD
From 1989, the second in what would turn out to be the infusion of the Gong spirit of playing with the intricacies and intensities, subtleties and solidity of, sadly recently deceased, drummer, Pierre Moerlen's jazz-rock continuation of what was a part of the original Gong musical alchemy. Here, the core group of Pierre Morelen, Mireille Bauer & Benoit Moerlen as an essentially three-piece super-trio of percussionists, and bassist Hansford Rowe, are joined by three lead guitarists, notably ex-Rolling Stones' Mick Taylor, ex-Soft Machine/Nucleus/UK/Tempest Allan Holdsworth and Bon Lozaga, with ex-Curved Air violinist Darryl Way also guesting on 2 of the 6 tracks. Musically you have the lightness of the vibraphone and percussion, balanced by the sizzling guitar work and driven by the solid strength rhythm section, with all compositions heavily accented towards the melodic, meaning that the result is a brand of fusion that is highly engaging, in no way overblown and full of magic. Every track has something to offer from the fiery guitar work of Lozaga on 'Golden Dilemma' through the gorgeous vibraphone and marimba work balanced by the sinuous violin and the flowing electric guitar leads of Holdsworth, on 'Sleepy' to the soaring lead guitar work and triple percussion splendors of 'Three Blind Mice'. 16 years on and still a thoroughly satisfying and rewarding instrumental fusion album, the acceptable face of seventies jazz-rock, for sure.

SOFT MACHINE & HEAVY FRIENDS: BBC In Concert 1971 CD
They were an innovative band in terms of jazz and jazz-rock at the best of times, but this radio concert blows away even their sternest critics as the band are embellished, at various points along the way, with some of the heavyweights of the British early seventies jazz scene that include such luminaries as future Soft Machiners Roy Babbington & Phil Howard, plus Ronnie Scott, Neville Whitehead, Mark Charig & Paul Newman. It starts with a ten minute 'Blind Badger' which features the core Just Us quintet of Dean-Charig-Howard-Whitehead-Ratledge performing a remarkably easy-going, substantial and flowing track where the melodies reign supreme, as Dean's sax, Ratledge's electric piano and Charig's lyrical cornet work, all get a chance to shine above the fluid electric bass of Whitehead and Howard's trademark rolling, stumbling and crashing drum work - a superb opener. But then Wyatt on second drums and Hopper, replacing Whitehead on bass, drop in, Charig drops out, and a near six minute piece called 'Neo-Caliban Grides' ensues, opening with Dean's call to arms before ther band embarks on one of the most jaw-dropping slices of essentially "free jazz" that you've ever heard them do, the massed drum attack of the twin drumming whirlwind under Ratledge's almost squealing organ work and Hopper's thundering bass as Dean's sax takes off for another dimension altogether, is a intensity that few can match and is one of the truly awesome passages of British fusion music of the last 35 years. Without pausing for breath, and Howard exiting, the core and classic Soft Machine quartet then employ the familiar strains of 'Out-Bloody-Rageous' as the dive into the most awesome thirty-two minute medley of tracks is begun. For the first sixteen minutes, it's just the Softs, but then, as they launch themselves into Ratledge's amazingly complex 'Teeth' they are joined by all the others apart from Howard, for an eleven minute "big-band" Softs performance that is just sensational and to hear Ronnie Scott's incredible sax solo sounding so natural in this context, is just one of the many highs you'll experience on this part of the musical journey. The tension rises, the intensity heightens to a crescendo and then it all drops back to finish with searing renditions of 'Pigling Bland' and '10.30 Returns To The Bedroom' - as remarkable and appealing a slice of legendary early seventies fusion as you'll ever hear across thirty-two amazing minutes. As a bonus, the album ends with the previously unreleased encore of 'Slightly All The Time/Noisette' with the Softs trademark quartet sound - every facet of bass, drums, sax and organ in evidence - providing a solid, flowing end to a truly groundbreaking performance.

