This work is filled with groove-heavy goodness and the double disc format allows the time to put it all across. Six-string sorcerer and electronic toys maven Tim Motzer transcends string and wire and adds an amazing amount of different tones. His atmospherics are divine while second guitarist Alex Skolnick just plain gets it on. From clean tone chicken picking to outer edge ripping and all points in between, he is not limited by boundaries at all.

Percy Jones is well, Percy Jones and his contributions on fretless 5 string bass and sampler are amazing. So rich, melodic and above all, supportive. Kenny Grohowski is given the daunting task of keeping up on drums and he succeeds spectacularly. The fine nuance and groove of his playing give the other players a huge field to dance on and dance they do. There are moments of heavy assertiveness and moments of chill and introspection.

There is much to love about No Steps Left To Trace. The music is otherworldly, almost astral at times and no matter how far out it gets it never loses the groove that glues things together. With four musicians of this calibre, you know something extraordinary is going to happen and it does over and over again. There are times today when it becomes a little bit too easy to get blasé about music with the level of accessibility and variety on offer but then a work like this comes around and you find yourself fully vested in the magic once again.
Rob Hudson
www.pakt-moonjune.bandcamp.com

Tentacles lives up to its name with a riff that wraps around you without ever really resolving. This keeps you invested until the final soundscape coda gives you the blessed relief the preceding has denied you.

Ringtone lock steps you into a new sensation with bold power chords and an insistent note pattern not unlike eighties-era Crim. Pat Mastelotto’s percussive output is stellar and grounds the groove.

Company Of Ghosts starts with a purposive funk groove that sounds as mysterious as Mata Hari beckoning you to discover new worlds before the transportive effect of the sound collage at the tracks’ turnaround.

Danger In The Workplace finds the percussive sound of Markus Reuter’s touch guitar and Tony Levin’s Chapman stick brought to the forefront with this ominous workout. Danger indeed.

Satieday Night brings the EP to a close with a slow burn intro followed by a marauding gang of malcontent notes that seesaw between contentment and a contrivance to leave you wanting more.

So many ideas via so few tunes.
Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/moonjunerecords2/

After the privacy of a decent bout of silence was over, an injection of art was needed. Something that forms a challenge and benefit scenario, something like Kosmonautik Pilgrimage by those provocateurs Anchor and Burden. This is music that has a logic all its own and dares one to find a place for it in their analogue. It presents an application that band members Markus Reuter, Alexander Paul Dowerk, Bernhard Wöstheinrich and Asaf Sirkis are more than happy to provide.

In the same way, that happy stories dissipate more quickly in the ether and stern stuff sticks around, the tracks here have an abrasiveness that gives you more to grip, a friction that assures that the intention does anything but slip by unnoticed. The musicianship is such that the landscape reaches into far vistas and drummer Sirkis does a remarkable job of holding it all together.

Kosmonautik Pilgrimage is an auditory offensive that provides provocation and equal remuneration. I can only imagine the kind of commercial establishment that would dare put music like this on in the background and what wares would be on offer. Litmus strips for the coming apocalypse, or perhaps current generating devices to open the synapsis to thoughts of the new?
Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/moonjunerecords2

To this listeners delight, Messers Giorgio Li Calzi, Boris Savoldelli and Maurizio Brunod have both impeccable taste in song choices and musical chops. The don’t just cover the tunes but reinvent them. This is done through clever arrangements and instrumentation. An early example of this is the reinvention of the early eighties era King Crimson track Matte Kudasai that replaces the interlocked and floating electric guitars of the original with acoustic guitar and a haunting trumpet. It succeeds in losing none of the song’s inherent emotional impact.

Taking on a Beatle song, even one as off kilter as Tomorrow Never Knows and saying something new was never going to be easy but as the song fragments into its lego building blocks, it’s both fresh and respectful to the source. Replacing many of the song’s dramatic electric interludes with acoustic instrumentation in the foreground while having the electronics water colour wash the backdrop gives the music a well burnished depth.

Featuring songs with vocals also helps with the accessibility, the disc can be spun in a room with mixed tastes and satisfy all. Eclectic and elegant, Nostalgia Progressiva is much more a love letter to important inspirations than a just an easy cash grab.

Rob Hudson
borissavoldelli.bandcamp.com

Mark Wingfield is just such a wizard. He strives to use extended vibrato to give his notes a wavering human voice quality that bridges the gap between the sometimes cold perfectionism that some shredders use and the inviting warmth that is at the root of accessibility. Just giving the audience finger gymnastics is not going to get it done in this day and age.

It’s also more than just note selection, exposing fresh nuance in both melody and tone is not easy with the incredible amount of guitar vocabulary out there and not relying on just speed to make a point of excitement adds to the challenge. Wingfield is more than up to the task however and his band, one that includes Yaron Stavi (who’s fretless bass blends seamlessly) and Asaf Sirkis on drums caress with a fantastically supportive feel.

