The Big Takeover: Eivind Aarset 4-Tet - Phantamsagoria (or) A Different Sort of Journey (Jazzland) bigtakeover.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from bigtakeover.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
The Night Beat—Birthdays of the Swing-Era kuvo.org - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from kuvo.org Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Guns ‘N Roses and the
Psychedelic Furs – the latter also appears on the lush “English Country Garden.” The award for most surprising cameo goes to the psychedelic ballad “Euphoria,” which features ghostly guitar parts from avant jazz rocker
David Torn. Bassist
Simply Red, the
Mothmen and
Alberto Y Los Trios Paranoias and plays with Fabbri in his solo band, provides the low end throughout.
Despite all the high profile names here, however, the focus remains on the band itself – without Fabbri’s nicely crafted songs structures and Duffty’s forthright singing, there’d be nothing on which the musicians could appear. By the time we get to the second half of the record, the guest spots diminish, and the loss of star power on the brooding “Absolutely Dark,” the celebratory “Black Leather Jacket” and the dreamy “Rockin’ Into an Explosion” doesn’t hurt them in the slightest. Take away the guests and you’ve still got a well-produced, finely craf
Stefan Huth and
Chris Muir on touch guitar, 12-string, various processed, filtered and textural guitars, e-bow and, of course, plain old riffing and soloing. That’s not to mention the keyboards and percussion on top of the rhythm section and Thelen’s own multi-instrumental contributions.
On paper it sounds like an over-frosted three-layer cake about to topple, but in practice it’s far more elegant. Given how many elements each track contains, Thelen proves himself a master arranger as well as composer, never letting any tune sound stuffed to the gills. The space-rocking “Ladder to the Stars,” for example, sets up a circular groove over which Kaiser, Durant, Reuter, Muir and Thelen himself lay down parts. But there’s no locking of horns here – each player contributes his own bit to enhance the overall flow of the piece, rather than compete with his fellow players. That means some of them add in only brief licks, or come in and out as they feel they’re needed, or si