EURO-ROCK/CONTEMPORARY:
ULI TREPTE: Rollomat CD
First off, it's probably not the sort of album that most people familiar with the career to date of the ex-Guru Guru bassist, would want to hear, or think they want to hear. Yet, if you get past that and take it for what it is, then it's a steamingly good album. You see, this is a jazz album. No, not jazz-rock - jazz!! OK, so it's HIS brand of jazz, but that's what it is nevertheless. Take the opening five minute track for starters - it's seriously laid back with just electric bass and Chapman Stick to the fore, sax courtesy of ex-Embryo musician Edgar Hoffmann and Djembe (ethnic drum) from Tapsi Kim, all well melodic and chilled out. This flavour continues in the three minute title track, only this time with flute instead of sax. The four minute 'Rerun Blues' carries this laid-back quality onwards, this time with the violin doing the lead melody duties.
So it goes - some tracks slightly livelier than others, but all well chilled out with some fantastic "late night" vibes from the lead sax/flute/violin, set against the lilting yet solid electric bass and occasional Chapman Stick and the delicate but restrained electric bass and ethnic drumming. Overall, for what it is, it's superb! You've just got to be into what it is. For all late-night jazzers everywhere - smokin'.

PHARAOH OVERLORD: II CD
It's not often you get an instrumental album by a band bracketed as "psychedelic" or "stoner" that crosses over into the worlds of "Krautrock", but this is a rare exception. The main reason for this is that, for a psychedelic guitar-led band's second album, much of it is remarkably restrained, at times almost melodic, so that you get the feel of a more drugged-out early Ash Ra Tempel, as the electric guitar chimes rather than powers up, with some fantastic clear-cut chording and melodic flow, above a rhythm section that keeps it tight but also quite restrained. Yet it never loses its psychedelic way, with the second track even using acoustic guitar to add to the trippy effect, as the electric guitar and bass gradually intensify and the piece builds to spectacular effect but never breaks out. With the average track length at around eight minutes, there's more than enough room to stretch out but not so much room that they become uninteresting. The first three tracks are all examples of brooding strength and underlying power as the layers of guitars and bass, the slowly moving rhythm section and hints of feedback provide the soundtrack to your mind-trip of exquisite proportions. The, when the ten minute 'Skyline' begins its more thickly chorded outing, it's like being somewhere between instrumental early King's X on a more far-out, fuzzed-up trip with phasing enhancing the swirling soundscapes from the growling bass, searing guitar and slow-mo drums, the whole thing utterly hypnotic and a sea of flowing, restrained, thickly chorded but magnificently psychedelic riffing, the phasing just piling on the effects as the intensity hots up and the track spirals to a gripping and tense finale. The ten minute 'Love Unfiltered' returns to the more languid mode for its chiming guitar and gliding rhythms, this time melodic lead guitars adding a greater focus to the slow waves of Kraut-esque jamming that has by now become the trademark of the album. The final track, 'Who Were You' takes the elements that you've heard so far and goes into some seriously spooky territories, with added guitar effects and layers providing some seriously dark sounds above the chiming leads, growling bass fogbank and deliciously slow drums. A superb album, not what you expected, but better!!

V/A: Krautrock Meeting DBLDVD
Recorded for the German Rockpalast TV in 2005 - so the picture and sound quality is pretty well perfect - this is six living legends of the seventies Krautrock scene proving that they are still forces to be reckoned with, decades later. A set each from Epitaph, Guru Guru, Karthago, Jane (Peter Panka's), Amon Duul II & Birth Control provide over three and a half hours of visual and audio entertainment for anyone who wants to wallow in nostalgia while at the same time witness some gripping live music.

