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Matte Henderson with Marco Minneman - The Veneer of Logic Review by Gary Hill This is a cool set. It is clearly not for everyone, though. It’s got some parental advisories for one thing. Also the music here, while I think it’s cool, is pretty far outside the mainstream. This is progressive rock, but it’s on the outer fringe of prog in a lot of ways. It’s cool stuff, but does have a bit of tendency to get monolithic at times. It includes a second disc, a DVD of videos for each track. That’s more of a nice bonus or icing on the cake, though. The audio disc is the real treasure here. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2013 Volume 6 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Whirled Sound bites and electronic music are punctuated by extremely heavy guitar driven stuff. This is kind of like King’s X meets King Crimson, Rush and Tool. It’s also awesome. It’s not quite like anything I’ve heard before, but it’s very cool.

Bible Camp This is such a contrast to the previous cut. There are dreamy, almost childlike female vocals over a real prog dreamscape. That’s counterpointed by some more soaring progressive rock that still has female vocals. They just tend to feel more angelic and mature. None of the vocals here have lyrics, though. This is a complex and yet dream-like piece of music. It gets heavy but is also very gentle.

PPG They definitely earn a parental advisory on this one. It’s quite weird, but overall along similar lines to the opener. I don’t like this one as much, though. Mind you, it’s still good. It’s just not at that same level.

Can't Indict a Flower There are actually some lyrics (just the title) to this one. The vocals are twisted and just plain weird. So is the music in a lot of ways. This isn’t as overtly heavy as some of the other stuff, but it still has its heavy moments. Modern King Crimson is a valid reference point here, but so is Radiohead.

Myers Extremely heavy, the vocals on this are spoken female ones more as soundbites. This is quite weird, but the riffs on it are among the best here.

So Much More (Killing) Soundbites, weird music and an incredibly busy drum section make up the main concepts here. This is good, but the formula is starting to wear a bit thin by this point.

My Word Charles Manson’s rantings serve as the vocal element here. While this isn’t greatly changed, the rubbery, twisting music in place here is strong enough to keep this from feeling monotonous at all. This is one of my favorite pieces here. It just works better than some of the other stuff.

Come On The riff driving this is cool, but the piece overstays its welcome before it’s done. The female spoken soundbite that runs through this is sped up to sound like a child. That serves as a real contrast to the words spoken as they definitely earn a parental advisory.

Single Cell Shark The acoustic guitar section on this makes me think of King Crimson. The heavier, more electronic element presents a cool counterpoint to that. This is one of the more unique points of the set. It’s also one of the best pieces here.

Balinese Funeral In some ways this isn’t a big change. That said, it’s another standout cut. The tuned percussion brings a lot to this. Much of the music is just so tasty here. It’s got some smoking hot soloing, some killer soundscapes and just oozes cool from all of its pores.

Tomatte While the general concept isn’t changed, this one is rather rubbery and has some cool shifts and changes.

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