ARTIST:.......Taylors Free Universe
TITLE:........Family Shot
LABEL:........Marvel of Beauty
GENRE:........Jazz
BITRATE:......VBRkbps / 44,1Khz / Joint-Stereo
SOURCE:.......CDDA
TRACKS:.......15
SIZE:.........76,8 MB
RELEASE YEAR: 2005
RIP DATE:.....Aug-03-2005
T R A C K L I S T
--------------------
01. Strategy 02:27
02. M Fisto Rubberphunk 15:11
03. Angel Stairs 03:37
04. Firste Piece 00:24
05. Second Piece 00:20
06. Third Piece 00:21
07. Fourth Piece 00:31
08. Fifth Piece 00:40
09. Sixth Piece 01:13
10. Seventh Piece 00:49
11. Eighth Piece 01:37
12. Ninth Piece 03:59
13. Like A Nervous Car Wreck 04:05
14. The Elephant 07:21
15. Z Return 13:06
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Total 55:41 min
R E L E A S E N O T E S
-------------------------
Prolusion.
The fourth album by Denmark's TAYLOR'S FREE UNIVERSE (TFU
hereinafter), "Family Shot", presents the lineup, which Robin Taylor
calls "alternative", although there are only two musicians who never
were members of TFU before. These are drummer Lars Juul and wind
instrumentalist Kim Menzer, the latter played on "Experimental
Health" by Taylor's Universe (TU hereafter). Like Karsten Vogel, whom
he replaces here, Kim is also of Burnin' Red Ivanhoe fame.
Analysis.
As is typical for TFU, the music on "Family Shot" is entirely
improvised and doesn't contain any overdubs. However, this album
greatly differs from the band's previous output. Following TU ("Once
Again"), TFU takes the step towards the larger audience, which is
justified, taking into consideration that their music is at times
excessively complicated. Here, the basic arrangements are slow nearly
throughout, and only once, on the ninth track, the band goes fast,
jamming highly intensive. Overall, this is another excellent album in
the series, though there are some things that I would like to be done
differently. The album is provided with short intro and outro, both
being plain and ambient, but while the latter comes as the ending of
the last track, which I like better, the former takes the separate
position (Strategy) and, hence, looks to some degree like a foreign
body, because all the further contents are of another story nearly
altogether. The avant-garde Jazz Rock improvisations, that are
located on tracks 4-13 and have the common title Nine Nice & Easy
Pieces, are subjected to the same compositional conception, are good,
completed, and yet, they sound like sketches (especially upon the
first spin), above all due to the pauses between them. The band had
to unite the pieces into one monolithic track; then the result
would've been much more convincing. The other tracks are remarkable
works, and the 15-minute M'Fisto Rubberphunk is just monumental. This
is the world of structured Space Fusion, atmospheric, mysterious and
magical at once. The musicians all bring something different to have
a really thick stratum of sounds. Although rather short, Angel Stairs
is also an excellent composition, following in a similar direction. A
tendency to more dissonant and unusual melodies brings about the
development on the remaining tracks: Like a Nervous Car Wreck, The
Elephant Cure and Z Return. On each of them, save the ending of Z
Return, the band slides somewhere between structured and avant-garde
Space Fusion. The instrumentation combines a rich balance of electric
(guitar, bass, tapes) and acoustic (violin, clarinet, trombone,
drums) sounds spread over the sonic palette in the way that each
player has his own space to maneuver within and still interact with
the others. Excellent stuff too.
Conclusion.
While many improvisational albums of this type tend to be failures,
those by TFU and some others succeed better, at least from a creative
standpoint. Which is probably because these men have a huge
experience in making impromptu music, recording every time they
rehearse or perform. This is TFU's most accessible effort to date,
though it's still more intricate than any of those by Robin Taylor
solo or TU. Those liking "No Commercial Potential" and the like
albums by Djam Karet might be much pleased with "Family Shot" as
well.
http://www.progressor.net/review/taylors_free_universe_2005.html