This is definitely not a disc that’s for everyone. It’s very freeform. At times it’s jazz like. At other points it’s more ambient. It’s always interesting and never gets boring, though. The lineup is Tim Motzer, Barry Meehan, Eric Slick and Theo Travis.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2010 Volume 5 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Shadow Memory
This is just a very brief and moody piece of ambience. It’s a little jarring at times.
The Departure
There are some elements remaining from the last piece, but a driving bass and other things bring some serious fusion to the table. This works through several alterations and changes and is quite a cool number.
Unraveling Here’s another strange piece of ambience.
Scratching the Third Eye This is the most random sounding piece we’ve heard so far. They take it out into some more rock-like territory as they continue. It changes and evolves slowly, but it evolves continuously. It turns a bit towards an odd blend of ambient, classical and psychedelic music. It takes on a real driving element later as it continues to build upward. It becomes rather King Crimson like further down the road.
Elevation
Sound effects and other elements are combined in a weird piece of music that takes on some jazz sounds later. This is sultry and smooth, but still tweaked and odd. Some of the mid-section here is based on backwards tracked oddities.
The Past Is Still Present
More freeform weirdness, there’s a lot of psychedelia here. Percussion takes on an ever more present role as this cut continues. There’s a cool guitar bit later that simulates an object moving away. This is very seemingly random. It rises towards noisier territory later. There’s a rather cacophonous jazz build up later. It serves to eventually end the piece.
Persistence of a Memory The closing number is both pretty and ambient.
