Transatlantic, Kaleidoscope

If you are in the spacey prog-psych rock zone today or feel the need for something new in that realm though it may not be your current steady fare, Transatlantic may be just the thing--specifically the album Kaleidoscope (Radiant 15278-2).

It combines some of the hardness of progmetal with the intricate compositional-arranging and instrumental acuity of the classic middle-period Floyd, Yes, Crimson, Genesis and the like.

Now to do that without sounding like a clone of those bands isn't easy but Transatlantic pulls it off. The quartet gets a very integrated sound out of the lineup--Roine Stolt on guitars and vocals, Pete Trewavas on bass and vocals, Neal Morse on keys and vocals, and Mike Portnoy on drums and vocals.

This is their fourth studio album; they have been at it off and on since 2000, and their group dynamic by now is palpable. You can feel it.

So they run through some very nice originals that have that long-form medley-thematic extendedness that lets you float along indefinitely.

It's one of those albums that convinces you that art-psych-prog rock is far from dead. And that should tell you something of the quality here. Nice!

A Psych Tribute to the Doors

When I was growing up if you didn't like the Doors you were stuck. Their music played everywhere, on AM and FM radio, at your friend's house, at parties, coming out of storefronts, at high-school dances, just everywhere. I bought their first album when it first came out, long before it was immanent, present in all places at most times. I took to the music right away. Morrison was the real thing, the words had clout, the band was excellent, and the songs stuck with you. It was poetic and driving, mysterious-avant and rootsy, life-affirming but on a death trip, rebellious yet a repository of tradition, a bundle of contradictions that the age responded to as to a lost relative.

Well and of course there is a point of saturation, when you are not sure that more is better. But then Jim died. And that ended it.

So we exist still. Humanity, I mean. And the music still sounds fresh. A compilation that's been out for a little bit confirms that, with 13 bands doing 13 of the Doors' gems with full psychedelic flourish, A Psych Tribute to the Doors (Cleopatra Records CLP 1556).

It's the Black Angels and 12 other bands, each getting a certain leverage on a song icon and travelling with it into space. At the end of the space is a garage, for this is garage psych in its own way, mostly all of it.

In the halcyon days of youth all the bands locally played a Door tune or more than one for a while. And much of it sounded something like this in the high school gym, sort of. We lived in a world pretty far removed from Ozzie Nelson and his pancakes then. Our parents, most of them, didn't get it. I feel sorry now about that. Turns out Ozzie-ism came back with a vengeance later, and we did not collectively levitate. But then the Doors and their sound have returned too. Post-surf guitars, Farfisa organs, deep echo, it's stayed around underground and surfaced in various places to good effect. This anthology forms a good part of all that.

No better evidence than on these tracks. They sound in no way dated. New life is breathed into them by pushing them a little further into the psych zone than they were originally, for the most part. But then the Raveonettes take "The End" and give it less push and more lyricism, so go figure.

That is of no importance in the wider scheme. This is music that breathes fire again. It reminds you why the Doors were so strong. Songs!! The songs were the thing...though Jim made us believers by his sheer charisma.

So get all the Doors albums too, but check this one out. It's worth it. Very cool.

NOPAL, Jean-Marc Foussat and Simon Hénocq

Some days it seems enough to get people's name right, find a cover image, get the title typed correctly and...time for a nap! Seriously though that is not what I am about on these pages. Today it's time for some avant duets between synthesizer and skronky electric guitar, as put forward by Jean-Marc Foussat and Simon Hénocq, respectively. The duo and/or the album is entitled NOPAL (FOU CD 03).

It's edgy avant, sometimes noisy, sometimes surprisingly subdued, but always creative and very electric/electronic. Now I have no idea what segment of the population finds this kind of music interesting other than me, but there must be a fair number since I get readers when I review music such as this.

So what gets me especially interested is the thickly textured complexities that result when Hénocq's guitar comes through fully overloaded or distinctly foregrounded doing something Syd Barrett got fired for doing too much of live with Pink Floyd. That is, this sort of guitar abstractionism coupled with Foussat's creative synthesizer striations and strangulations.

You get 42 minutes of it, all interesting, and I believe you can get it on LP or CD. These are imaginative sound sculptors. If you go for noisy and ever-shifting sound complexes, like your electric guitars on occasion to be played with psychedelic irreverence, this is definitely for you.

Noel Johnston, Salted Coffee

There are some albums you put on for the first time and...Wham! From the first couple of notes on you just know there are some heavy doings in store. And then the album lives up to it.

That's pretty much how I felt from the first moments of hearing guitarist Noel Johnston and his album Salted Coffee (Armored Records 8039). This is highly charged, highly electric fuse-metal that hits hard and has smarts too.

Noel Johnston shows himself an exciting, blazing electric guitarist here with an overdriven sound, some pretty amazing line building chops when he is nailing it and an overall feel that drives you out of your seat, I suppose you could say. He's joined by game power trio members Jason "JT" Thomas on drums and Jeff Plant on bass, both right there where they should be. Shaun Martin and Greg Beck guest on keys and percussion, respectively, for a couple of tracks, but otherwise it's just the trio hard at work.