PIERRE VERVLOESEM: Rude CD
Holy cow!!!! Every so often something comes along that just tears the roof of your head off and this is it. Forget jazz-rock, forget fusion, forget metal - forget everything - this is the sound of explosive electric guitar work gone wild yet kept within a structured form - yes, it's composed. But it's also the sound of the inferno. Imagine a cross between '73-era, on-fire John McLaughlin and Caspar Brotzmann set inside a rhythmic cauldron marked "Magma", then you'll have some idea of just how explosive this CD is. The guitar work for a start will leave you a blubbering wreck on the floor, and that's before we even start on the massive bass work and the skull-crunching drums, not to mention a guy who sounds like he's playing an organ with lead-lined gloves and hob-nail boots. But it's all so magnificently played, arranged and produced that you positively wallow in its intensity, the fiery furnace of music never sounding so unutterably storm-force. Running throughout is a sense of melody, sometimes you feel, almost tongue-in-cheek, such as the almost ELP-like organ run that pervades 'Titanic Again' before the guitar lead soars in and takes you higher, the band rolling and rocking but so heavy it's a wonder the CD player doesn't self-destruct, and when the track segues into the even cheesier melodies and hi-octane intensity of 'n'roll', you can't help but wonder which twilight zone you've wandered into. But then the near five minutes of 'Experimental Dentition' begins with more brutal guitar work before the lead guitar suddenly appears out of nowhere and this short and soaring solo appears only to be repleaced with drumming that sounds like the devil's doing it, bass work that hits you squarely in the stomach and an organ backdrop that sounds like some gothic horror movie. Then, when all THAT suddenly turns into an ambient dub inferno, you truly swear that you've lost any semblance of musical reference that you ever had as the whole panorama changes and twists to jaw-dropping extent. The heady delights of the thunder and mayhem, dynamics and densities, solos and ensemble explosions that follow are what makes truly great, ground-breaking and totally incredible albums, and this is no exception. Defying every pigeon-hole imaginable, this is out on its own and all the better for it. One of the most fantastic electric guitar instrumental albums you'll hear in 2005, if not THE best, this has got everything and blows the socks off anyone in the trad fields or rock, metal, fusion, Krautrock and practically any other category you care to mention. Monstrous and amazing!!!

GENERAL:
EARLY NOVEMBER: Acoustic EP CDEP
The phrase "does what it says on the tin" comes to mind, for this is, indeed, an acoustic EP with 7 tracks in twenty two minutes. Lead track, 'Ever So Sweet' is one man and his acoustic guitar delivering an impassioned performance of a song that is so full of yearning and angst you'd have to be a hard man not to be affected by the words and their meanings, a song that tears at the fibres of your heart. The subsequent six songs do exactly the same thing in exactly the same settings, but each song carries its own message of loves lost and found, lives that could be or were never meant to be and general yearning for what could have been. It's curiously addictive and a mark of the utmost song-writing talent and delivery that this guy's got, that it not only works well, but becomes on first play, the sort of thing that you will go on to play again and again. It's not happy music, but when you're in the frame of mind it demands, there's few like it.

IAN PARKER: Live CD
Forgetting the opening track that's just an unaccompanied slice of vocal poetry, and for me, not the best way to open an album a good as this, the rest of the album is very much in the vein of a sort of more soulful Stevie Ray Vaughan as the band and Parker's lead guitar and vocal combine to provide a set of original tracks and covers that cook and smoulder rather than blast and burn. For electric blues, it's remarkably soulful and for soulful blues, it works remarkably well. I normally prefer my blues with more ballistics, but this simmered nicely and the guy's voice has got just what it takes to keep you hooked, the perfect mix of soul and gravel. Compositionally, it's mostly fairly traditional blues structures, sometimes seriously laid back, other times more attacking with a performance that swings. The fine line between guitar-keyboards-drums-bass electric blues that hooks you solid and the ones that bore you stiff is not so fine in this case, as the playing and singing is positively addictive, nothing you've probably not heard before, but riveting all the same. The final ten minute medley of Crosby's 'Almost Cut My Hair' with Greeny's 'Green Manalishi' where the musicians attack the former and tone down the latter, exactly the opposite of what you'd expect, works just tremendously. Overall, a fine album.

