|
Keyboards from hell open this album in
order to set a certain atmosphere, an atmosphere which is soon
followed by the titletrack which again contains a similar approach
not in the least because of the ominous guitar accompanied by deadly
strings. But then the speed changes to overload and if this wouldn’t
be a CD I would have thought that the speed on my turntable was
wrong and I was playing a 33 rpm album at the single speed of 45 rpm
(or even the post war 78 rpm speed !). When the metallic sound of
the guitar is left behind and all concentration goes towards the
synths you could think for a minute that this is some new album by
Nathan Mahl. Another important instrument which pops out of the
arrangement is the superfast bass as performed here by Antoine
Fafard as kind of a John Myung replica.
It becomes clear that all musicians
know each other inside out enhancing every single rhythm break to
the fullest and exact to the very nanosecond. This of course is
pleasant to hear as in a way it is as if each of them plays his own
parts separately yet knowing it will meet the composition right on
time to be ‘together’ again with his fellow musicians. ‘Spaced in’
is a good example of this also incorporating choral sounds from
their bank of keyboards. In the intro for ‘Minor blast’ the band
treats itself to a healthy dose of ‘bass meets drums’ fireworks.
When I looked at who wrote the material on this album I was
surprised to learn that all songs were from the hand of bassplayer
Fafard but now I have heard the album plenty of times I’m no longer
surprised. This album is indeed heaven for all bassplayers with
Fafard becoming a progressive version of Stanley Clarke at times.
‘The thing’ could even be a Return to Forever song once again
putting all of the attention towards Fafard and his incredible
skills on the bass. ‘Bright space’ delivers an orchestral feel
before it introduces the jazzy approach of Eric St-Jean on piano
whom in turn mingles with the orchestral arrangement which delivers
another side of Spaced Out.
The final two tracks on this album are
seen as a ‘morning’ track (‘AM’) and an ‘evening’ track (‘PM’). Both
compositions also sport the collaboration of guest musician Ronald
Stewart on tenor saxophone. Of course any addition of a tenor sax
kind of automatically steers the music towards a pure jazz direction
which isn’t any different here. ‘Blue Ron Pipe AM’ even can be
categorised under the banner ‘freejazz’. ‘Blue Ron Pipe PM’ is more
structured with the drums setting the pace. However both pieces do
remain fairly ‘difficult’ pieces when compared to the rest of the
material on offer here. Spaced Out certainly proves to be a
collective of highly competitive musicians which also composition
wise have one or two things to say in the domain of instrumental
progressive rock ! |
