Search - Francis Monkman :: Jam

Guitar oriented space metal

kireviewer | Sunnyvale, Ca United States | 04/14/2006

(4 out of 5 stars)

"This CD comes from studio jam sessions after the reunion of Curved Air. Also on this disc Florian Pilkington-Miska on drums and Rob Martin on bass. All three are original members of Curved Air. There are also two guest guitartists on some of the tracks.



The CD is 60 minutes long and has very good sound quality. The CD was edited down from 5 hours of studio recordings.



Monkman was the keyboard player for Curved Air, but later switched to guitar. This CD is guitar oriented.



The music is kind of space metal. It is a lot like the opening instrumental on Phil Manzanera's 801 Live album (on which Monkman played). It is not ambient or discordant.



Some of the tracks, especially the last one, are excellent. It has a good driving rhythm and some amazing guitar work and drumming. The only reason I don't give this 5 stars is that many of the tracks start to sound alike.



The music reminds of Gong or Steve Hillage but with a harder edge.







"