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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Walking Cliché Sextet

Micro-Nap

Review by Gary Hill

This release is made up of a lot of freeform jazz compositions. It has some songs that get more mainstream, but overall this is very much outside the box sort of stuff. This is quite an adventure, really.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) form in Music Street Journal: 2022  Volume 6. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2022.

Track by Track Review
Muad’Dib
Piano brings this in. Some percussion is heard early as the piano creates unusual lines of sound. This feels rather freeform as it grows upward. Eventually a more full jazz arrangement emerges, taking it into more mainstream zones at times. Yet, they still manage to pull in enough weirdness to keep it tastefully off-kilter. There are moments here that make me think of Frank Zappa. It gets quite involved and very experimental at times. It's a real powerhouse. There is a drop-back movement later that includes some killer bass work. Piano takes over from there, and then we're taken out into a new exploration that is powered up and pretty crazed as it evolves.
Commune
Coming in slow and fairly mellow, this is nonetheless freeform and tastefully strange in its patterns and growth.  It really gets weird in some classy ways. It's an ever changing tapestry of sound.
Micro-Nap
Piano starts the title track and percussion joins after a time, but not drums, more block type percussion. This builds upward gradually turning really crazed and adding other instruments to the mix. It gets quite involved before it's done.
Anamorphosis No. 1
Starting mellower, this drives out in a little more of a straight-line than some of the others do. It gets no less crazed, experimental and loud, though. In fact, in some ways this gets louder and crazier than anything else here. There is a percussion solo in the midst of this piece, too.
Rumination
Piano leads the way as this starts in mellower ways. It grows out as one of the most purely melodic and mainstream pieces here. It still has some experimental edges, though. There is a drop-back to just horn around the midway point. It builds upward gradually from there and turns a little more experimental as it does. Still, it's more grounded than most of the music here. It does intensify before it's over.
Suite Transient: Trio, Interlude
I dig the cool freeform vibes on this driving, but still melodic piece. This definitely increases in power and volume and works toward weirder zones as it continues. It also drops way down as it approaches mid-track. It builds back up gradually, but drops back to just piano later. Then we get another building process from there to continue. There is a tastefully strange almost psychedelic jazz thing that takes over as it works toward the closing.
Suite Transient: Transient
Much more melodic as it gets going, this is has some powerful beauty and majesty. It has a good balance between more soaring powered up music and mellower zones. A piano dominated movement later gets pretty crazed. 
 
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