Artists | Issues | CD Reviews | Interviews | Concert Reviews | DVD/Video Reviews | Book Reviews | Who We Are | Staff | Home
 

Gunnelpumpers

Tritonium

Review by Gary Hill

What a unique set this is. It features some serious space rock meets jazz meets classical and progressive rock. It’s three extended pieces that interestingly enough include three bass players. This stuff is not only unusual and instrumental, it is also captivating and powerful. I love this disc.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2012  Volume 4 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review
Sir Cirrus

Classical instrumentation starts things off here. As it grows out from there it starts to resemble space rock. The thing is, there are bits of Hawkwind merging here with Hendrix and King Crimson and yet the classical vibe is still present, too. This is a killer piece of music that soars and evolves and always manages to please. As it drops way down later we get some bass soloing and some serious funk emerges amidst that. Working out from there more classical elements emerge along with jazz and some serious tribal drumming. Space returns and takes out, linking to the next number.

Eschatonus

Space from the last cut starts this off and we get a drop back to mostly just bass and percussion. Still, some killer, noisy space is heard over the top, not that far removed from something from Hawkwind, but with a bit of a jazz vibe added to the mix. As it works out from there it turns more jazz-like at times, more classical at other points, but just keeps evolving and changing. It’s another great bit of space rock jazz chamber music, or something like that. Some Fripp-like jamming emerges later in the piece and the percussion gets pretty intense.

McGroover

Coming out of the previous number, there’s a lot of space meets jazz energy here. Appropriately there’s also a bit of a groove. In some ways, this gets noisier than the previous cuts. Still, it’s got plenty of magic and majesty. They continue building the beast and there’s some killer bass work along with some exceptional percussion in a jam around the ten minute mark. It feels a bit tribal at times during that section. It eventually works out to a really stripped down arrangement that’s mostly classical in nature. It rises up in a killer world music meets space and jazz approach from there. Eventually it works out to a different kind of arrangement later with more a classical, open air feeling to it.

 
Return to the
Gunnelpumpers Artist Page
Artists Directory
 
Google

   Creative Commons License
   This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 United States License.

    © 2024 Music Street Journal                                                                           Site design and programming by Studio Fyra, Inc./Beetcafe.com