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Reviews:
- - - - - Creem Magazine I've been waiting a long time for a band like Crime In Choir to come along with an album like The Hoop, but the wait has been more than worth it. I promise youno, I absolutely-guarantee-that you will unconditionally love this album if you have any kind of affinity and appreciation for the following masters of the genre: Quiet Sun, Larry Fast, 801, Tangerine Dream, Klaus Schultz, Terry Riley, Cluster, Andy Mackay, Stomu Yamashta, Neu, Rick Wakeman, Tony Conrad, Jade Warrior, Harmonia, Fripp and Eno, Edgar Froese, Conrad Schnitzler. Heady company, I know. But that's exactly the kind of intelligent and complex synthesized rock music that Crime In Choir masterfully creates. The live drums propel the beat with tasteful assured austerity while a phalanx of synthesizers lay down a variety of atmospheric tones ranging from lush sonic washes to complex sequencer patterns. And by the time the rhythm guitar and saxophone join in, trust me, it'll all make perfect sense. Many have tried to create music like this over the years, but none have ever come this close to achieving such a exalted solid state of vintage electronic sonic exotica. And lest you think that this album is a one-time fluke, you'll be comforted to know that the C'n'C music factory been producing masterful albums like this for years, as evidenced by their earlier self-titled debut album Crime In Choir, which came out on the Omnibus label some time back. So whether you're old enough to remember what the golden age of synthesizers sounded like or not, please go out and buy The Hoop and have your unflagging faith in progressive electronic music redeemed and renewed. You owe it to yourself to hear how Crime In Choir are updating the classic synthedrone template for a new generation of listeners. - - - - - STNT website (in French) CRIME IN CHOIR, c'est le projet du IAN, le frère de ZACK HILL (le fameux batteur de HELLA), batteur lui aussi. Ne chercher pas HELLA là dedans, la comparaison n'est en effet pas de mise à l'écoute de cette pseudo new wave lisse vivant dans un confort qui les empche de se donner réellement à fond. Mou. Rien. Le cap le plus difficile à passer est sans doute l'odeur de ce synthé ou de ce sax sirupeux laissant derrière elle des mélodies faciles, une odeur de rance qui n'est pas franchement très coutumier chez FRENETIC. Bref, c'est instrumental et ca ne m'a pas touché. - - - - - Deep Fried Bonanza Daniel reviewed this album awhile back, and he didn't care for it too much. Which is perfectly understandable, because not only are Crime in Choir an instrumental band (something that's not everyone's cup of tea to begin with), but they're a very melodramatic, slightly cheesy instrumental band. They take three and a half minute post-punk instrumentals and inject them with some King Crimson/Yes swagger, complete with ridiculous synths and what I believe is an organ. These songs have more bombast than they logically should, especially album centerpieces "Hot Slant" and "Where R R Umbrellas". It's easy to laugh and deem Crime in Choir pretentious, and it's even easier not to care at all. But for all of their over-the-top prog leanings, these guys write some incredibly engaging songs. For starters, they mine prog rock's more ample aspects -- I hear elements of accessible, relatively punchy (by prog standards, of course) albums like The Fragile, Discipline, and Permanent Waves. By caging their jammy tendencies within the friendly confines of a pop song, Crime In Choir balance themselves out, and are able to surpass bands like Hella or Oxes who don't develop all of the facets of their sound equally. In addition to all of the ballsy ballast, a prettier, more conventionally "post-rock" tone surfaces from time to time, adding a bit of emotional pull to an otherwise stoic record (there they go balancing themselves out again). Crime in Choir still haven't grown into perfect songwriters, but as far as instrumental rock goes, they're one of the better bands doing it today. - - - - - Delusions of Adequacy On the second release from California's Crime in Choir, dense, chaotic, and dreamy sounds provide a tight and diverse sound with syncopated drumming and melodic synth lines providing the foundation for lush Fender Rhodes, horns, and neatly interwoven guitars. Extremely varied, the album has everything from prog to new-wave to rock. While sounding like Don Caballero with synths or a more focused and propulsive Tortoise, this is truly a wonderfully postmodern prog-rock album. "Strong Beautiful Suspicious Horse" brings to mind of elements of Peter Gabriel-era Genesis and Hot Rats era Frank Zappa. This is a very retro-sounding record, but I think that prog-rock in itself sounds futuristic at the same time. However that could just be me, since prog-rock seems to conjure up images of airbrushed planets, wizards, and musicians in costumes. All-star assistance from Hella's Zach Hill (who used to be a full-time member) and The Fucking Champs' Tim Green help solidify this release. To say that Crime in Choir contains former members of (early) At the Drive-In is pretty unnecessary except for when you place this album up against the post-ATDI prog-rock wankery of the Mars Volta (Omar, you've got to know when to step away from the bong, dude.) While the guys in Crime in Choir obviously know how to play their instruments, there is no need for bloated additives like 10-minute long bass solos. In my book, you can never get enough Fender Rhodes, like on "Where R R Umbrellas" where the Rhodes drives the melody while seemingly conjuring up a dreamy fog-covered landscape. Sounding both retro and futuristic at the same time, the fine guitar work, thick basslines, complex song structures, and off-meter signature work should appeal to all the prog-rock aficionados out there. By cutting away the fat that seems to pompously bloat many of the bands in the the prog-rock genre, Crime in Choir has made a very direct and to-the-point record. Good stuff. - - - - - Lost At Sea Listening to Crime in Choir's second full-length album, The Hoop, one is sent on a schizophrenic joyride of elaborate musical schemes. The musical roller coaster is depicted through a mix of your basic drums, bass, and guitar and then increases its forbearing, adding fender Rhodes, horns, and cinematic synth lines to create an aural delusion. Imagine a feeling of pure pleasure before being hit from behind, a blow that quickly turns the joyride into a mangled heap. It's probably a lot like being Steve Moore form the Colorado Avalanches when he was sideswiped by Todd Bertuzzi last month, except Crime in Choir offer no apologies for their violation. Taking off my the neck brace my initial listen left me in and really swallowed what was going on with The Hoop, I felt the blood vessels in my skeletal muscles widen, creating an exceptional blood flow, allowing my organs to operate to their highest ability do to the increase of oxygen. An adrenaline rush, nonetheless, has been created in acknowledging an all out ambush. My senses have been attacked by the members of Crime in Choir, made up of Kenney Hopper and Jarrett Wrenn (two of the original founding members of At The Drive-In), along with Jesse Reiner, Carson McWhirter, and Jay Pellici. Tim Green from The Fucking Champs, and Zach Hill from Hella, figure in as guest musicians, increasing the delusional and peculiar framework. The Hoop is more of a conceptual abstract vision than a typical rock album. With no words spoken or lyrics sung, there is an endless array of musical ringing that echoes throughout The Hoop. "Strong Beautiful Suspicious Horse" is an offering of such spectacular musical impulse, complete with a constant keyboard rhythm stacked amongst piles of multiple-instrumentation, swaying back and forth before a breakdown ends its unshaken pattern. Horns enter and end, as do building, sweeping orchestras, in full-dress, calling for the horns (and other unknown sounds) to enter the fray with them. Quietly, a paranoid guitar sequence molds the song after being chased by what came before, but it only enjoys solace in the lead for a moment. Then, again, we besieged by a powerful array of audio madness, a beauty in chaos. And that is just the first song. The Hoop continues in the same character, slowing down only a bit for "Magnetotail". The band introduces keyboards and sequenced drums, upon which a mesmerizing guitar lays itself in an over-dubbing manner. It is one of the shortest tracks on the album, just over the two-minute mark, and it allows for a slight reprieve before the onslaught of "Hot Slant," a frenzied rock song as big and bad as they come. Speakers rattle as a blazing, effects-soaked guitar threatens violence, teaming up with hard-hitting drums to collectively pound stronger than any other song on the album. Worthy of progressive rock description often reminiscent of King Crimson and Yes, "Where R R Umbrellas" and "Didomonico" forge ahead in their own complex deranged sagas. Enduring the endless and abundant array of dazzling musical escapades of The Hoop has taken its toll on my mental state. It's draining and breathing life into me at the same time. The observations witnessed throughout The Hoop lead me to believe that there was no way Crime In Choir could continue on to a point from which they could end the charade of insanity in a cohesive, conclusive manner, but in fact they do just that. "In Search of Plunder (Bum Convention)," with it's mathy, complex rhythm, rides the storm out; drums and guitar own the songs introduction, encouraging a faint keyboard drone scantily heard over its frame before it takes off midway. The groundwork of the closing track is less cohesive as far as the arrangements go, but nonetheless, just as frenzied as the rest of its infrastructure. In all of its frantic glory, The Hoop has torn down the barriers built by the most jilted indie rock artists, showing equal parts of turbulent progressive-rock and sparse soundscapes, with a touch of new wave as garnish. Chrime in Choir have lain the foundation for what could be a temple of new rock, should others have the courage to follow them. - - - - - review of Crime In Choir by Andy Vaughn I can't help but think