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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

David Cross and Andrew Booker

Ends Meeting

Review by Gary Hill

To many David Cross is probably best known for his tenure in King Crimson. The fact of the matter is, beyond that he's produced some pretty amazing and wide-reaching music. You can never really be sure what style you'll get when you pick up a disc with him involved. You can be sure that it will be quality. This instrumental set is no exception to that rule. This set lands in fusion meets world music meets space meets experimental prog meets electronic territory, if you can wrap your head around that. The credits show cross responsible for electronic violin and Andrew Booker is credited with electronic drums. It's amazing the amount and variety of sound here given those credits. All in all, if you like adventurous instrumental music, give this a try. You'll find plenty to enjoy here.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) in Music Street Journal: 2019  Volume 2. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2019.
Track by Track Review
Loopscape A
This comes in quite percussive and rather electronic and strange. It works out from there, getting more melodic as it continues. Still, the oddities are on-board. In some ways I'm reminded of what you might get if Kraftwerk went fusion. That said, there are some stranger things here than that might suggest.
The Shakes Rattled
More of a traditional fusion element is on display on this number. It has a healthy helping of world music, too. It's a real powerhouse piece that has a lot of variety and change built into it. The violin work on this cut is particularly powerful and soaring and really does a great job of sonic exploration. This cut has some good dynamic range, allowing louder and softer passages along the ride.
Sleek
Coming in more electronic and trippy, there is a definite space edge to this piece. It feels a bit like something you might expect from Synergy or Tangerine Dream in some ways. As it approaches the four-minute mark some rocking sounds rise upward, bringing a new dimension to the composition. It gets dense and rich and has some hints of world music. The violin paints some amazing pictures as it continues to weave melodies later in the number. Percussive elements fill the final moments of this.
Spared Bhangra
Trippy world music with something that sounds like tuned percussion brings this into being, and it grows outward from there. At less the two-and-a-half minutes this is the shortest cut here.
Worship The Gourds
Another that comes in percussive, this works out to some rather freaky and exploratory work that's part symphonic and part spacey. The more rocking sounds that emerge later reinforce that symphonic thing while also bringing some definite world music and psychedelic prog with them. As this continues to grow there are things here that make me think of both King Crimson and Djam Karet. The percussion gets insistent and driving. The whole piece gets so powerful, becoming one of the real highlights of the disc. Around the seven-and-a-half-minute mark it drops way down to a violin and percussion exploration that has definite classical elements. That section closes the track in style.
Ends Meeting
The title track comes in fairly mellow and electronic. It rises up gradually with world music and increased intensity gradually rising up as the cut continues. The number isn't a huge change, but covers a lot of intriguing territory along its journey.
Loopscape B
This is one of the shortest pieces of the set. It's very sedate and quite pretty in its electronic motifs. It's a great way to ground the album for a satisfying conclusion. .
  
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