STEVE TIBBETTS

"Ur" is actually my favourite track on here. Acoustic guitar and percussion lead the way early and there's atmosphere as well. But when the mellotron arrives after 2 minutes with drums and electric guitar I'm in heaven. So good! "Sphexes" is a top four for me. How good does this sound with the percussion and electric guitar. It settles quickly though with percussion only but the guitar is back before 1 1/2 minutes lighting it up. Nice. It settles back once again. I like this one a lot.

"Ten Years" is very ethnic sounding with that picked instrument and percussion. Acoustic guitar eventually takes the lead then the electric guitar joins in around 3 minutes and lasts just over a minute. Back to the acoustic guitar then it all picks up after 5 minutes. Electric guitar is back after 6 minutes and it sounds pretty amazing a minute later. "One Day" is a short acoustic guitar piece.

"Three Primates" opens with acoustic guitar and the mood is a happy one. Lots of intricate sounds when the tempo picks up. It settles back before 2 1/2 minutes. A change in the rhythm a minute later as it almost swings here with lots of acoustic guitar melodies. Percussion to the fore around 4 minutes. "You And It" is a top four. Acoustic guitar as the atmosphere rolls in. Beautiful waves of mellotron here. Electric guitar and drums join in after 2 1/2 minutes, percussion as well. It settles back around 4 1/2 minutes sounding like the intro with the acoustic guitar and mellotron. Percussion before 6 minutes as the guitar steps aside along with the mellotron but the atmosphere continues before the mellotron returns. Great track!

"The Alien Lounge" is my final top four and it opens with acoustic guitar and a majestic sound of mellotron and more. It settles back as percussion comes to the fore and the mellotron stops. Acoustic guitar continues then the mellotron returns before 2 1/2 minutes along with some Oldfield-like electric guitar. Check out the gorgeous ending. "Ten Yr Dance" starts with acoustic guitar melodies and more as it picks up quickly. Electric guitar joins in but soon it's mostly acoustic guitar but contrasts will continue as he lights it up on the electric again.

Count me a fan of "Yr" and I have a feeling I'm just going to grow in my admiration of this the more I play it.

Neither the tagging, this is not close to Rock nor Jazz. Maybe the unexistent "Progressive/World/Ambient" music tagging will suit it better. On the other hand as soon as there is a TABLA among your instruments, you will be pushed to the other exotic "Indo Prog Raga/Rock" sub-genre, which this work is neither. The never ending problems of "tagging".

Anyway, if permitted to avoid them, this Steve Tibbets "Big Map Idea", is close in spirit to another "world-music" artist, Michael Hedges also a guitarist (who departed to other realms, tragically in 1997). Therefore, if you are more or less aquainted with Hedges' works, this works is in the same creative vein.

If not, let's compare this music to an "imaginary" character, like a less flash, far more creative, less "religious", nature-loving John McLaughlin, breeded with Jimmy Page's "raw" to the bone mysticism and acoustic guitar "unpolished" feeling. (Mr. Page comes to mind due to the magnifIcent "cover" of "Black Mountain Side", track 1).

Slow paced, perfectly rich in ideas, without any kind of "fireworks". And as mentioned, this is music by its own, related to prog. Not the other way around!

Climb the ladder...!

****4 perfect PA stars, no less!

Anyway, if you are an acoustic guitar player or audiophile, or both, Steve Tibbetts, is someone you should be aware of. His style as such, is really not Jazz nor Fusion, as I have mentioned, it is closer to the "New Age" or "Ambient" taggings, which of course has a lot of good as bad exponents. Tibbetts's "Natural Causes" , is close to the best those kind of music genres generated and all he offered back in return to the same.

So to pin-point somehow his sound, I who dislike unnecessary comparissons, would try to make you think of an example. Imagine the John McLaughlin (Shakti) kind of ensemble (less the violin), with a far better sense of music-composition and less flash, with a bit of the very naked-like sound of "Oregon", wrapped in the "spiritual/ambiental" approach of Steve Roach's music, compressed in perfectly written songs, that turn out to be each one as good as the other. In a flawless "instrumental" effort, closer I insist, to the ambiental environments, which of course, I would hardly consider "Jazz/Rock or Fusion" as such.

Therefore, it does not hold any of the "protocols" or "pirouettes" of the Jazz/Rock/Fusion genre. Its "fusion" value, consist mainly in the very moderate use of native "mid-western" instruments, but mainly as parts of acoustic guitar compositions, perfectly and original acoustic guitar songs performed by an unpretentious virtuoso, that also knows how to write excellent close to masterful pieces.

****4.5 PA stars . And yes,I insist, this could hardly be tagged Jazz or Rock, although it is all Prog!

That, I suppose, explains the poor ratings given, in comparisson to his more conventional "modern" Jazz works. To set it simply, there are no Fusion-like songs. This project could fit in more comfortably in the "crossover" genre, being that its roads travel far away from the "Latin/African/Indo" route, that most of the "Jazz/Fusion" people, usually cover.

