OUT OF NOWHERE

Being a huge fan of White Fort, I have a love-hate relationship with this album. On the one hand, it has the virtuoso performances and intense melodies that I expect (and love) from their music. On the other, I personally find the addition of other musicians distracting. White Fort has an incredible sound on its own--hearing other instruments almost dilutes the experience.

However, if your album MUST have a detrimental aspect, that's not a bad one to have: Too Much Amazing Talent. Cry me a river, huh?

The album opens with "Outpost Radio," performed by "classic" White Fort: Yuriy Matveyev jamming on electric guitar and Artyom Yakushenko shredding the electric violin. The next track adds the late Michael Brecker on saxophone and Mino Cinelu on percussion. I suppose Brecker's fans will probably see that as an improvement--beautiful music is, after all, in the ear of the beholder.

The tracks continue to alternate between White Fort playing alone, or with additional musicians or vocals. The genres vary considerably--Russian folk, lively jazz, Latin salsa, Jewish dance, hard rock. White Fort is not distinguished by genre--they cross all clique lines in the music world. Their signature is their performance itself: no matter what kind of music, they don't just play it, they PWN it.

A few bits of trivia: Track 14, "Evidence of Things Not Seen," is a remix (with addition of percussion and vocals) of the song "Sad Heart," which was introduced to Western audiences on their demo CD, "Out of the Woods." Track 15, "Searching for Power," comes from an unreleased concept album, "Enigma of Basalt Figurines." The album was inspired by a science fiction novel, "The Mind Parasites," by Colin Wilson.