that people use the "ex-members of" thing as a crutch sometimes. Crime In Choir "features founding members of At The Drive-In, Hella, and The Hades Kick." Founding members doesn't really mean that much to me, but it still seems kind of amusing that labels use this kind of stuff to get someone's attention. Maybe it works, maybe not. For me, whenever I see something like this I usually kind of laugh unless its someone that was in the band the whole time. A founding member could mean they played in the band in high school before it even had a name. Who knows... Crime in Choir use synthesizers, Rhodes piano, Moog, bass and a baritone guitar to create their brand of spacey math rock. Although founding' members of At The Drive-In are in this group, do not expect Crime in Chior to produce anything of the same sort. This music is intricate and jazzy, and it is also put together in a crafty and original way that isn't often done. Another thing you should not expect from Crime In Choir would be vocals, as the band is 100% instrumental. Some would think that this might work against a band, but after listening many would agree that Crime In Choir would not be the same or as intriguing with a vocalist. This is a great instrumental group, and much like with an improvised jazz group a vocalist added into the mixture would probably throw everything out of the perfect balance that it is now in. Comparisons that one may draw from elements of this experimental group may include Sonic Youth, Rainer Maria, Mates of States, Radiohead, New Order, the Faint or a disparaging list of others. Crime In Choir are not rooted in electronics, as some of their peers are, which in my opinion works especially well for them - considering that it does not seem like they are biting anyone else's style. Crime In Choir come across as a very intriguing and original sounding group, something that most bands today cannot claim. Crime In Choir debuts with just a six song EP, but the release is thirty minutes long, outlasting a lot of full lengths but still leaving me very interested in what they may have in store for the future. With this multi-dimensional style of music they have huge crossover potential with many different crowds. - - - - - San Francisco Weekly Darken the Corners Mike got a raw deal. Orphaned at an early age and raised in suburban hell by a hessian deadbeat of an older brother, life was less than rosy. Then, to make matters worse, his pal Tommy mysteriously dies and little Mike gets into a tangle with a sinister mortician from outer space. Backed by a posse of bloodthirsty monk-midgets, Mike's cadaver-snatching nemesis uses a flying Swiss Army ball to lobotomize unsuspecting victims and damn their brainless remains to an eternity of hard labor on a distant planet. So begins the storyline of Don Coscarelli's 1979 horror flick Phantasm. The artfully low-budget movie may have been short on plausibility, but the power of Coscarelli's imagination made it a box office dark horse and instant cult classic. If Hollywood ever tries a remake, we're going to suggest that San Francisco's Crime in Choir pen the soundtrack. "One of the best comments we got after a show was when this older guy came up to me and told me we totally sounded like the soundtrack to the movie Phantasm," says Jesse Reiner, one of Crime in Choir's keyboardists. "He was really excited about that. I've never actually seen the movie, but I definitely like the idea." In the band's cramped SOMA practice space, Reiner stands amongst a snarl of cords connecting vintage synthesizers and electronic gadgets. He is one-third of the group's core, which includes guitarist Jarrett Wrenn and Kenny Hopper on Rhodes piano and bass-piano. Together with stand-in drummer Ian Hill, the group has just finished rehearsing. The air is thick with the smell from warm amps and ripe dudes. After packing up, the band members head out to a Mission bar for cheap drinks. As it turns out, their confessed affinity for horror films makes the reference to Phantasm all the more relevant. "When I first started the band we had this idea to be a somewhat mysterious instrumental band," Hopper says. "The name Crime in Choir comes from the idea of young kids sneaking out of their parents' house late at night and getting into trouble, having fun, that kind of thing. I wanted to make soundtrack music in the vein of Goblin or some of those European horror movies." Over beers, Hopper and company ramble though their musical histories and speak of various members who have been in and out of the band. The current quartet's personal relationships stretch back the better part of a decade, but Hopper is the only remaining founder. In 1999, after he relocated to San Francisco from Texas (where he also happened to be a founding member of a little band called At the Drive-In), Hopper and his then-roommate started playing together. Early formations of the group included spazz-rock band Hella's Zach Hill, who would take the Greyhound down from his home in Sacramento, crash on the guys' couches for a few days while they rehearsed, and bus back. Today, Crime in Choir's lineup has solidified