ANDY MILNE & DAPP
THEORY - Forward in All Directions
Whirlwind Recordings: WR4660
Andy Milne ( piano, prepared piano, Fender Rhodes and synthesisers) Aaron Kruziki (soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, douduk, alto sax and additional keyboard programming) John Moon (vocal poetics) Christopher Tordini ( acoustic & electric bass) Kenny Grohowski (drums & percussion) with special guests, Ben Monder (guitar) Jean Baylor (vocal) Gretchen Parlato (additional vocals)
Recorded in Paramus, New Jersey, April 6th to 8th 2012 and January 8th, 2013
Going forward in all directions could be a recipe for disaster or at very least the incur the inconvenience of getting your knickers in a twist but the young musicians of today seem to relish convoluted complexity regardless of the demands it makes on their listeners. The days of three or four choruses of melodic improvisation on a familiar standard over a steady four square rhythm ending with a four bar exchange with bass and drums are long gone. No problem with that but today’s musicians seem to be increasingly obsessed by an obligation to deliver heavily chromatic, through composed themes over shifting internal rhythms that are influenced by diverse aesthetic inputs and philosophical agendas in an almost in perverse defiance of the quiet verities of the past. Significance is everything and the seriousness of these respective enterprises is usually borne out by the sombre expression on the faces of the band depicted on the various sleeves. Andy Milne and his musicians are no exception.
It must be hard work (it sounds like hard work) and on the evidence of the music contained in this latest Whirlwind release, it clearly calls upon the highest standards of musicianship. Some of Dapp Theory’s music is wonderfully stimulating like the powerful drumming, synthesiser colouration and keyboard stylisations of the leader plus the torrid guitar shredding and rich liquid sounds of the clarinets that turn up on various tracks, but the incomprehensible, over emotional, psycho-babble of John Moon’s so called `vocal poetics` on two of the tracks is so irritating as to negate enjoyment of what remains. One wishes that musicians of this calibre could put their talents to better use by seeking greater coherence of expression rather than trying to be everywhere at once. I’m all for originality but Andy Milne and his people seem to be trying too hard. Relax guys and lighten up a bit.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
Whirlwind Recordings: WR4660
Andy Milne ( piano, prepared piano, Fender Rhodes and synthesisers) Aaron Kruziki (soprano sax, clarinet, bass clarinet, douduk, alto sax and additional keyboard programming) John Moon (vocal poetics) Christopher Tordini ( acoustic & electric bass) Kenny Grohowski (drums & percussion) with special guests, Ben Monder (guitar) Jean Baylor (vocal) Gretchen Parlato (additional vocals)
Recorded in Paramus, New Jersey, April 6th to 8th 2012 and January 8th, 2013
Going forward in all directions could be a recipe for disaster or at very least the incur the inconvenience of getting your knickers in a twist but the young musicians of today seem to relish convoluted complexity regardless of the demands it makes on their listeners. The days of three or four choruses of melodic improvisation on a familiar standard over a steady four square rhythm ending with a four bar exchange with bass and drums are long gone. No problem with that but today’s musicians seem to be increasingly obsessed by an obligation to deliver heavily chromatic, through composed themes over shifting internal rhythms that are influenced by diverse aesthetic inputs and philosophical agendas in an almost in perverse defiance of the quiet verities of the past. Significance is everything and the seriousness of these respective enterprises is usually borne out by the sombre expression on the faces of the band depicted on the various sleeves. Andy Milne and his musicians are no exception.
It must be hard work (it sounds like hard work) and on the evidence of the music contained in this latest Whirlwind release, it clearly calls upon the highest standards of musicianship. Some of Dapp Theory’s music is wonderfully stimulating like the powerful drumming, synthesiser colouration and keyboard stylisations of the leader plus the torrid guitar shredding and rich liquid sounds of the clarinets that turn up on various tracks, but the incomprehensible, over emotional, psycho-babble of John Moon’s so called `vocal poetics` on two of the tracks is so irritating as to negate enjoyment of what remains. One wishes that musicians of this calibre could put their talents to better use by seeking greater coherence of expression rather than trying to be everywhere at once. I’m all for originality but Andy Milne and his people seem to be trying too hard. Relax guys and lighten up a bit.
Reviewed by Euan Dixon
