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Marbin

Aggressive Hippies

Review by Gary Hill

These guys always deliver exceptional albums. This fulfills that promise. It ranges from fusion to space music, prog and more. All in all, this is quite a solid set.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2015  Volume 6 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review
Just Music

Some killer fusion brings this in with a lot of energy. They pull through some shifts and changes and turn it to a rather funky kind of space rock sound as it continues. It works back out into some screaming hot jamming from there. I really love the saxophone soloing later in the piece.

Y'All Are Good
Fast paced, funky jamming brings this in from the previous cut. That sax keeps wailing over the top. Winding this way and that, this piece really evolves quite well. There are other funky sections, but it also drives into some more mainstream progressive rock territory. This thing really jams. That’s for sure.
Intro
This has a real space rock vibe as echoey guitar creates the entire sound. There are some hints of Jimi Hendrix. Other instruments join as it continues, creating a real psychedelic space vibe. There’s really no jazz in this, just some cool rock.
African Shabtay
Here we get some screaming hot fusion. There are bits of world music and some Frank Zappa on this, too. It really gets intense as the jamming builds later. This is one of the most crazed – and one of the best – tracks on the disc. It turns almost metallic at times later, too.
Juke Joint
A killer jazz tune, this thing really stomps. It’s full on jazz in a lot of ways, but gets a bit noisy in terms of the rocking. There is some screaming guitar, for instance. There is some cool funk meets world sound later as the saxophone solos. This has some great shifts and turns, too.
O'l Neckin'
In some ways, this makes me think of King Crimson a lot. It’s scorching hot jazzy rocking stuff. There is some killer guitar soloing, but the jazz doesn’t take a back seat really, either.
Morning Star
I love the bass that starts this thing. It builds out to some more killer jazz jamming. I dig the killer soloing later in the piece. This is very much a prog rock piece. There are some sections of this one that make me think of King Crimson, too.
Aggressive Hippies
The title track grooves like a rock song in a lot of ways, but bubbles over the top with jazz.
Jambo

 This comes in with some seriously fast paced crazed jamming. There are definite metal elements at play. It works out after a time to more melodic jazzy sounds. It works to a section that combines melodic jazz with some almost speed metal sound. Then we get an Americana tinged mellower bit and it evolves out from there. It works to more of a rock and roll jam band kind of thing as it continues. The guitar really drives that as it solos. As it works out after a time we’re brought back into some intense fusion jamming.

 
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