This record, in fact holds that "unique" quality, which will happen later in future works. So, I suppose that standing in the shelf of "Jazz/Fusion/Prog", demerits the whole project. Not because there is something wrong with that genre, but because this effort, is not a Jazz/Rock sounding record. And in the Steve Tibbetts's discography up to that year, this is the project that breaks away fom that specific tagging. A turning point, in fact!

Daring, unique, excellent guitar playing and arrangements, and a very solid and un-repeatable display of very good acoustic guitar based songs. In my collection this project has been around since my first listening way back in time, and up to today, I find it to be a real delight. Therefore, something I will highly recommend.

****4 "essential" PA stars for any kind of Prog audiophile.

1. "Ur" (4:43) sets the tone in a jaw-dropping MICHAEL HEDGES kind of way. (10/10)

2. "Sphexes" (3:49) follows "Ur" with what feels like is going to be an aggressive song before hand drums and other tuned percussives fill a soft lull, but then, yes, multiple guitars burst forth and tear it up for a few seconds. Then another lull of multiple percussives and spacey acoustic guitar play fill the sonic waves (lots of engineered effects) (9.5/10)

3. "Ten Years" (7:48) kalimbas, three or four of them! weaving together to open the song (bled over from "Sphexes") before talking drum and guitar harmonics and unfretted notes work their way in. Then suddenly at the two minute mark, an acoustic guitar jumps in an hijacks the song, making it all Indian folk sounding. But wait, enter two tracks of a searing electric lead at the three minute mark before settling back into a medieval folk sound. So weird and unexpected. Return of the searing electric before it all breaks down into all percussion and weird synth and harmonic effects. Astonishing! Did I mention this man's virtuosity on the guitars? (9.5/10)

4. "One Day" (2:27) opens for its first minute as a little acoustic guitar dittie like The Beatles's "Blackbird," but travels around many corners into different and, of course, unexpected territory. This guy has a sense of music making that is so foreign to my own. (9/10)

5. "Three Primates" (5:07) another multiple acoustic guitar opening before hand percussions and bass join in. Slowed down bridge at the one minute mark before heading into the second verse. At the end of the second minute electric guitar enters and makes a strong presence in the "chorus." Another bridge before the song enters a section of GENESIS-like picking and chord progression. Nice! Solo guitar starts off a rondo of fast arpeggi, joined by other guitar tracks, bass and tambourine. Another bridge, this time of harmonics and fast changing fast strumming chords is joined by tabla and 12-string to end. Cool! (9/10)

6. "You And It" (7:24) opens as a kind of Windham Hill thing before going Metheny "New Chautauqua" with Mellotron! and then going ape-crazy with some blistering electric lead and then ending with tablas and 'Tron! (9.5/10)

7. "The Alien Lounge" (3:42) opens with acoustic guitar kind of like the beginning of Led Zeppelin's "Lady" before morphing, (of course) into some very different directions of feathery guitar play. Near the halfway mark enter multiple tracks panning around with electronic guitars and synths and you have another uncategorizable sonic experience. (8.5/10)

8. "Ten Yr Dance" (3:20) dynamic acoustic guitar play (multiple guitars) with more searing electric weaving in and out from behind while the acoustic guitars dance frenetically with each other. Wow! Gorgeous and impressive! (9/10)

One of the all-time landmarks of world music, East-meets-West integration. This was 1980, people! Five stars, without hesitation!

It is also very unusual that a fusion album has such an original and magnificently composed atmosphere. Tibbetts used techniques such as overdubbing so much that it is said a single song could have as many as 50 different layers to it. That is truly astounding. Despite this, the sound still manages to retain its warmth and intimacy. When recording this many layers it is too easy to go overboard, like many over produced prog albums.

It may be a stretch to call this fusion, because it relies on a slightly different language, but nonetheless it is a truly monumental Masterpiece (with a capital M), because it is so expressive and warm in a cold and calculated era of plastic music. Hats off to Steve Tibbetts.

3(-), there's not much to rate. Calm, calm and again calm music, no major twists at all, slow pace, acoustic beauty. That's all. So if you want Prog, look elsewhere, because this album is for different audience.

The resulting album offers another fascinating example of Tibbett's active interest in esoteric World Music, in this case the ancient folk tradition of rural Scandinavia. In keeping with the unplugged spirit of the moment Tibbetts was joined by his old friend Marc Anderson (adding a sprinkle of hand-held percussives) and a small string section, including harp and psaltery. Together this multi-cultural ensemble creates a melancholy sound conjuring the bleak but beautiful landscapes of both the northern Minnesota prairie and the permafrost of backwoods Norway.

There is some beautiful music here, but 54-minutes are more than enough for a single sitting: after a while a certain monotony creeps into the set. This is an album that doesn't exactly encourage active listening, but it can provide ideal background music for churning butter, knitting woolen socks, or taking long, brisk walks across fallow winter farmland. Approach it in the right frame of mind, and be transported.