Noel has some really good ideas and he puts them across--like turning Joe Henderson's "Inner Urge" into metal. And it happens! There are lots of nice tunes Noel wrote and they set up the trio and the guitar coolness with a flair.

He is different enough that he doesn't sound like he is channeling anybody as much as recreating the advanced metal thing and driving it into his own orbit. He comes up with power chords that are refreshing and unexpected and he lines with very musical results.

So that's it. This is one for metal heads who want something further, who are sick of the cliches and would welcome a fresh set of ideas. That's what you get here!

Keith Jarrett, Charlie Haden, Last Dance

The death of bass-master, leader, seminal new jazzman Charlie Haden has been having something of a delayed effect on me. As the days go by I think more and more of the wealth of gifts he has given us, as Ornette Coleman's original and most original bassist, as a leader of the wonderful Liberation Music Orchestra, as the bassist in Keith Jarrett's bands through the early seventies, and in myriad other contexts this was an artist whose impact was perhaps subtle but thoroughly penetrating.

He was a bassist with a one-of-a-kind sound born of an enormous tensile grip, with the biggest, woodiest tone of anyone after 1960, nevertheless wholly HIS sound, with a deliberate, perfect intuitive sense of what to play whether it was harmolodic Ornette and the kaleidoscope of multiple key centers, the adventuresome post-Ornette of Keith's first bands, the diversity of his own music or just plain old bop and changes. He excelled and was himself at all times. He showed us that strength can top speed when it's inspired.

And now he is gone. That's hard to bear. But we have his recordings.

As a kind of final gesture of musical impact, we have a somewhat surprising release, a reunion with his old leader, Keith Jarrett, doing a series of deeply felt standards in duet, Last Dance (ECM 2399 B0020803). It's just Charlie and Keith in the latter's Cavelight Studios, getting together one more time.

This album is not about flash, about velocity, though there is a bit of it here and there. Charlie's playing was never that anyway. But Keith too is in a subdued mood. Each carefully pick their notes, try and make the most out of the old chestnut tunes, and they surely succeed.

"Goodbye", the final cut, moves with the hindsight that this WAS goodbye for Charlie, one of them anyway. But in any event the entire album has that perfect concentration on essentials. No, this isn't Keith the technical wizard at work, not primarily. He and Charlie are playing for themselves, getting inside the songs, not playing for the big auditorium or the cutting contest.

After you listen a few times it hits you. This is not about anything but what notes they lay down on top of the classic standard song structures. And they try and make it count.

It's a moving testament to an old musical relationship that created magic most every time out, to the fundamentals of jazz expression.

So long and thanks so much, Charlie. You gave us so much and we are grateful.

Tim Morse, Faithscience

Tim Morse has something. On his second album Faithscience (Amethyst Edge Productions 42001) you hear it consistenly. It's a set of 11 originals with a prog-fuze through-composed kind of eclectic yet somehow original brilliance. Tim sings, plays keys and guitars, Jerry Jennings plays a nice electric guitar, Gordon Stizzo drums with hardness and sensitivity, Jim Diaz plays bass, Mark Dean appears here and there on drums, bass and guitar, and then there are various guests including some strings and brass now and again.

The arrangements and the songs have a fully composed, tightly drawn-together solidity that you might expect from great prog-fuze but do not always get. Here Morse gives you the full magilla of noteful passage in a sea of lyric expressivity.

This is a prog landmark of sorts. It isn't going to convert prog-haters but it will be manna for prog-lovers.

Tim is a real talent out there.

Paul O'Dette, My Favorite Dowland, Lute Music of John Dowland

I sometimes agonize over where best to put a review posting. Where would it have the most impact? Which set of readers needs to know about this release over and above the others? It's never easy but I am confident that today's post here is where it belongs. John Dowland (1563-1626) was hands-down the master of composing for the lute. His lute pieces span the centuries and speak to us as vividly and touchingly as ever. Anyone who either plays or loves to hear the guitar should have exposure to the lute classics, partly because they are a treasure, partly because the musical techniques and melodic brilliance of great lute music should be heard for the insights they give on what is possible on a fretboard.

So given that, I must also say that lutenist Paul O'Dette is one of our contemporary masters, a player of nearly infinite poise and expressivity. So when he records My Favorite Dowland (Harmonia Mundi 907515), it is an occasion.

My expectations were high when I first put this one on, and I was not disappointed. This is a wonderful compilation of extraordinary lute music, played with the masterful touch of Paul O'Dette.

Now I am not the guy to tell you what to do, but this would be an indispensable volume for anybody who reads this column with any regularity. It's a gem of brilliance! I testify to it. It glows as it gives you the Dowland lute complexities and genius the way they were meant to flow. Kudos!