Namesake Caution

by Time of Orchids
Cuneiform Records, Silver Spring, MD, 2007
CD, Rune 257, $15 US
Distributor’s website: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com.

Biomasa

by Planeta Imaginario
Cuneiform Records, Silver Spring, MD, 2008
CD, Rune 268, $15 US
Distributor’s website: http://www.cuneiformrecords.com.


Reviewed by Michael R. (Mike) Mosher
Saginaw Valley State University, Michigan

mosher@svsu.edu



I really wanted to like a Time of Orchids, playing "Namesake Caution" in the classroom as my students labored to complete their final drawings of the semester. They seem like a bunch of smart guys who draw from an eclectic range of influences. We hear this in the slow burn of "In Color Captivating", the avowed vocal atonality in "Windswept Spectacle", or the Beach Boys harmonies in "Darling Abandon", clear voices applied to a harmonious melody.

Before erupting into overly-complicated progressive rock, the guitar in "Parade of Seasons" almost plays on the varsity team of Captain Beefheart's Magic Band. This makes sense, as bassist Jesse Krakow had been a member of Fast n' Bulbous: the Captain Beefheart Project, so should be versed in the old art-growler's fabric of simplicity and complexity. We hear the crying voices of early Yes, and despite a Big Rock noise, there is a gentleness to this track. Stop-time calls attention to empty spaces placed into the music, resulting in a Cubist fragmentation reminiscent of Frank Zappa at his most crafty and savvy. We hear voices again, the Beatlesque "ahhs..." heard in Badfinger, Tears for Fears, and World Party. Remember the creamy 1960s vocal pop group the Association? They might sound this fragmented, disassembled and disoriented-- "disAssociated"--if their punch had been heavily spiked by fierce psychedelic drugs.

"Meant (Hush Hush)" writhes in bathetic metal agonies upon its detuned guitar. Ten minutes of "We Speak in Shards" only added to the queasiness. "Entertainment Woes" also proved ragged and jagged. "Crib Tinge to Callow" has pop music parts like vocal harmonies and organ, but without the integuments of an engaging riff and steady beat. Then one of my art students nailed it when he said a Time of Orchids was "like Rush, but leaving us waiting for a hook". He then rushed to his truck to bring in a Rush CD, to the classroom's relief. The Stooges could have saved Time of Orchids a lot of trouble by urging them to promulgate feedback-drenched metal, but never, never to jettison a visceral and steady beat beneath it.

As an effervescent chaser, we then put on "Biomasa" ("Biomass") by the nine-year-old, eight-piece, jazz fusion combo from Barcelona, Spain called Planeta Imaginario. We are given two heavily processed voice transmissions, messages from "the Imaginary Planet" in outer space, and the now-spaced-out listener recalls Dr. Timothy Leary intoning how "you can be anything you want this time around". "Washington Sniper" sounds like a cool 1960s combo, or a 1970s "blaxploitation" TV thriller or cop show sporting a hot soundtrack. The gentle and friendly "Capture" features a guitar wah-wah pedal out of Jimi Hendrix, while the African beat of "Biomass" bubbles in the Nigerian High Life style of King Sunny Adé. Sax player Alfonso Muñoz studied in Havana's Instituto Supieror de Artes, and we can hear it. "Black Box" bristles with 1970s Funk-infused, rippling Fender Rhodes electric piano of Marc Capel.

"Today is a New Day" might fit the set of the quotidian American horn band Chicago. The final track's title translates into "Optical Delusions o a Bipolar Bear". It's a virtuosic communication between guitar and tumbling cascades of piano. Horns work their magic, organ and Big Rock drums build up to a big finish, like a lumbering bear in the town square pursued by Guardia Civil police. By promising less, and remaining less portentous and pretentious than Time of Orchids (while maintaining a goofy sense of humor), Planet Imaginario delivers more.