Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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7 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Diverse rock improv with intelligence, power, and warmth., 14 April 2001
If you think "improvised" and "instrumental" equates to "aimless pretentious meandering", then think again. The musicians went into this session with a few initial ideas and - with only a four day recording window - no time for self-indulgence. The result is a record which sounds surprisingly structured, yet bursts with warmth and spontaneity."The Sun Road" opens with an eastern tinge, leisurely and spacious, and feels like a journey as its textures and tempo gradually shift. "Dark Corners" and "Falling In Circles" are the two most rock-based tracks; the former a solid stomper, the latter probably the most uptempo piece on the album, while "Duende" and "Book of Hours" trade electric guitar for acoustic to explore flamenco territory. All three players manage to shine without ever getting in the way of eachother. Steve Stevens serves up not a dull set of tired rock riffs but mature arrangements in a variety of styles, giving each piece on the album a distinctive shape and feel. Terry Bozzio's drumming is always melodic and creative; even when driving a straightforward groove he ensures that there's always something fresh and exciting happening from moment to moment. And bassist Tony Levin handles the bottom end with tasteful restraint, yet still manages to inject some beautiful melodies and motifs at the appropriate moments. For me, the weakest tracks are probably "Black light Syndrome", which heads into jazz fusion territory and is thus probably the least accessible, and "Chaos/Control", which seems a little uncertain of where it's going. But overall it's amazing how composed the album sounds; the performances are so self-assured that it's hard to believe they're being played for the first time. For which reason my favourite track has to be "Falling In Circles", with "Book of Hours" a close second. With a bare minimum of overdubs and not a whiff of over-production, what you're basically left with is the sound of three of the finest musicians in the world playing together for the first time and just letting the magic happen.
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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Pure magic I., 16 May 2006
Terry Bozzio met Steve Stevens and they played some flamengo together and found out, that there was musical chemistry that should be developed further. And they asked Tony Levin to join them and he said yes. Well, that's the beginning of the story. The end of it is this great album, improvisation with mixture of styles. Approx. 8 minutes long songs are masterpieces - B+L+S create a landscape of sound and once you start humming along there is a flash of genius and you start wondering how they managed to play that. I like Levin's bass lines, I like Bozzio's singing drums. I liked Stevens from his work with Sherinian, but here he really starts playing, great sound. "Falling in Circles" is my favourite song on this CD.
Ohh ya, I still think of this as a competitor of Liquid Tension Experiment. And I like this one lot more. It's slower all right but this music talks and tells stories, it's not a race, it's a real pleasure.
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3.0 out of 5 stars
Oh Dear....., 15 Mar 2008
A whiles ago, I saw Terry Bozzio along with Jeff Beck and Tony Hymas - and what a glorious noise they made, filling the gaps among the sparse audience at the NEC. Terry was hitting those skins in a way that reminded you of Bill Bruford, able to complement the higher levels of the music played, or else, boot it along. So, this Black Light Syndrome, what's it all about....beats me! The first 4 tracks on this album, showing flashes of brilliance, but so obviously, just a jamming session - which is a pity as there is some brilliant playing by Stevens (particularly the acoustic material) and Levin, but Bozzio just seems out to ruin everything, behaving more like "Animal" from the Muppet Show, no less.
However, you then come to the final three tunes and they just suddenly gell as a band showing the full range of the abilities of these musicians.
It's really a shame about the 4 tracks which precede as they have the ability to make you want to just turn the damned thing off but, if you either flick through the tracks until you come to the last three, or else set your CD player to only play the last three tracks, then what you hear is worth 5 stars and the hard earned laid out to buy the album.
Mind you, taking the album as a whole, it's still better by miles than the Liquid Trio Experiment offering I recently bought - but the least said about that the better!
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~ Tony Levin
~ Dream Theater
~ Steve Stevens
~ Liquid Tension Experiment
~ Greg Howe