around Hopper, Wrenn, and Reiner, who have more of a penchant for creating heady instrumental rock than slasher scores. But, even without the Swiss Army death ball, a conversation about the group's music is still all about evocative visuals. "I think a lot of the music comes out of the pictures in our heads when we're writing," Reiner says. "The music certainly invokes certain moods and conjures up different imagery. We have this idea that someday, when we have a huge budget, we'll put on an elaborate stage show, complete with choreography and multimedia -- maybe a ballet," he half-jokes. He muses about a day when Crime in Choir shows include 40-foot-tall cereal boxes dancing down the aisles of the theater. "Up until now we've just been focused on getting the music together," Reiner says, "but I think there is definitely a visual element we've yet to explore." If the band's sophomore release The Hoop is any indication of the group's musical togetherness, we can expect the dancing cereal boxes any minute. The record is packed stem to stern with dark melodic lines, synthy dance-rock, and turn-on-a-dime changes. Even without lyrics, the band's visual obsessions come through loud and clear with suggestive song titles like "Strong Beautiful Suspicious Horse," "Night Bandit," and "The Perfect Cover for This Is Fur." "When we are writing new stuff we are always telling each other what we are picturing in our heads," explains Wrenn. "And, yeah, a lot of the song titles reflect that. 'In Search of Plunder' is an example. The clumsy, struggling feel of it evoked the image of pirates making their way through some newfound port city, tearing shit up." The Hoop suffers from no lack of tearing shit up. The muscular intensity of "Hot Slant" smears the Talking Heads' punk-disco rhythm section with sweeping synth parts, a double-time guitar, and bass ostinatos. The double-quick beat of "Magneto" (perhaps the record's finest offering) races under a fringy saxophone solo. It adds up to some pretty compelling stuff, more lyrical than the math-rock instrumentals of Don Cabillero and more earnest than cool Chicago post-rock darlings Tortoise. Although the technical prowess displayed on every track of The Hoop is impressive, it is never overbearing. Even when songs are augmented by Melvins/Fucking Champs guitarist Tim Green and Hella's one-man drum show Zach Hill, it still doesn't come off like frightful wanking. Of the body of players that have shared the stage with the band, Wrenn explains simply, "We find somebody we think would do a good job and just ask them to do it." Reiner adds, "As the band continues to develop different aesthetic directions and grow musically, we hope good musicians will continue to collaborate with us and experiment with new sounds. There are several bands we like that have done this well -- the Flaming Lips, Talking Heads -- where a core group of musicians collaborates with others to realize interesting ideas." Custom tailoring of the lineup to suit the interesting ideas du jour has made Crime in Choir's heretofore infrequent live engagements unique happenings -- stylized must-see sequels to their premiere two years ago as an opening act for Creeper Lagoon. The roster of players who fill out the band's orchestration remains in flux, but the familiar characters that bind the group's sound are Hopper's Rhodes piano, Wrenn's baritone guitar, and Reiner's electronics. "The instrumentation does do a lot to shape the sound of the band," Reiner admits. "The interplay between the Rhodes and the synths does seem to catch people's attention as unique. Combined with the loud drums, intricate guitar and bass, it creates a kind of dramatic presence we like. We'd like to keep that intact as players and instrumentation varies over time." Just don't hold your breath waiting for a singer. "We have people come up to us after almost every gig and say, 'Hey, have you ever thought about adding a singer?'" Hopper says coyly. It's clear from the half-scoffs around the table that Crime in Choir's message has little to do with a pining vocalist. "It's rare that I care what songs are about," Wrenn says. "To me they often evoke visual or emotional responses, and those will certainly be different for everybody. I guess I would suggest unlearning how to listen to or approach music, to listen with a clean slate and expect aural rather than story-based engagement." "I guess it depends on the person's relationship to music," Reiner explains. "A lot of people really listen to lyrics and respond to them emotionally. I've always responded more to sounds." It's a comment that almost brings the conversation full circle, back to Don Coscarelli's nightmare on celluloid. The real thrills during Mike's crusade against the forces of evil aren't found in dime store one-liners like "Let me release you from this imperfect flesh" or in spurts of fake blood. Any lasting excitement springs from the dark, more shadowy corners of the imagination. - - - - - Newsreview.com Since 2001, Bay Area band Crime In Choir has wowed audiences with its Moog-infused, prog-rock hybrid sound. Although the band's original