An absolute diamond, Genius, Brilliant! Amazing - Wow!
T. Klaase | Orange Park, Florida United States | 04/30/2003
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This record is a fresh air to a drowning man. Inspiring. Innovative. Smart compositions. Talent w/ technology. Herbie Hancock in the future times 10! Check it out! Buy it! Records like this make buying 3/4 CD's a week worth while. Lunch for your ears."
Future of Jazz
Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 04/25/2002
(5 out of 5 stars)
"It's always dangerous being identified with the future of anything, let alone jazz, that rather hidebound original American music. Yet Matthew Shipp, the forward thinking pianist and proprietor of the Thirsty Ear label seems to be delivering on his promise to provide jazz in a genuinely original setting, with visionary releases like Light Made Lighter by Craig Taborn and Spring Heel Jack's Masses.Soul at the Hands of the Machine by drummer Guillermo Brown strikes me as the most successful of the handful of jazz-oriented Thirsty Ear releases. Sounding like jazz meets hip-hop filtered through industrial trance and world music, the music is really uncatagorizable, though eminently listenable (usually--Inside the Purple Box seems a little over the top).Really, this is quite remarkable music. Maybe too out there for some (perhaps most) listeners, but perfectly suitable of the adventurous."