GUITAR MUSIC/GREAT GUITARISTS:
DOPPLER INC: Nu Instrumetal CD
Great big piles of smoking, steaming riffing, so pungent you can smell the fumes a mile away. The lead work is just as hot and smouldering as this instrumental metal band crank it up and provide a set of tracks that combine flowing heavy metal leads with slabs of guitar riffs, stomach-churning bass and super-solid drumming. With a twin electric guitar lead line-up in action, the energy and electricity levels are way in the red, while the melody content ensures that this is one seriously listenable set of compositions. It's every rock guitar instrumental lover's dream album if you're after molten riffing, searing guitar leads and powerhouse rhythms.

STEVE HOWE: Spectrum CD
Whey heyyyyy!!!!! Not only is it an instrumental album, but it's an electric instrumental album AND a band album not - but not just ANY band - oh no sireee - this band features, alongside the master guitarist, ex-Gabriel/Crimson bassists Tony Levin, siblings Virgil Howe & Dylan Howe on keyboards and drums respectively PLUS Oliver Wakeman on second keyboards - it's like a new millennium supergroup for a future fusion generation! Across fifteen tracks, none of which are longer than four and a half minutes, you'll find a band that plays it tight, swings, rocks, tugs at your heart and generally lays down every melody style in the book, ranging from soaring fusion to more sedate instrumental prog and always with Steve Howe's guitar work at the heart of things, whether delivering a trademark sustained solo or showing off his more rhythm guitar-esque jazzy chops, his heartfelt acoustic slide, flowing almost liquid lead lines or chiming electric guitars. Again it's a prog-rock/fusion album at heart although the stylisitic twists and turns along the way provide ample variation and showcase the guy's writing talents as well as his undoubted playing and arranging ones too. This isn't an album that breaks any new ground or is going to have you hollering with delight - this is a solid, structured, melodic, excellently produced, deep and meaningful set of instrumentals that will just make you feel good to hear, time and time again - the all-purpose, multi-mood music album for every occasion.

MAHAVISHNU TRIBUTE - Visions Of An Innermounting Apocalypse CD
1. BIRDS OF FIRE featuring: Steve Lukather 2. CANT STAND YOUR FUNK featuring: Mike Stern 3.CELESTIAL TERRESTRIAL COMMUTERS featuring: Steve Morse 4.MEETING OF THE SPIRITS featuring: Jimmy Herring 5.JAZZ featuring: Jeff Richman 6.DAWN featuring: Frank Gambale and Jerry Goodman violin solo 7.DANCE OF MAYA featuring: Greg Howe 8.FAITH featuring: David Fiuczynski 9.LILA'S DANCE featuring: Warren Haynes and Jerry Goodman violin solo 10.FOLLOW YOUR HEART featuring: John Abercrombie 11. BIRDS OF FIRE featuring: Steve Lukather 12. CANT STAND YOUR FUNK featuring: Mike Stern 13.CELESTIAL TERRESTRIAL COMMUTERS featuring: Steve Morse 14.MEETING OF THE SPIRITS featuring: Jimmy Herring 15.JAZZ featuring: Jeff Richman 16.DAWN featuring: Frank Gambale and Jerry Goodman violin solo 17.DANCE OF MAYA featuring: Greg Howe 18.FAITH featuring: David Fiuczynski 19.LILA'S DANCE featuring: Warren Haynes and Jerry Goodman violin solo 20.FOLLOW YOUR HEART featuring: John Abercrombie Bringing together the creme de la creme of jazz/fusion guitarists with Warren Haynes Steve Morse, Jimmy Herring, Mike Stern, John Abercrombie, Greg Howe, Dave Fiuczynski, Frank Gambale, Jeff Richman, and Steve Lukather each paying a fiery guitar tribute to one of the most influential fusion guitarists of all time. These phenomenal guitarists approach their lead solos with a respect and energy, which places each guitarists contributions to Visions Of An Inner mounting Apocalypse among their greatest individual works to date. The unique arrangements retain Mclaughlin's compositional elements but are brought into the 21st century with fresh chordal harmonies, odd time signatures and poly rhythmic combinations which support some of the best guitar solos ever recorded.

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