Spontaneous Rex Come at the King Review by Gary Hill
There is some amazing music here. It covers a lot of musical territory. It’s good advice to say, “don’t get comfortable in any one place.” It’s going to change. That’s the one constant here – change. Well, the other constant is quality. This is quite an impressive set, really.
This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2015 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Come at the King
If progressive rock ever grooves (and it does) this is a great example. There are elements of things like Cream, but also King Crimson. Iron Butterfly and more are heard on this killer jam. It is pretty amazing stuff really. It dissolves to noisy space music after a time. It gets quite free form and a little strange as they move forward, with a real mix of psychedelic music with freeform prog.
Ania Although mellower, this comes in equally strange and with definite King Crimson elements. It has a lot of a chamber music based Rock In Opposition vibe to it in a lot of ways. It turns to some frantic hard rocking oddities after a time. Then, it explodes into a killer progressive rock groove from there. It drops to a piano based section to continue and shifts to near fusion territory. It builds out into some extremely intense jamming as it works forward. Then it drops to piano again and the piece is reinvented with a bit of classical meets jazz vibe as the piano solos for a time. A melodic, fusion type section takes it for a time. Then it works out to more dramatic and strange jamming. It gets pretty crazed as it works into more Crimson like jamming on the closing movement.
Eidolon More purely melodic, this is much more of a jazz or fusion piece than some of the rest of the music here. It’s also the most mainstream and accessible. Still, it’sa bit left field nonetheless. I love the bass line on a lot of this number. The guitar soloing later gets really intense. This really has some soaring moments of music as it goes onward. It’s the most satisfying piece to me.
Spaceman Spiff Keyboards open this and hold it for a time. They work out into a cool rocking jam from there. It eventually works through a couple of changes. This is my second favorite piece here. It has a lot more of a mainstream progressive rock vibe than the rest of this does. It does turn a bit weird after a while with a rather noisy segment. Then it drops to a mellow motif, led by the piano. That intensifies into lush and powerful music at times. Then a driving rhythm section climbs up to guide the piece into the next (and final) jam.
