Nucleus - Elastic Rock

I honestly had never heard of Nucleus until a couple of years ago when I heard 'Elastic Rock', which blew me away.  Here was some music that was really right in my sweet spot - kinda jazz, kinda rock, very fluid with some nice improvisational touches.

Led by Trumpeter Ian Carr, Nucleus burst onto the music scene in 1970 with 'Elastic Rock'", their debut.  They proceeded to turn heads at the Montreux Jazz Festival that year, and closed out the year with their 2nd release 'We'll Talk About it Later'.

'Elastic Rock' has a great relaxed groove to it, mining territory somewhat similar to Miles' 'In a Silent Way' (one of my all-time favorite albums).  Relying a bit less on grooves and more on compositions, many of the tracks here flow seamlessly from one to another making the CDs 13 tracks feel more like a couple of extended song-suites.  There's no wankerrific soloing for the sake of soloing here, every note seems to make the right statement, and every solo seems last precisely as long as it should.

The title track floats along dreamily, while "Twisted Tune", based on a pretty simple riff that just sort of expands itself, has moments that remind of early 70's Dead - especially guitarist Chris Spedding's faux-pedal steel sound.  This is probably my favorite track on the CD.  "Torrid Zone" is another strong track, and probably is the closest echo of Silent Way on this album.  But really it's kind of meaningless to pick out favorite tracks here, they way the album was laid out makes it much less a collection of songs and more a cohesive 40 minute work.  It's a shame these guys didn't get more recognition on this side of the Atlantic.

'Elastic Rock' and 'We'll Talk About it Later' were re-released as a two for one package.  'We'll Talk About it Later' is excellent too - well the first 5 tracks are anyway, the last two feature some very ill-advised vocals.  Most of my music listening is done on my computer or on my iPod, but if I were a CD guy I'd take the first 5 tracks of 'We'll Talk About it Later' and burn it on a CD at the end of 'Elastic Rock' - that would be about 75 minutes of killer early fusion.

Elastic Rock:
01. 1916
02. Elastic Rock
03. Striation
04. Taranaki
05. Twisted Track
06. Crude Blues, Pt. 1
07. Crude Blues, Pt. 2
08. 1916 (Battle of Boogaloo)
09. Torrid Zone
10. Stonescape
11. Earth Mother
12. Speaking for Myself, Personally, In My Own Opinion, I Think…
13. Persephone’s Jive

Eivind Aarset - Sonic Codex

After lots of early '70s fusion/jazz over the last couple of weeks (the CTI box set, and healthy doses of Billy Cobham, Freddie Hubbard and some others) it was time to drag myself back into the current millennium.

Enter Norwegian guitarist Eivind Aarset.  I posted before about his excellent "Live Extracts" CD from last year.  Currently I'm diving into his 2008 release "Sonic Codex".  Many of the compositions on "Live Extracts" were originally released on "Sonic Codex", and the contrast between the studio and live treatments of the songs is very interesting.  Where "Live Extract"s excelled was in the use of dynamics, combining very quiet, ambient passages with insane industrial crescendos.  "Sonic Codex" on the other hand provides more in the way of varying textures, reigning in the dynamic range just a touch.

One of the things about Aarset's music that appeals to me the most is his ability to make his guitar sound like anything but a guitar.  (Here's some good information about his gear - I'd hate to have to set up / pack up that mess every night).

Being in the studio gives Aarset the flexibility to overdub in additional sounds/textures, and makes for a great listening experience - this is an excellent CD to listen to through headphones, especially those with a nice large soundstage.  The CD kicks off with "Sign of Seven," the guitar sounding like some sort of muted vibe or tuned PVC pipe before bulding to a powerful climax - if Robert Fripp tried to record something that was a bridge between his ambient "Soundscapes" and Crimson prog-rock it might sound something like this.  "Quicksilver Dream" tracks a more spacey/ambient path before the middle-eastern tinged "Drøbak Saray".  "Still Changing" effectively mixes in some banjo (ambient banjo!) while  "Black Noise/White Silence" takes the unique approach of starting out as an intense Hendrixian take on a free jazz type jam (with Wetle Holte's drums even sounding a bit like the Experience's Mitch Mitchell), before eventually dissolving into a serene ambient passage.  The CD closes with "Return of Black Noise" reprising  the imagery of "Black Noise/White Silence" before transitioning into "Murky Lambada".

I really enjoy all of Aarset's releases, but I think Sonic Codex may be his strongest effort yet.  It is available for online purchase in FLAC format at Gubemusic.com, or as a CD from Amazon.


1. Sign Of Seven
2. Quicksilver Dream
3. Drobak Saray
4. Cameo
5. Still Changing
6. Black Noise/ White Silence
7. Family Pictures Iii
8. Sleeps With Fishes
9. The Return Of Black Noise & Murky Lambada

Billy Cobham - Spectrum

After listening to much of the CTI box set a few times I'm still marveling at the versatility of Billy Cobham's drumming, sounding  right at home in a variety of styles.  That got me thinking about his great Spectrum CD, so I naturally had to drop that onto my iPod's playlist for this week.

