Mark Lettieri, Futurefun

Mark Lettieri? Good guitarist. Electric. Plays a prog sort of jazz-rock on his new album Futurefun (self-released). He's got some nice rythmic sensibilities and can come out with rapid-fire lines that end in a bluesy-rock territory but can get there in various ways, and he doesn't quite sound like anybody else.

It's a trio-quartet setting and a platform for Lettieri's good sense and interesting written launching pads. It's beyond cliche and it shows you what he's got, which is some chops but a musical mind that works in ways that make the music worth hearing. It's not technically astute fireworks in the end. It's music.

Here's a cat that's got something really nice going!

TriPod

TriPod? Yes. Here we have a trio in the realm of such ensembles as Morphine--sax, bass and drums with vocals. But they don't precisely sound like Morphine. It's a prog-fuse, song-centered hard fullness created by the presence of Clint Bahr on 12-string bass and lead vocals (a twelve-string bass is composed of the standard four strings on an electric bass, plus two-octave strands per regular string...so 4+8=12), Steve Romano on drums and percussion, and Keith Gurland on alto and tenor, clarinet, effects and backing vocals. All this on their self-titled album just out on MoonJune (MJR004).

The music is somewhere in the realm of King Crimson progressivity, in its own special way. There are hard-edged, intricate arrangements, prog song niceties and a program that combines the two elements in judiciously balanced contrasts.

Clint Bahr's bass playing has a fullness that might make you think there's a guitar in there as well, but there isn't. He's playing the 12-string so that the bass and chordal possibilities come out strongly. Keith Gurland's saxophony is well-suited for the music and gives the music the second melodic voice in the ensemble that fleshes it all out. Steve Romano plays a LOT of drums as is fitting, and that sounds great too.

The songs-vocals put it all in focus. This is some heavy prog that should not be missed if you like the edgy Crimsonian thrust as I do.

And Clint's 12-string bass alone is a listen in itself. It's first-rate prog-fuse in any event.

Marbin, Last Chapter of Dreaming

Marbin does prog-fuse. Their second album, The Last Chapter of Dreaming (MoonJune 050) shows a very instrumentally sound bunch of folks. They can play well, especially Dani Rabin on guitar, and they do. It's a quartet w/ Danny Markovitch on sax, Justyn Lawrence, drums, Jae Gentile, bass, plus special guests like Paul Wertico on drums and my old roomie from Boston, gone on to great things, Jamey Haddad on percussion.

This is a band that has tightness and name recognition among some because they are always touring. They also appear to be MoonJune's most popular artists in terms of sales.

I of course am happy for them!

As far as this album goes, there mostly is a full-out rockin instrumental prog thing going on. Some of the originals seem a little too pedestrian for my tastes--meaning they have a simple tunefulness that sometimes gets closer to a soundtrack or Herb Albert on acid than I feel personally comfortable with.

And that's to say that the appeal of this music may be more universal and less selective. It's more commercial than the prog-fuse that gets me rolling, truth to tell.

Nonetheless there are folks who are going to like this alot. And it's no fault of the quality of the musicians here. Just tunes that don't get to me personally. If you like edge, this is less of that. If you hate edge, you'll probably dig this one a great deal.

All the best to them!

A Debut Recording by DouBt

Some reviews nearly write themselves, usually because the music is on a wave-length that for me is almost intuitive and second nature. The debut recording by DouBt, Never Pet A Burning Dog (MoonJune) I find to be of that sort.

DouBt makes its way imaginatively between the cleavage of the progressive rock and the fusion realms. It is rooted partly in Canterbury school sounds, but equally in the general aesthetic found in the outer rock and fusion realms of the peak late psychedelic period. It builds upon such foundations to create a music that does not sound dated, nostalgic or overtly derivative.

The band's background helps explain why that is so. The core group is the trio of Alex Maguire on keys, an important member of Hatfield and the North; Michel Delville on guitar, lately of Wrong Object and Elton Dean; drummer Tony Bianco, who has been with Dave Liebman among others. They are joined by another Canterbury artist, guest musician Richard Sinclair, on vocals and bass for a number of tracks.

The music has good compositional ideas (band originals and one nicely rearranged Terje Rypdal piece), a few evocative vocals and excellently driving, outside instrumental prowess. This is a group sound but both Macguire and Delville get a chance to expound some of their considerable improvisational abilities. Bianco can skitter freely or dig deep for a rock groove. Sinclair's bass goes well with it all on the numbers where he appears.

What's most important about this recording to me is the fact that the music takes a stylistic point of view that doesn't shy away from blazingly heated, trailblazing butt-kicking. It excels in putting across a modern post-before kind of music that combines electrical power with instrumental subtlety. It not only promises much for the band's future, it already delivers the first instalment of what it does promise. An excellent album on all levels.