Search - Medeski Martin & Wood :: Farmer's Reserve (Dig)

The album some Medeski Martin and Wood fans love to hate, Farmer's Reserve, departs from the band's funk-based, organ-driven work to cut more experimental grooves. Even on a bread and butter day, MMW can be on the cutting edge, but this mostly acoustic 1997 album, now offered in a remastered edition, is something else. Comprised of one continuous three-part improvisation plus epilogue, it's a trancelike affair that points back to the Art Ensemble of Chicago with its use of kitchen sink percussion effects and toy instruments, classic sci fi movies with its eerie keyboard effects, the minimalist school with its repeating sections and Charles Mingus with the heavy resonance of Chris Woods' bass lines. While this music may be an acquired taste for even the most open-minded MMW followers, it hangs together quite well and arguably is more compelling than the middling efforts from which the excellent 2006 CD, Out Louder, came back. --Lloyd Sachs