LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT

Frenetic mad beginning reminiscent of intro to a cut scene from the corny original Batman TV series - I kid you not. Quickly settles into heavy duty drum action and guitar virtuosity. Sounds like a group of Ritalin -deprived ADHD sufferers has been unleashed in a music store. 'Paradigm Shift' is the first track and and after all that excitement it slows right down before finally rediscovering the accelerator right at the end. 'Osmosis' ,the second track, has an African sounding opening and develops slowly,building layer upon layer,into a nice relaxing instrumental but nothing special to my mind. 'Kindred Spirits' is better,a more focused instrumental which is satisfying without being too memorable. 'The Stretch' is funkier and has excellent playing evident throughout. These guys can play their chosen weapons thats for sure. 'Freedom of Speech' sounds like Satriani in places and has excellent keyboard,guitar and drum parts. 'Chris and Kevins excellent adventure' is pretty tongue in cheek and not much more. 'State of Grace' has a nice piano intro with subtle electric guitar phrasing,it could have been lifted from the movie 'Local Hero',I can see the beautiful Scottish landscape now. 'Universal Mind' has more focus,superlative musicianship and it sounds as though the band are having fun with this one,hell they might even be in the same room as each other! A jokey big-top circus ending does'nt even ruin it. 'Three minute warning' predictably runs to over four minutes and draws the album to a close. More excellent playing without being a winner. This album has a collection of extremely talented people playing together. I think it took a second album for them to harness their collective prowess.