SUN ROTATION

Always crashing in the same car

The fusion world is a strange one. It can be suave and smooth like a baby´s bottom - taking you on a melody filled trip through soft lingering jazzy landscapes, but then again you just might end up with a record that is all chops and no sauce - with terrorizing musicianship thrown around in all directions with not a tune in sight. Sun Rotation is something in between, and as much as I hate the latter form of fusion, I´ll also admit that sometimes this manic approach does work wonders - Herbie and Miles are both proof of that.

Sun Rotation is a weird beast, and sometimes I wonder if all the tracks are played by the same musicians, or if they after the first cut simply decided to eat some LSD with their mashed potatoes and gravy, - because WOW - let me tell you, this music reeks of gravy... The first track is a dandy little fusion track, that keeps it´s arms and legs in the trolley - the kind of track that opens the door for an elderly lady and eats with its mouth closed. Perfect manners, melodic aspirations and wonderfully executed in every way. Reminds me of early Brand X somehow.

And then the mayhem starts! Swoosh! Have you ever wondered what Faust would sound like, if they had been comprised of jazz musicians? If so, let me introduce you to Association P.C. In fact, let me introduce anybody who´s interested in fusion with emphasis on the jazz part of the equation, Canterbury, Krautrock and improvisation all wrapped up in one big hefty pile. The first time I listened to this album, I couldn´t quite fathom why it was part of the (in)famous Nurse With Wound list, but then I reached the second track, and everything now seemed clear as vodka. I will say, that for an album included in this wild and crazy list, the overall feel of the music here and how it comes across, is something I think many people around these parts would appreciate, and that´s without having to convert their beliefs to the more porous and bizarre end of the avant seas.

To paint a better picture of the music here, then let me be your guide through that second track, which incidentally is divided up in several movements. Oh yeah! Gotta be something there for the prog head!! This little excursion is very much representative of what you can expect from this astonishing little album.

It´s aptly called Suite and starts out with some rather cacophonous jamming with the different instruments falling elegantly all over each other in what seems like a musical edition of a women´s mud wrestling match performed on guitar, upright bass, drums and a mixture of piano and organ. At some point the music pulls itself together - and feels like it´s been through a regular storm, only to be metamorphosed into an entirely different beast: the organ turns evil in an eccentric and freakish way - sounding like a derailed version of a circus melody spinning around its own axis. The rhythm section on the other hand turns solid and groovy balancing things out nicely - just in time for the electric piano to take off on a pulverizing ride over stock and stone. This piano player knows what he´s doing, that´s for damn sure. Abruptly the focus is turned to the drums for an earthshaking rhythmic hubbub, before the whole track takes the form of a runaway car violently crashing into a children´s percussion store, and rattles, bongos and eggs are flying all over the place in one big explosion. Ending this musical mayhem is (and I might be mad at this point) the distinct buzzing of a giant insect - genetically combined with the store´s ringing alarm.

If anybody out there is thinking: Wow this doesn´t sound like Yes at all. That´s because it doesn´t. It emanates musical facets such as you will find in freejazz and Canterbury, and beneath these leading trades of it, I sense an electronic infused Krautrock layer to it. This might be down to the man who´s behind the engineering of this album, and that´s Conny Plank. It is far from being up front and in your face, but these swarming, sizzling electronics are certainly there to form some sort of cribbly crawley foundation, and who else does this kind of thing better than Plank?

I wholeheartedly recommend this album to fans of Soft Machine, early Weather Report, Wolfgang Dauner´s Et Cetera and Exmagma. This is music that tears down the walls of conformity and punches you directly in the nose with everything it´s got! It´s free and it´s music! 4.5 stars.

I can't say Free Jazz does a lot for me and this album flirts with it throughout but somehow it works. A four piece band of bass, guitar, organ, electric piano and drums and each member composed two tracks each. Interesting as I though maybe some of these were improvs, done in the studio. Speaking of the studio, Conny Plank engineered this baby released back in 1971. This is studio album number two of the three they recorded. They released a couple of live ones as well.

"Idee A" opens with laid back electric piano then it kicks in before a minute with the bass and drums dominating before the guitar joins in. The electric piano is the most prominent instrument here although the guitar will lead for a bout a minute. "Scorpion" opens with atmosphere and experimental sounds that will go on for some time. Random drumming and tuneless sounding guitar eventually join in then electric piano. This is Free Jazz sounding. So not very melodic at all. Violin sounds and atmosphere late as it winds down and blends into the next song.

