Search - Vital Information :: Show 'Em Where You Live

New fusion dignity !!!

Jazzcat | Genoa, Italy Italy | 11/17/2003

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This album and the previous from the band (Where we come from) redifine the world fusion givin' it a new interpretation, a new dignity and a new uptodateness. What the guys in the band did in the last few years was startin' a new exploration of their musical languages in order to rediscover their roots and to be able to find new ways of modern expressions through music. In the end this process paid. Here we have a strong album but more than anything else a strong new interpretation of fusion music. The recipe is: old instruments, new ideas. Hammond b3, Fender Rhodes, accordion, clean guitars, small drumset, .. used to play new musical visions. Not bad. The music: there's a lot of Jazz, but there's a lot of fusion too that's for sure but in the meantime here we are very far from the elevator music known a s fusion during the eighties. It's hard fusion, really near Jazz, there's a lot of improvisation and there are ideas. Wow! That's the best thing in the end! This is a strong album more than anything else because of its musical ideas. And of course because of the musicianship displayed by all the guys involved. Gambale, Coster, Smith and Browne they are perfectionists and here they prove their abilities. But I repeat, this album has contents: I didn't believe at first. This album is a Kickass. This music is a lot far from the kind of cheesy fusion played by the band in "Ray of hope" (which was not bad but maybe a little bit commercial). Here we have a heavy hammond jazz with a Kick. But this is only the dress. The substance is a new vocabulay strongly rooted in Jazz but with a modern fusion spice! It is a sort of Weather Report meet Tribal Tech meet Jimmy Smith kind of music. There is a true artistic approach. No commercial hooks here. And the more you go inside the album, the more you go on with the tracks 5, 6, ... 8, ... 10 the more experimental (but in the right way) the music goes!! I want to make my compiments to the band for this music and for their will to play fusion music in the new millenium against all music actual trends. This is surely fusion at his best."

HEROIN ANYONE?

ryan perry | Waterdown, Ontario Canada | 10/05/2004

(5 out of 5 stars)

"WOW, I literally just popped this cd into my CD player, and I am completely blown away. So blown away that my grahamr is absolutly terrrible....Steve Smith really opened me up to Vital Informaiton through his DVD set "History of the Drum Beat". As soon as I first heard this band, I knew I had to buy this CD. Definatly one of my best purchases in a long time. I would say since LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT or DREAM THEATER (check them out). Again, words can't express how much I love this band now. All the tracks are instrumental, which I absolutly love, and the acordian is definatly something that I am not used to, but it rocks none the less. I love the combination of jazz/funk and rock, and it goes together so well.A MUST HAVE FOR FUSION/PROGRESSIVE HEADS EVERYWHERE!!!"