Search - Garage A Trois :: Power Patriot

Worth exploring. . .

C. Naffier | Ft. Collins, Colorado, USA | 03/13/2010

(4 out of 5 stars)

"I was rummaging through the "customers also bought" section when Power Patriot's "Garage a Trois" came up, so I gave it a listen. It sounded promising, so I picked up a copy.



I immediately loved the opening track "Rescue Spreaders", with its hypnotic 5/16 groove on the vibes, while giving us some crunchy guitar riffs. Great energy, and just a wild trip. A couple of other standout tracks almost sound like 2nd Line grooves taken out for a spin through the land of distortion. . . the kind of thing you might hear from 3 blocks away on Bourbon St., wondering where that sound is coming from. "Electric Doorbell Machine", "Power Patriot" and "Fat Redneck Gangster" are all intense, grooving, and loud.



While they don't have a lot of dynamic range, and don't really try a lot of different sounds, they have energy like crazy and love playing in 5/4 time. The guys obviously are having a lot of fun, and some are more listenable than others after a couple repeats.



If you mix Thomas Dolby's "The Key To Her Ferrari" with the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, and mix in a little John Zorn's "Naked City", and you get some idea of what this group is.



Cool stuff -- it will be interesting to see what they come up with next."

Great new album from Garage A Trois

Sam P. Robertson | 07/12/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Power Patriot is Garage A Trois' first album since Marco Benevento replaced founding member guitarist Charlie Hunter, and the album represents a shift away from Hunter's groove influenced funk and towards a more chaotic, dissonant "jazz." However, make no mistake, this album still grooves. Galactic drummer Stanton Moore has spent years in New Orleans as one of the city's most in demand funk and jazz drummers, and his beats ensure that Garage A Trois never reach total dissonance.



Having said that, this album is certainly more dissonant and experimental than any music they have created before, yet strangely listenable. In many ways the addition of Benevento frees Garage A Trois, as his musical vision is much more similar to the weirdness of Skerik and Dillon than Hunter's was. And in live concerts Garage A Trois take these songs to some pretty crazy places, but on the record, melody dominates. The songs are all unusual, written in weird time structures and including an assortment of bizarre noises from Benevento's keyboards, but have strong melodies and riffs that give the songs funky grooves and make them not only listenable but catchy. "Dory's Day Out" and "Electric Door Bell Machine" will get stuck in your head, and the riffs in "Power Patriot" and "Fragile" are pure rock and roll, while "Purgatory" offers spaced out bliss and "Computer Crimes" a glimpse of Marco Benevento's mad genius at work. Garage A Trois still shine brightest on a live stage but this studio effort is rock solid, great grooves and melody, and plenty of impressive instrumental weirdness. Definitely the place to start with this band."