Cobham assembled a terrific band for this 1973 release.  On keyboards is fellow Mahavishnu Orchestra member Jan Hammer, who in addition to some signature synth work provides stellar work on he Fender Rhodes.  On guitar is the late Tommy Bolin (the track "Le Lis" features John Tropea on guitar).  Bolin's playing is excellent throughout, with great tone and a fiery intensity when appropriate.  Rounding things out is Lee Sklar on bass, who lays down a solid foundation.  There are also guest appearances by Joe Farrell (soprano & alto saxophone, flute), Jimmy Owens (flugelhorn, trumpet), and Ron Carter (acoustic bass).

My personal favorite track is Stratus, the main riff is one of those things that I have trouble getting out of my head - in this case it's a good ear worm.  But there really are no weak tracks here, which is good as the disc clocks in at only 37 minutes.  And while Cobham is a tad more restrained here than he was with Mahavishnu Orchestra, he still cranks out some intense percussion.  This is a must have for fusion fans.


1.  Quadrant 4 — 4:20
2.  a.  Searching for the Right Door — 1:24
     b.  Spectrum — 5:09
3.  a.  Anxiety — 1:41
     b.  Taurian Matador — 3:03
4.  Stratus — 9:50
5.  a.  To the Women in My Life — 0:51
     b.  Le Lis — 3:20
6.  a.  Snoopy's Search — 1:02
     b.  Red Baron — 6:37

CTI Records - The Cool Revolution

I'm normally not a big fan of compilations - they too often feel like a patchwork.  But the new 4CD compilation "CTI Records - The Cool Revolution" is a welcome exception.

CTI records was formed in 1970, and for the better part of the decade was home to a number of big name jazz artists.  Jazz purists would probably dismiss much of the labels output as "commercial", while defenders would call it the body of work of jazz artists looking for ways to keep jazz relevant in a music scene that was increasing rock-oriented.  Stuart Nicholson's fine book "Jazz Rock - A History" does a good job looking at the changing jazz scene over the late 60's and early 70's, and covers many of the CTI artists.

The four discs are house in a vinyl-LP sized gatefold cover - a nice way to evoke the early 70's heyday of the label.  The front cover features 16 of the labels most famous album covers arranged in a grid, with another 16 on the back.  A nice booklet contains generous liner notes, including detailed information on each track (recording date, artists in the session, and a thumbnail of the album the track is from). The package is nothing short of superb.

CTI had a house sound due in part to Rudy Van Gelder's engineering on many of the sessions.  It's a testament to the "CTI sound" that these discs flow so nicely.  Between the consistency of the superb recording & engineering, and the fact that many of the artists played on each other's recording, there is a surprising level of cohesiveness to these discs.  These discs were remastered from the original analog tapes, and the sound is warm and inviting.

And then there is the music, because after all that's what it is all about.  The collection is broken into 4 discs: "Straight Up", "Deep Grooves/Big Hits", "The Brazilian Connection" and "Cool and Classic".  As with any collection there will always be room for disagreement about tracks selected vs. those left out, and I'm not familiar enough with the entire CTI catalog to be able to make those kinds of judgments.  All I can say is that there is a hell of a lot of good music here.  I have a handful of the albums that these selections were culled from, but this compilation has really piqued my curiosity about some of the other artists that I had certainly heard of, but haven't really heard much music by.  With so much good music I hate to just pick a few to highlight, but the alternative takes on Miles Davis' "So What" on Disc One (one by Ron Carter, the other by George Benson) show how differently artists can interpret the same piece.  Airto's rendition of "Return to Forever" has long been a favorite of mine.  New to me is Johnny Hammond's excellent take on Carole King's "It's Too Late".  Jim Hall's superb "Concierto De Aranjuez" closes the collection out, clocking in at 19:18 and worth every second.  And of course there's Deodato's hit with the funkified "Also Sprach Zarathustra".  (As an aside, I consider the use of "Zarathustra" in Hal Ashby's 1979 political satire "Being There" one of the most inspired uses of popular music in a movie ever.  If you've seen the movie you know the scene.  If you haven't, it's highly recommended and is probably Peter Sellers' finest performance).


Another potential surprise for some listeners is just how versatile a drummer Billy Cobham is.  He appears on a dozen of the 39 tracks, covering various genres with ease.  Anyone only familiar with Cobham from his pyrotechnic work with the Mahavishnu Orchestra should be duly impressed by his sensitive touch on some of these tracks.

Oh, and for Fender Rhodes lovers, this collection is the shit.

Here's an excellent, in-depth review on All About Jazz.

A+.