LOOKING THRU

Sit back, fasten your seatbelts, and get ready to enjoy my all-time favorite Passport album.

1. "Eternal Spiral" (3:59) complex and cruisin' (8.875/10)

2. "Looking Thru" (7:58) smooth yet intricate with an AWESOME funky second motif in the middle. Go Wolfgang Schmid! (14.5/15)

3. "Zwischenspiel" (1:31) a wonderful acoustic guitar solo with piano accompaniment. (5/5)

4. "Rockport" (3:31) clavinet and unusual synth sounds with pulsing near-Disco beat coming from the rhythm section over which Klaus' multi-saxes belt it out. Very poppy but infectious. (8.875/10)

5. "Tarantula" (3:48) prolonged effected-saxophone squirts panning across the sonic field with minimal support from the rest of the band eventually results in a quite wonderfully bombastic sax opening which signals the release of the funky bass, drums, and clavinet beneath. A little too cheesy-radio friendly with its many hooks there are some seriously innovative ideas here. I'm so glad Klaus chooses a tenor sax for most of his work--including background playing. (9.25/10)

6. "Ready for Take Off" (4:47) opens like something from an RTF album--that hasn't come out yet--before dialing in on a bluesy-teasy jazz-lite tune. Klaus once again shows his wonderfully flamboyant mastery of so many tricks one can play on a saxophone. The "flute" synth melody line in the "chorus" is definitely an earworm; the keyboard work overall is amazing. Mega kudos Kristian Schulze! (9/10)

7. "Eloquence" (5:12) more experimental play with odd synth sounds before drummer Curt Cress joins in. The two actually make for a great duet--but then the bass and other keys join in--as does Klaus on his soprano sax--gathering momentum in a cool jazz motif with great keyboard and bass playing among the sophisticated key and chord changes. An excellent jazz-rock fusion tune that definitely falls more to the jazz side than some of the other stuff on the album. (9.33333/10)

8. "Things to Come" (2:45) more weird synth-generated sound explorations before the full band, in a very muted-top end form, enters in a driving rock-like motif to support a frenetic and very loose jam from multiple saxophones. Kind of cool! (8.875/10)

Total Time 33:31

Does Klaus and his Passport crew get enough credit? I don't think so. There is a lot of pandering to the listener going on yet the music never fails to be sophisticated and dextrous--and definitely jazzy or funky most of the time.

A/five stars; though a little schlocky and syrupy at times, this is definitely a collection of highly-skilled performances of some very clever and ingenious compositions and ideas. I cannot diminish the masterful music here.

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