TEE "The Earth Explorer"

TEE is a five piece flute front progressive rock band from Tokyo, Japan. Their so-called 'European' sound is unique considering their far-east origin. The imaginative tunes with complex ensembles and rhythms will definitely catch the attention of prog lovers all over the world. Their sound will remind you bands like Camel, King Crimson, Asia Minor or even Frank Zappa on some parts. The band was formed in 2004 when... more

Kevin BARTLETT

You may not know his name but you have definitely heard his music more than once or twice in your life. Maybe on HBO, or on MTV, or on VH1, Comedy Central, Discovery Channel. Doesn't ring the bell? How about American Idol Rewind, or Dr. 90210? We had interviewed Kevin Bartlett a couple of years ago when his second solo album GLOW IN THE DARK was released. Bartlett has been quiet since that time but but he has been secretly brewing new projects. A few months ago he had put a new song...more

Peter Hammill, founding member of Van Der Graaf Generator, released his 28th solo album " nearly 3 months ago. He recently got back home from a short tour covering North America, Canada and Italy. In the 70's when bands like...more

FRIGHT PIG Barque At The Lune *** REVERSAL OF GRAVITY Scuba Gear ***

JACK DUPON / L'ECHELLE DU DESIR

When I received this CD in the mail, it came with 2 pages of bio and information about the album. The first line says: "There is no need to search for Jack Dupon in the civil registration, because this legendary character doesn't exist." OK, so this answers the first question. But there was this one paragraph that said: "Their music is like their existences; out of style and boundaries. Far away from the usual technical show-off, their performances tell the story of the crazy Jack Dupon: Manitou and Mentor, Big Brother, a genius criminal of thousand masks.."

Now when it comes to the description of music you would read a lot of LINES in the press releases you receive like: "their music can not be categorized, their style is very unique" etc. and after a while you just don't really take this seriously because most of them aren't what they promote they are. Sorry, but this is the bitter truth.

I put the CD in the stereo and little did I know I was in for a manic depressive, schizophrenic and psychedelic adventure.

We are talking about 4 French musicians here: Arnaud M'Doihoma: bass, vocals / Gregory Pozzoli: guitar, vocals / Philippe Prebet: guitar, vocals / Thomas Larsen: drums, vocals. The album is titled "L'Echelle du Desir" and it was released by Gazul Records. If we have to throw band names around for you to get the picture of what they sound like we would say Primus meets Frank Zappa and King Crimson, a mixture of prog rock and experimental. There are a lot of moments where you would feel like they are improvising and other times where the parts can only be that tight from massive rehearsals. Sudden changes from distorted guitar and bass sounds to a mellower almost melancholic guitar and funk/jazz bass tones is something these guys love to do. Drums are locked in with the bass swinging smoothly through the tempo and mood changes. Vocal melodies... well the vocals are mostly welcomed interruptions between the instrumental parts being sometimes very aggressive like yelling and sometimes very mellow almost to the point of whispering. Lyrics are very humorist but sometimes they are not easy to understand because of the way they were sung. (They're singing in French by the way).

The album opens up with a 30min long schizophrenic piece "La Trilogie Des Mouches". As you can tell from the title it consists of 3 parts: La Secte, Le Sacre De La Reine, Mille Millions De M. This half an hour long piece with its up and down moments and with all its manic depressiveness will suck you into a whirlpool and the rest will be history...

This is not melody oriented music and the band is not out there to write technically complicated stuff. This is prog with a punk attitude if you will (punk as in "you're a punk!"), these guys got together to tear the place down, that's how it feels like. Definitely worth listening.

Hande BURDG