TRANSGRESSION

I was really interested to hear what this album would sound like. We know Theo has been involved with a lot of bands playing what they wanted him to play, so what does Theo want to play? When I think of Theo Travis I first think of Steven Wilson because I saw him play live with them which was a great experience. But THE TANGENT is where I first heard this man's playing and I know he's done stuff with Robert Fripp and of course SOFT MACHINE and related. He has carved out a nice career for himself.

We get a four piece here with Theo adding sax, flute and fender rhodes while we also get drums, guitar and organ. I'm not familiar with his band here but the drummer did play later on with NUCLEUS. This is fairly light Jazz overall but we do get some urgency with that opener "Fire Mountain" which makes me think of Mount Sinai when God arrived and terrified them all. This is my favourite track and it's more like a slow burn then a raging fire. A twisted guitar solo too! And of course the sax is really good here especially late.

"Transgression" the title track is by far the longest at 12 1/2 minutes and while we get a sadness at times we also get some ripping sax around 8 minutes in. The next three tracks and the closer just don't do a lot for me hence the 3 star rating but I was surprised to hear "Maryan" a Wyatt cover and "A Place In The Queue" from THE TANGENT and neither come close to the originals in my opinion.

This really is for those who are into classy Jazz based music. An enjoyable record.