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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Gary Windo

Deep Water

Review by Gary Hill

I like this disc a lot. It combines progressive rock, jazz, space rock and more into a rich musical tapestry. This is diverse stuff that always entertains. Even when it wanders into rather strange territory, it’s still captivating and somehow accessible. This is just great stuff.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2014  Volume 2 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review
Deep Water

This powers in with a smoking jazz groove. As more layers of sound are added it feels closer to space rock. They drop it down for the vocals and this makes me think of Nik Turner era Hawkwind in a lot of ways. We’re taken through several shifts and changes here, but overall this is pretty constant.

Blonde Country
Noisy guitar starts this thing. That eventually resolves into a melodic, dreamy sort of jam and the saxophone solos over the top of it. There are some shifts and changes, but overall this is very much like jazzy space rock. This instrumental is classy.
Clean Machine
This is pretty odd. It’s also pretty cool. It has an opening bit of weirdness with a spoken, echoey verse saying “dedicated to the machine I clean” quite a few times. Then it works out into a jam that’s much like a jazzy King Crimson. When that voice returns it’s over a trippy progressive rock arrangement. This thing is off-kilter, strange and oh so tasty. There are quite a few shifts and changes on this thing.
Don't Bite Too Hard (Your Teeth Are Too Sharp)
The rocking groove on this is classic. Saxophone solos throughout much of this and there is a real driving rhythm section here. This is a killer space rock meets prog jam that works very well.
Ginkie
This is pure jazz. It’s also very cool. It’s a fairly short instrumental.
Subway Love
Located at the intersection of artsy punk music, jazz and progressive rock, this is cool. The processed vocals are tastefully weird and this is a song that calls to mind the Adrian Belew era of King Crimson just a bit. The saxophone soloing later in the piece is top-notch.
Ghosts
This starts with a guitar and then it evolves into a call and response between guitar and saxophone for a time. Then the whole group join and this is a cool jazz meets rock meets Celtic kind of instrumental jam. It’s a lot of fun. After what seems like an ending, we’re brought back to the beginning of the piece. It builds more or less in the same way to a reprise of the main theme. Then the saxophone takes it out all by itself.
Breakfast in Bed
This is sort of in the same general territory as “Subway Love” was. It’s got a cool rhythmically dominated arrangement, but that doesn’t mean the saxophone doesn’t wail over the top, because it does. This is a cool groove. It’s a bit weird, but it’s very cool. The fuller arrangement later is particularly effective.
Sister Europe
With various instruments weaving Eastern European melodies, this instrumental is one of the most effective of the set. It’s a great groove and works very well as the parting shot.
 
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