Review by: Jake Myers
Album assigned by: Jared Walske
Is any of this actually a waltz? I mean, the rhythms feel pretty jazzy, but that classification just seems like a cop-out when there is so much more going on here. Suffice it to say that such an intriguing fusion of jazz, world music, and electronic stylings is enough to interest a relative Philistine like me. I know nothing about any of those genres, though, so pardon the myriad of ignorant comments I am bound to unwittingly make.
There is not a striking amount of variety on this album, but that’s only a problem when you have a hard time making it from the first song to the last without breaks. No, this one actually benefits from the more subtle variations in its sound. The consistency allows the album to flow as an unbroken stream of thought and feeling. And that feeling, I’d say, is the feeling of lying back in a classy bar in some exotic land, maybe indulging in some slow and easy sort of hedonism, while still able to contemplate the deepest metaphysical musings of the guru across the room.
There are some really groovy segments, like the flute breakdowns in “Baby”, that are sure to remind the prog aficionados such as myself of similarly great moments in the Jethro Tull and early King Crimson catalogues. There are the lazy numbers like “Modal Mile”, which remind me a lot of Soul Coughing—hell, the vocalist even sounds kinda like Mike Doughty. And check out how in “Relaxing at Club Fusion”, they manage to marry a modern electronic beat with the smooth classic wandering of that saxophone, all with those minimalist verses drifting in and out. Subtleties, again, but how rewarding those can be.
The prize has to go to “Summer Sun”, though. That bouncy, carefree, yet knowing melody really is something else, and it’s wonderfully strange how a song (and an album, for that matter) can sound like both the past and the future at the same time. 8/10
No comments:
Post a Comment