Those six or seven or eight string symphonies will continue to involve listeners, if not on radios, then in the collections of discerning listeners. Ones with a taste for timeless harmonic invention and adventurous melodies.

Rob Hudson
www.markwingfield.com

Seen through a musician’s eyes, Jimi also represents something that is increasingly rare today, a pure source of inspiration. Not as a single source either, not just a guitarist or performer but the creator of a blueprint. The basis for a level of exploration. Stepping into this mind set is Machine Mass. This trio of musicians (Michel Delville, Tony Bianco and Antoine Guenet) have the chops of course but also the vision to do something in line with the true spirit of the man. Not reinterpretation but reinvention.

Listening to the work Plays Hendrix is unlike listening to any other Jimi tribute album. Even for those that have a saturation level of knowledge of the back catalogue, there is a freshness and challenge. The songs being played don’t always immediately come into focus, you have to listen to the shards and feel the logic. It’s exhilarating and worthy of the man’s true intentions.

Easily consumable music is everywhere from elevators to supermarkets but this is stronger stuff. This relies on you putting in the effort. And as benefits something that takes application, the rewards are that much richer.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/Machine-Mass

It also highlights how effective a band leader Budjana is as he coaxes some amazing performances from his fellow contributors. Takes the guitar work from guest ax man Guthrie Govan. Govan steps way outside his pyrotechnical Aristocrats wrangling and delivers a rubbery tone poem so drenched in selective emotions it’s remarkable. Elsewhere Danny Markovich breathes life into his woodwind with some unison playing that lock steps on the road to nirvana.

The backing band is also filled with heavyweights (and includes Tony Levin, Jack Dejohnette and Gary Husband to name a few) but then it defies contemporary logic with interplay that is so subtle and finely nuanced. Individual glory completely submerged to the collective gain. Once again Budjana’s leadership is an outstanding feature. There is even some real live orchestral embellishments care of the Czech Symphony Orchestra that provide even more emotional impact.

Saying music is a universal language is an easy statement to make but one that carriers great importance, especially given the divisive times we currently have to endure. This work collects talent from across the globe and puts it to work in a way that helps to transcend borders and theologies. Worldwide unity will have to come from the creative sphere because so little exists outside of it.

Rob Hudson
www.dewabudjana.com

Following the opening number is a great reductionist version of Lennon and McCartney’s I Will. It pays homage and respect to both the people and place of the album’s title. It also lulls one in the most seductive way, saying so much with so few notes.

Opening up a world of possibilities with just two hands, two feet and an open mind, Sondhy touches on so many points of reverent beauty and more than a few stops on the piano’s historical past. Humor is also injected at the most opportune time.

Playing this album after just about any other form of progressive music provides a wonderful reset and introduces one to a calm that is most enticing. Really looking forward to Volume 2.

Rob Hudson
www.eriksondhy.com

Bye Bye Blues is really driven by stickman Gary Husband as his rolling drums constantly keep the forward momentum in overdrive. It’s this friendly determination that keeps things is the service of the song and away from personal grandstanding. Marylin’s Escapade again highlights Beledo’s unreal overabundant capacity as he adds accordion to the already sumptuous mix. His fluidity is engaging as the notes seamlessly flow.

Lucilla is an exotic acoustic sidestep with Endang Ramdan’s percussive drive and Beledo’s channeling of Jaco on fretless bass giving the song an enticing combination of ingredients, the only thing missing from this inebriating cocktail is the little umbrella. Sudden Voyage with its funky syncopation resets the clock halfway through the proceedings.

Highlights are abundant on the album’s second half and it’s hard to pick out a favorite moment, as there are so many to choose from. The industrial science fiction sounding guitar tone on Big Brother Calling or the meditative state of Silent Assessment and Budjanaji are just a few that spring to mind. Regardless of the surprise directions Dreamland Mechanism drops into throughout its journey, the playing is a luxury of common good and unearthly skill serving to underline how much joy can come out of the collaborative process.

Rob Hudson
www.beledo.com

Aggressive Hippies (great album title by the way) rocks like a room full of well, aggressive hippies hopped up on famer’s finest gramercy green and does it ever pin the lobes back. Six string situationist Dani Rabin does his best to herd all the audio elephants in the room together and comes up trumpets.

Danny Markovitch fills the saxtoon with lashings of drool inducing freakuencies that stitch together the aural tapestry while Greg Essig (skins) and John W. Lauter (low notes) do their best to hang on. Their monkey grip is impressively adhesive.

Nine moments in time make up the magic number and constant application has raised a few tempers and pulses. The tweeters are shooting out sparks of intent; the mids are anything but mild and the woofers are biting both ankles. I like mine with a little anarchy and this spice is right.

Rob Hudson
www.marbinmusic.com