I received Science Fixion's second (?) release, "Sting of the Star Spider."
Its not what I would call acid-jazz, but again, all of us define it
differently. I guess the guitar prescence on some tracks was strong enough to
make it feel rock-ish a lot of the time. Its "happy" music for sure, makes one
smile. There's definetly a jazz influence on many tracks and a blues influence
on others and a Samba influence elsewhere etc.
Basically, my impression is this band has the ability to span wide geographies
of music. They aren't very acid-jazzy by my definition however. The jazzy
tunes were very jazz oriented- not to say traditional, but not AJ. The
rock-ish tracks were definetly way different and fun in their own way, but
again not AJ-imho.
I was impressed by the bass lines, piano solos and the percussion was smooth as
well. I personally liked the tracks without vocals more, but a lot of my
favorite music is vocal-free, so there's a bias involved. Some tracks are very
jazz-laid back and others are rough growly vocal rock stuff that moves.
Track 4 - Mama Lilah & the Catfish: some groovy licks with the sax and piano, I
liked this tune.
Track 5 - Song for Chick: jazzy feel, fastish beat, sweet guitar solo, makes
one want to move around- fun!
Track 6 - Drifters in the Void: another groovy jazz tune,
Track 10 - Kill the Buddha: talkin' jazz- funny and fun song!
Track 12 - Never Abandon Hope: I liked this track the most because of its fast
jazzy feel, and I am a sucker for any kind of vibraphone-type instrument. I
guess I wished again that it was instrumental. The music speaks for itself, in
this case, imho.
The tracks I didnt list, weren't my kind of music. Good stuff which shows the
breadth and depth of the band, but I liked the jazzy tracks more. A lot of the
album's lyrics had some sort of reference to science fiction in some way- which
I liked, but might not have broad appeal.
Shamms tells me that they're planning a March assault on Nashville in hopes of
gigging and I wish them luck.
All in all a good listen and I'll pass it on to the campus radio station in
hopes that they give it some airplay,
Good luck guys,
Gen