Search - String Cheese Incident :: Untying the Not

The evolution continues..

spiral_mind | Pennsylvania | 03/16/2004

(4 out of 5 stars)

"A remarkable group, this String Cheese Incident. They play around with everything from rock and jazz to Latin, bluegrass, psychedelia, pop and reggae. They have no electric guitar - that slot's filled by acoustic/electric mandolin and violin instead. Their occasional live covers range from John Coltrane to Stevie Wonder, Nirvana, Queen, Jimi Hendrix and the Talking Heads. So needless to say.. they're not your average jam band. (And if the phrase 'jam band' scares you, rest assured that these guys easily avoid the endless noodling & soloing that's given talented improvising groups a bad name in some circles.)



And they tend to make and lose fans with each new album, it seems: just when we get used to whatever new mix of ingredients they've whipped up on the last one, they change all the rules. With UtN they've made the most radical changes yet. The tunes are more often slow and somewhat shadowy (and the lyrics a little more somber) than what's come before. They explored the possibilities of really utilizing the studio this time around rather than making a straightforward representation of their energetic live sound. Transitions between tracks float by in a haze of odd noises and voice snippets floating in the ether. The flow of the album is split into thirds; two sets of rock-SCI-style tunes sandwich a string of four accomplished instrumentals in the middle (with a brief a-capella bluegrass interlude squeezed in as well).



The instrumentals, more than anything else, show what a change of pace this disc is for the SCI. "Orion's Belt" and "Elijah" are gorgeous pieces of half-psychedelia burnished with some lovely sax work, like Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon taken to a new planet. The even more trippy "Mountain Girl" floats in an endless dreamy haze of grooving drums and swirling synths, topped off with a rambling female voice echoing across the vast sky. And "Valley of the Jig" borrows a cue from the Afro-Celt Sound System, combining a mad-fiddling traditional reel with a set of booty-shaking techno beats. The regular songs are mostly on the more subdued side (though "Sirens" adds a hopeful reggae-fied chorus and "Looking Glass" is as sunny as the band's ever gotten), and the combined vocal harmonies are as sweet as ever.



While it's not their sunniest album, and not really the best SCI intro for newcomers (that would be Outside Inside), Untying the Not is a remarkably solid and well-crafted disc nonetheless. This is music that's thoughtful, intelligent, and pulled off with an exquisite skill no matter the mood. Pick up a different album or two, catch them live if it's at all possible.. and then spin this disc for a bigger glimpse of what they're capable of.



Edit: since I wrote all that, they've also put out a newer version of this album with a bonus disc. If you're looking to buy UtN I heartily recommend it instead of the single CD. The bonus disc has four studio tracks (20 min) left off the album: "These Waves," "Emma's Dream," "Dirk," and the full version of "Lonesome Road Blues," plus four live tracks (50 min) that show what magical sunshine they're really capable of onstage: "Skyway Jam", "It Is What It Is," "Shine" and "Texas." The whole package gives a much better picture of the SCI's whole range and I'd say it's almost as good an introduction as Outside Inside. If you're unsure about popping for a whole three-disc live set, give this a try first."

Hmm...

John Cummings | Oregon | 02/01/2005

(3 out of 5 stars)

"It's certainly interesting, totally different from anything String Cheese has done before. At times it seems like too much of a change in direction. Nevertheless, there are some good songs on here, but also a lot of stuff that sounds out of place and pointless.

The overall sound feels like a melting pot of different stuff that has been so mixed up it's hard to tell where everything came from. Fans of the band's live work will probably not like this too much, since there is virtually no jamming. There are some interesting instrumental songs in the middle of the album, but they are definitely not jams and they don't really show String Cheese's excellent musicianship, which is kind of a bummer. Many times it's hard to tell what instruments are doing what. I'm not really sure if this a good sign or not, but it gives the album a unified feel, while still having a wide variety of styles. If you've neve heard the String Cheese Incident before, stay away from this album for now because it's a bad representation of what the band sounds like.

The four songs that were cut "These Waves" "Emma's Dream" "Dirk" and the full version of "The Lonesome Road Blues" are actually better than most of the songs that made it on to the final album and it's kind of a mystery why they didn't make it. This is a fairly short album and there was definitely room for them.

This album takes some getting used to, but it's not bad, just very different. Most String Cheese fans will find it unsettling."