FunkFreak75
COS and STEREOLAB comingled and recorded for the first time!
Just kidding. This album is, however, for our times, quite unusual. At first I thought it "cute" and "interesting" but as I've given it many more listens I hear so much of two of my favorite "recent" or rather late in life joy-bringing discoveries in Canterbury styled music (of which there is so little coming out in the 21st Century) and, more specifically, the music of the unique Belgian group, COS. Actually, if you took 1970s COS and 2000 STEREOLAB you would have INNER EAR BRIGADE. Vocalist Melody Ferris sounds stylistically a bit like Kitchen Thieves' AMY DARBY or Thinking Plague's ELAINE DI FALCO, though the PASCALE SON (COS) and LAETITIA SADIER (STEREOLAB) comparisons are unavoidable. And these guys are from West Coast USA! This is an album of pure joy and fun. Even the extended jazz grooves with their serious and accomplished horn play and solos are fun.
The opener, "Knee," is such an ear catcher! Sounds a bit like an ELVIS COSTELLO song as it might be performed by STEREOLAB.
"Oomph" has some KC AND THE SUNSHINE BAND riffs and influence as well as feeling like some of FROGG CAFE's most CHICAGO-ishness.
"Missing the Train" feels a lot like a song coming from the 1960s Brazilian-influenced period of U.S. pop jazz.
"Rainbro," perhaps my least favorite song on the album, has more of a "bland" Stereolab feel to it--the melodies and chord changes are not quite as catchy as other songs--though I love the final 30 seconds.
"Too Good to Be True" has some social-political commentary like that commonly found in Stereolab songs as well as some nice XTC-like jazz guitar sound/work.
"Somnambulist Subversion" uses two long-out-dated instrumental effects: the cheesy synth and the ragged distortion strum of a punk-like guitar that begin the song. Once voice, horns and percussives, tuned and untuned, join in, the song takes on a more early Elvis Costello sound and feel.
"Nutjob is an instrumental that begins in a tight Canterbury fashion: whole band chord staccato progression before settling down into a pleasant kind of jazz beat to support trade off solos from horns, Farfisa organ & crazy synths, distorted and jagged guitars, tuned percussives.
"Forgotten Planet" is my favorite. It begins with flute and tight Stereolab-like rhythm bass with vocalist Melody Ferris's scatting Pascale Son (COS)-like. Wonderful Canterbury song!
"Dirty Spoons" begins with an acoustic guitar playing an arpeggiated chord sequence that is just heart-wrenchingly beautiful. Bandleader Bill Wolter is gradually joined by the rhythm section, keyboards and horns--which take over the presentation of the melodies on this awesome instrumental. Parts have an almost Acid Jazz feel to it, only without the house downbeat. Another favorite.
"25 Miles to Freedom" is notable for both its length (10:31) and its different jazz beat--like a kletzmer-meets-Philip-Glass or like the 1988 Pat Metheny-Steve Reich collaboration on "Different Trains." Melody Ferris's jazzy vocals aren't quite as warm or alluring on this one--and actually make it obvious that on this particular song it's the instrumental sections that are the standouts--like the violin, sax, and vibraphone trio in the seventh minute, or the STEELY DAN-like sax solo in minute number eight.
My favorite songs in which Melody's voice shine are the wordless "Forgotten Planet," "Missing The Train," "Oompah," "Knee," and "Rainbro."
The more I listen to this album, in a variety of locations, the more I think that this is, in fact, a masterpiece of progressive rock music. (My favorite listening venue thus far has been in the car, uninterrupted highway driving.) This could be slightly tainted by the fact that the album gets better and better with each song, but could be also because I am so craving upbeat, happy prog--kind of like what we lost with the fadeout of the Canterbury Scene.
4.5 stars rated up for clean brilliant fun and for resurrecting the refreshing, jazzy, Canterbury sound.