"Neuteboom" might be my favourite. Percussion and organ dominate the sound then the electric piano starts to solo over top then guitar after 2 1/2 minutes. It blends into "Scorcussion" where a drum solo takes over quickly. Distorted guitar before 3 minutes then electric piano which becomes discordant. Insanity! A calm before 5 minutes then pulsating sounds end the three song suite.

"Silence" is a brief uptempo piece of piano, drums and guitar sounding crazy at best. "Don Paul" opens with a bass solo before guitar and shuffling drums arrive around a minute. Not very melodic. "Totemism" is the almost 17 minute epic on here. Nice guitar intro as drums and piano start to come and go. Bass and a beat join in before a minute as the organ arrives then some guitar. This one seems to trip along as each guy seems to be doing his own thing(haha). A calm arrives before 7 1/2 minutes. Soon it speeds up with drums, electric piano and bass as the guitar comes and goes. Another calm before 15 minutes.

"Frau Theunissen" is the short closer. It opens with organ sounds I believe along with drums as electric piano joins in then guitar. Hey this is melodic and it sounds great! All one minute of it. Still I really like this one as these guys really know how to play and despite the Free Jazz vibe it's an album I really enjoy.

Another go round with Pierre, Toto, Jasper, and, this time, all Siggi (who's picked up the electric bass). After the previous year's Earwax, I am very excited!

1. "Idee A" (4:30) engineered far more toward the accentuation of the electrified elements of the music than anything on Earwax (8.75/10)

2. "Suite": a) "Scorpion" (6:47) spacey experimental soundscapes of a 2001: A Space Odyssey-like cinematic disorder opens up this suite as everyone in the band busies themselves with some unrestricted free-form play--yet there is a flow and tempo and even the shadows of some structural elements including harmony and interplay. The second half goes (13.25/15) b) "Neuteboom" (5:42) buoyed by a very repetitive bass and circus-organ arpeggio line, guitar and electric piano are sent soloing while drummer and bandleader Pierre Courbois messes around with perfect timing beneath. Interesting--and a little annoying after five minutes of the same bass line--though not quite so much when Toto and Jasper begin to try to weave their way into the bass and organ's line. (8.75/10) c) "Scorcussion" (5:56) Pierre is left alone to express on his drum kit. At the end of the third minute of Pierre's soloing Toto starts to inject some noise burst from his fuzz guitar while Jasper adds a spray of chords, flourishes, and crazed hits from his electric piano. At the end of the fifth minute everybody backs off to zero before Toto is given space for some target practice for his alien space ray gun. Despite my understanding the band's effort to take Herbie Hancock's spacey experimentation further, this is just not my cup of tea. (8.5/10)

3. "Silence" (0:18)

4. "Don Paul" (3:09) more jagged, angular jazz musings and exercises in cohesion and cooperation, this one opens a little too aggressively and then just as suddenly and quickly moves into a solo of Siggi's double bass. Eventually, he's joined by brushed drums and dissonant chord play from Toto's un-effected guitar. These guys are obviously so comfortable and proficient at their instruments that they can easily and smoothly do just about anything, but this is not the type of musical listening that I choose to come back to: there's just too much of the crazy Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency! avant garde experimentation going on here for my liking. (8.375/10)

5. "Totemism" (16:45) These guys are obviously so comfortable and proficient at their instruments that they can easily and smoothly do just about anything, but there's just a little too much of the crazy Tony Williams Lifetime Emergency! avant garde experimentation going on here for my liking. (Didn't I already say that?) Luckily, about two minutes into it the quartet gels into a forward-moving, single-direction motif over-and within which all of the individual musicians still find the freedom to move about and pave their own way. Having heard enough of Toto Blanke's guitar playing now to appreciate his skills, I have to say that when he plays like this--like 1960s jazz guitar with an experimental edge-- I am not a fan: impressed, yes, but not a fan. Jasper van't Hof is experimenting with way too much distortion on his electric piano which gives it a very "dirty" sound than I also do not like. This would probably be a very fun song to experience in a live jazz club scene but it is really not my kind of jazz (or jazz-rock fusion)--and here they're forcing 17-minutes of it down my throat! (30.375/35)

6. "Frau Theunisse"n (1:10) a FOCUS-like jam that seems to be coming out of some other jam (it's faded in to get started) but then is over far too quickly. (4.5/5)

Total time 44:17

B-/3.5 stars; a very good display of experimental, loosely-performed avant garde electrified jazz that feels like a detour down the wrong (but, I get it: necessary) direction. Check it out for yourself but this is no album that I will return to soon--maybe ever.