Marc Edwards & Slipstream Time Travel, Planet X Just Blew Up!

Today, as promised a few days ago, we take a look at the second part of Marc Edwards's virtual double-album release. This one is with his Slipstream Time Travel ensemble, a slightly larger group than the three guitars and drums quartet Sonos Gravis, the ensemble responsible for the other part of this double-dip into a cosmic ice cream multi-electric flavoring. This second foray is humorously titled Planet X Just Blew Up! (APCD-R4A/Dog and Panda 7).

For this outing we once again have Ernest Anderson III and Takuma Kanaiwa on very electric guitars, joined this time by Tor Snyder. Then there is Gene Janas on bass and Lawry Zilmrah on "bicycle wheel electronics." Of course Marc is on drums throughout and wrote the compositions that launch the band into space.

The guitars and bass open the set with an atmospheric, expanded free-flowing electricity on "Dark Space." All hell, so to speak, breaks loose on the title cut, with Marc charging forward with hugely kinetic energetic barrages, the full band giving you psychedelic free jazz-rock density and intensity. The guitars get a furious head of steam that Marc pushes forward with an insistence that especially works with his all-over sense of sound and full-out virtuosity. This is psycho-bashing at its finest.

For the finale we have "Suspended Animation," a Latin-Afro-out groove that hits on all cylinders with rhythmic heat and some very fine guitar work.

Marc has been experimenting for a number of years around the city in an electric free rock context. It all comes to an exhilarating, bracing fruition on these two new albums. If you had to choose, Planet X is probably the one to get. But why choose? They are both parts of a whole and make sense against each other. So grab them both for the maximum impact. Heavy business!