lineup has changed slightly from its first recording for local indie Omnibus Records, the ingredients are essentially the same. That's a good thing. In addition to original members Kenny Hopper and Jesse Reiner, Crime In Choir includes the accomplished musicianship of Carson McWhirter and Ian Hill (both formerly of the defunct band Ent) and guitarist Jarrett Wrenn. One listen to such tracks as "The Perfect Cover for This Is Fur" or "Magnetotail" will make you recall Oxygene-era Jean Michel Jarre and Genesis' Live album featuring Peter Gabriel. Fans of math rock (Don Caballero, Hella and Four Tet) should enjoy and embrace the soundscapes herein. A slam-dunk for true audiophiles. - - - - - Splendid EZine What the world needs now is more instrumental indie rock. Well, that might not top the list, but this superb (and occasionally stunning) album makes a strong case for singer-less rock bands to keep raging against the tyranny of the vocal. Even in this post-Tortoise, post-Mogwai/Godspeed landscape, it's still an uphill battle. At really crowded shows, it seems like nobody in the audience sees any reason to shut the hell up until some babied, prima donna whiner limps up to a mic stand to grace us with his precious, self-possessed poetry that most likely reads like scribbled junior high marginalia on paper. And if you're a vocal-less band opening for a Modest Mouse or Flaming Lips, you might as well just prop your guitars on your amps and wait for the feedback. It can take a Mogwai-level detonation to even let the crowd know you're up there. Crime in Choir are apt troopers for the fight. They deal not in broadly telegraphed crescendos or half-academic ambience; they sort of split the difference, but throw in a spice rack-full of prog heaviness, mathy twists and uncannily vintage-sounding synths and keyboards as well. With a more varied collection of influences than most of their brethren, Crime in Choir tap into the headiness of old King Crimson and Chick Corea records and update it with the tight indie-swirl of bands like Aloha, The Mercury Program and Dianogah. With their complex fills and loga-rhythms, drummers Ian and Zach (Hella) Hill guide these songs with the forthrightness of Don Cab's Damon Che. They're usually not distractingly flashy, but when they are ("Hot Slant"), it's an entertaining freak show of talent. The sound of Rhodes piano never gets old, and Kenny Hopper's deft contributions add smoky ambiance even to uptempo rockers like "The Hoop". The album's best song is the amazing "Vene Qua"; along with more mind-bending Rhodes and drums, this track flaunts Jesse Reiner's wavy, time-warping synthesizer and Jarrett Wrenn and Carson McWhirter's beautiful, Vini Reilly-like guitar spangles. There are other standouts, like the effervescent "Didomonico", as well as a few meandering, nondescript stretches that temporarily halt the album's momentum. Overall, though, this San Francisco band's second album is both ethereal and meaty, with more than a few flashes of true brilliance. Audiences as a whole might forever worship singers, but The Hoop earns awed silence anyway. - - - - - Mesh Magazine Juggling Act Since its birth in the fall of 2000, San Francisco-based progressive instrumental rock band Crime in Choir has been in a state of constant flux. The band has endured moves back and forth from Austin and the Bay Area, conflicting schedules and frequent lineup shuffling, but at least two of Crime in Choir's core members - Jarrett Wrenn (guitars) and the group's only remaining founding member Kenny Hopper (Fender Rhodes) - wouldn't seem to have it any other way. "The idea of Crime in Choir is that we're kind of a collective with three or four base members with me, Jarrett and Jesse Reiner [Moog], who has been in the band most of the time," says Hopper, also a founding member of At the Drive-In. "We do most of the writing, and the other guys will come in. So far, the other guys will come in and learn our songs, and will write around that." Hopper believes that Crime in Choir's revolving door policy has had its pros and cons. While it has been difficult coordinating with guest musicians' schedules and getting everyone in the same room at the same time, Hopper says that he and the band's other two core members have really been able to gel. "[We] have come to the point where we all know each other's styles, and know the direction we want to go," Hopper says, going on to mention that Crime in Choir's roster has become more fixed of late with the additions of bassist Carson McWhirther and Jay Pellici, who will be playing drums live for the band through out spring 2004. "At one point, it kind of felt like too many cooks in the kitchen," Wrenn says, picking up on Hopper's sentiments. "In that regard, it's kind of nice to have a couple people who really focus on the main writing and other musicians come in and [flesh things out]." "We're functioning very well in a unit of five...to six," Wrenn adds with a laugh. "It's different than the way things were before - I'm not saying that one way's better or not - but it's a nice change right now." Crime in Choir's patchwork nature