INTERSTELLAR OVERTROVE

Remember Wardenclyffe: Nikolai Tesla's old power plant/research lab on Long Island? Jason Bauers, Colin Marston, and Mike Lerner have restored it, moved in, and are using it as a recording studio! And this is what comes out of them when they play there!

1. "Hot for Emotions" (4:15) solo Simmons drums opening. Sounds like the arrival of an army of programmed robot foot soldiers. Warr guitar (with touch-tone bass notes) and microtonal guitar join in to give this musical experience other otherworldly dimensions. It's not until the 90-second mark that anything resembling 20th Century rock 'n' roll joins in--which comes in the form of a Joe Satriani-Steve Vai-like electric guitar lead. It's as if these guys have taken Tony Levin and Bill Bruford (or Trey Gunn and Pat Mastelotto) another step into the future--beyond even Les Claypool and Adrian Belew or Stephen Thelen and Sonar. At least on this one the drums often sound familiar albeit synthetic. (Thanks Bill Bruford for preparing my ears and brain for the likes of this music--and the onslaught that is to come!) (8.75/10)

2. "Def Lepton" (3:31) the comparisons to King Crimson's 1980s album output--both in terms of brain-shattering music and the overall effect on the state of music as we know it--may not be far-fetched. There are few melodies here--except for the occasional sustained chord. It's as if someone had the ability to render the night-time movement of mice in the walls of an old home that is heated by woodstove or kitchen hearth in the middle of winter. The synthetic drums are the scurring, the high speed microtonal Warr guitar play the time-elapse photography, and the occasional chord or musical note the recordings of their telepathic conversations. (8.75/10)

3. "Insane in the 11th Membrane" (3:22) more rodent scurrying, this time a rendering of their nocturnal activity in the barn out back, as related from the predatory perspective of the observant house cat (the gentle, slow-timed guitar chords). I like the "Love Supreme" guitar chords (yes, that Love Supreme!) around the two-minute mark as well as the Mark Isham synth chord progressions at the end of the third minute. My favorite (if one could call it that). (8.875/10)

4. "Time-Denier" (5:54) Starting with the atmospheric Vangelis Blade Runner tribute of the opening 30 seconds, this a more musical presentation with odd, unpredictable--even, at times, jazz-ambient (in an ADRIAN BELEW-kind of way), though discordant--guitar chord progressions over/within which RoUS (Rodent of Unusual Size) Jason Bauers scurries and stops, scurries and stops. Weirdness. (8.75/10)

5. "Speculated.Inflated.Transparent" (2:59) Jason Bauers' Southeast Asian cave water torture and bat therapy is interrupted in the second minute by a genuinely human King Crimsonian jam, but then, after the humans pass through, the native creatures return to their favorite activities. (8.75/10)

6. "Echoes of Deletion" (Instrumental) (7:34) genuine man-made percussives intermixed with guitar-MIDIed tuned percussion sounds. this is easily the most accessible and relaxing song on the album. It's still non-Western: more like drug-induced/altered Gamelan/world music--like stubling upon a chance encounter of a secret coven of Gamelan players warming up and/or trancing each into their own inner dimensions. Luckily, I love (and find fascinating as well as soul-soothing) Gamelan! Another top three song. I need to see the sheet music to this one! (13.25/15)

7. "SETI: The Search for Entertaining Terrestrial Incompetence" (7:21) If there's ever been a tribute to--or continuation/variation of--KING CRIMSON's famous "Indiscipline," this is it--or maybe more aptly put: "Indiscipline 12.0" (Does this, by default--and taking the only-slightly-hidden reference to the increasingly organised effort that has been actively searching for signs of extraterrestrial life since the days of Nikolai Tesla--mean to imply that Sirs Robert of Fripp and William of Bruford and their trusted squires--foreign-both, both--were receiving interstellar signals--or even guidance?--back in 1981?) The only things missing are crazed self-obsessed "stream-of-consciousness" lead vocals and the oddly beguiling-yet-cloying, sedating and disarming background vocals.) (13.3333/15)

Total Time 34:56

I'm not sure if even the likes of Dmitri Shostokovich, György Legeti, Olivier Messiaen, Frank Zappa, Robert Fripp, Bill Nelson, Chris Cutler, Gérard Hourbette, Daniel Denis, Claudio Milano, or Francesco Zago could imagine the kind of music these guys are creating. Despite the initial astonishment and lingering awe, I'm just not sure how much long-term pleasure I would ever be able to derive from this music. Personally, I prefer more melody, harmony, and Western flow. This music rarely has any of those. (In fact, it's only when they throw me a little bone--give me some familiar sound, Western melody, or diatonic with its chords--that I find myself engaging, relaxing, and enjoying a bit of this music.) So, while I can recommend this for any adventurous prog lover to try out for themselves, I do so with a caution warning: if you were born before Y2K it is highly unlikely that you will understand much less enjoy that which you hear when you listen to this album--unless, of course, you been able to keep your mind open (and your brain plastic) beyond the course of your 25+ years.

I have to admit that over time, with repeated listens (I've gone through four times now), the woven sounds of these songs have grown on me: I now think I hear music (though it may be more familiarity: the unguent of the Central Nervous System and enabler of species adaptation and, thus, survival)--some of which I'm actually starting to like!

B/four stars; while I will not recommend this amazing album to everyone (those of you with heart conditions or nervous disorders please beware!), I do think every self-identifying "prog lover" should expose themselves to this music. Like 1981's Discipline by King Crimson, this album may portend the discovery by the James Webb Space Telescope the birth of a new galaxy beyond the hither-to-now accepted boundaries of our known Universe.

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