GILBERT ARTMAN'S LARD FREE

Lard Free is quite an interesting band, they never produce the same album twice, but always headed for another direction after they finish. Their debut album released in 1973 is a mix of styles, it's mainly dealing with progressive electronic but holds some other elements like a Frippian guitar kind of playing. I would say the best comparison i can make is Heldon, it can be very minimalistic at times but also can go to Krautrock realms. For my taste this is a mixed bag, there are few great tracks and few ok tracks in which i can find my self dozing off or getting bored. It has all the elements i need to be fully blown, cool bass, experimental keys, distorted guitars, and a great addition of the saxophone, but it just didn't happen.

Judging the album by the first track, this is a real winner! this is exactly the kind of stuff i'm looking for, going from easy sounding and climaxing to a wild jam. Featuring a nice bass line, hypnotic kind of rhythm, great sax, playing some atmospheric lines, top that with wild guitar that will make Mr. Fripp applauding and some screaming sax... this is my cup of tea. There are few more parts in this vein that gets me very excited but what holds me from enjoying this all the way, are some mediocare parts where the keys or the saxophone takes the lead and while it's nice, it's actually not that great, it lacks some punch but than again i guess the band is not trying to have a punch all the time, it's minimalistic and quite atmospheric. The last two tracks are my least favorite, they are atmospheric and although one contain nice sax playing, it doesn't hold my interest at all, not to mention the last track which i can summarize as nothing!

The album has a huge amount of potential, the playing is always good and the overall mix of styles is pretty successful, and i can see why there are some very positive reviews. So if you like all the elements i've mentioned, this could be a very very good addition to your collection, but for my taste it's not enough and the music kind of goes over my head. it's 3.2 to be exact by my scale.