seems to manifest in the music itself. On The Hoop, the band's second release and first for Frenetic Records, it fashions quick changes, dense layers of instrumentation and a wide variety of aural moods and tones into a heady, swirling tapestry - in your face one moment, taking a step back the next. As Wrenn succinctly puts it, listening to The Hoop is like a window into a "day in the life of a schizophrenic." In comparison to their eponymous EP, The Hoop expands upon the foundation Crime in Choir has already laid down. Wrenn explains that the band broadened their horizons, incorporating more "straight-up guitar, saxophone, piano, organs," whereas their first record featured mainly the same instruments on every track. Hopper believes that both albums are similar, but The Hoop carries a larger sound. "On The Hoop, we go different directions on each song using different instruments," Hopper says. "And there are also a lot more instrument changes between the band members on this record and in this lineup than there were in the previous lineup." "We went into Tim Green's Louder Studios and kind of messed around. He had a lot of old, cool equipment and instruments that we've never really played before and experimented with, and we ended up spending a lot of time doing it," Wrenn adds. "Me personally, a lot of my favorite songs on The Hoop are products of that." Wrenn admits that there were points where Crime in Choir had to reel in the rampant experimentation. He jokes that one of the songs is said to feature "bass by committee," and that the band decided to leave credits of who played what out of the liner notes because the list got so long, "it looked pretentious." "Some of us are less inclined to sit there for hours and mess around and some of us are more inclined to do that," Wrenn says. "Sometimes it would take the band as whole to say, That's good enough, let's go with that track.'" A result of Crime in Choir's experimentations is a songwriting process that both Wrenn and Hopper agree is painstaking. "I think it takes us a really long time to write songs," Hopper states. "Maybe it's because there are so many of us. It really seems like we have so many parts as a band - we just have a whole storage of parts. We're usually juggling two or three new songs at a time. It's really rare that we're working on one song at a time. All of us take part in the writing process, we'll keep juggling songs and try to get as far as we can on one song. We don't feel like we're spitting out songs." "In the end it's good, because everyone has a voice in the end product, but getting to the end product can take a long time when you're doing it that way," Wrenn elaborates, describing Crime in Choir's songwriting process as incredibly democratic. "It's rare that somebody comes in and says, I wrote a song' and plays the song for everybody. It's more like somebody has an idea, and we all work on it together." Though their process has had its difficulty, Crime in Choir doesn't seem to mind tackling challenges. As Wrenn puts it, "The history of this band, from when Kenny started it to now, things are constantly changing." Whether it's the shifting lineup or their instrumental acrobatics, Crime in Choir has probably gone through more evolutionary stages in fewer than four years than most bands will in their lifetimes. But Wrenn and Hopper don't seem to be bothered by this; in fact, they thrive on it. "A lot of the bands we really admire, a lot of the music that we listen to - older music - kind of did the same thing," Hopper says. "They had a lot of different musicians playing on different records, and you kind of don't know what to expect. That's interesting to me. That's kind of what we plan to do for each record - take a step in not so much of a different direction, but something new." - - - - - Playback St. Louis For those who respect the epic sound and musical virtuosity of prog rock but have trouble with the preening vocalists and cosmic/trippy lyrics, Crime in Choir is the band for you. This San Francisco quintet dispense with vocals altogether, but on The Hoop, their second release, they've got the polyrhythms, the intricate arrangements, the extravagant keyboard parts, and other prog fixtures. This is actually a thrillingly energetic album, and the fact that it's instrumental keeps you concentrating on how well the musicians interact. The album is less than 33 minutes long, which makes it more punk than prog, and there's plenty of sass and certainty of purpose in the fast-moving tracks. The keyboards are especially interesting throughout, generating a variety of ear-pleasing textures and always anchored by Jay Pellici's economical drumming. Standout compositions include Night Bandit, Vene Qua (guaranteed to take you back to those halcyon days of Yes, Gong and King Crimsonin only four minutes!), the propulsive Hot Slant (with an awesome Yes-ish arrangement), and the catchy Didomonico, another under-four-minute pleaser. This is fine stuff, kids, a worthwhile listen for prog fans who just don't care for that self-indulgence thing. (KR)
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