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Reviews

Avant Garden — Maelstrom
(Blackfish BKFS-01, 2001, CD)

Maelstrom Cover art

This Sacramento-based quartet has been kicking around since the early 90s, evolving and improving all the time. Folks who used to attend the Exposé Concert Series shows may remember them as Spiritcircle, when they played a few of our shows in the 1986-87 timeframe. Since then, they lost the keyboard player, picked up a frontman on sax and flute, ditched the singer, and went 100% instrumental. What we have here is the band’s first release, an aggressive tour-de-force of high-energy psychedelic and jazz-rock infected instrumental progressive, twisting and turning, with constantly evolving compositions that never let up. The disc opens with “Dragon Feed” — don’t be fooled by the title, this is ten minutes of raw incessant power often vaguely reminiscent of Hillage-era Gong, with fiery interchanges between sax and guitar. This type of intense dialog continues on “Archimedes Tub” for another ten minutes, this time introducing flute in a few passages. The band eases up some with “Oceania,” a hauntingly beautiful melody led by flute set against pastoral guitar, at least for a few minutes until it all catches fire again, then closes with a percussive section with guest didgeridoo by Steve Roach. The sidelong closer “Path of the Farwinds” opens with gentle shimmering passages with glissando guitars and eventually works up to a psychedelic sax and guitar frenzy, twisting through a number of sections before finding a relaxed groove. In all, an excellent (and long overdue) debut. Highly recommended.

by Peter Thelen, Published 2001-12-01

Be prepared: "Dragon Feed" finds Avant Garden exploding onto the scene with a sudden vengeance, potentially melting your voice coils and shattering your eardrums. They then waste no time hitting their stride and holding it firmly throughout the disc. This instrumental quartet brings a number of thoughts to mind, not the least of which are the lengthy adventures of You-era Gong, with a strong sax / flute presence and a lithe yet powerful rhythm section. Perhaps they are to Gong what Yeti is to zeuhl? There's a very nice mission creep from a modern edge to a more 70s vintage attack and back, most often determined by the tone and approach of the guitar. Another pivotal factor is the sax and flute, where transitions from the latter to the former tend to direct changes from the tensely winding to the blissfully unwound. All members have their chance to burn, often at the same time, as they navigate various time zones with ease, spending much of it in threes, though sometimes I haven't got a clue what time it is. Tucked within the hip groovers and frenetic "maelstroms" are luscious excursions of flute and acoustic guitar-led folk-psych, lovingly made for a warm summer night's trip under the stars. Avant Garden may not be silly but they sure are fun. Yet another cool band from California has me wondering: Is it something in the water or in the Kool-Aid?

by Mac Beaulieu, Published 2001-12-01

The debut disc from this California-based progressive quartet most definitely cooks. Picture listening to the track “Teacher” from Jethro Tull’s Benefit album. Remember the part where the whole band takes off on an instrumental flight? That will give you a pretty good idea of Avant Garden’s approach. Every one of the five lengthy cuts here shifts into overdrive at some point and features the band blazing away at very brisk tempos. Guitarist Brian Gould evokes the heavy rock element of Martin Barre, the psychedelic overtones of Steve Hillage, and the shredding attack of John Goodsall. Flamp Sorvari also heavily influences the tracks on alto sax and flute, and the overall sound of the band is completely different depending upon his choice of instrument. The sax work is brash and bold with a strong resemblance to Van der Graaf Generator’s David Jackson and his sense of barely controlled chaos. The flute sound, on the other hand, is gentle with folk overtones that are reminiscent of the pastoral Long Hello albums or perhaps Ian Anderson in Tull’s Songs from the Wood phase. There are also hints of ethnic sounds (such as guest artist Steve Roach on didgeridoo and some heavy percussion) that are slightly Ozric in nature. Overall this is an extremely impressive debut disc from this instrumental progressive band that generates tremendous energy. You can’t go wrong with this one.

by David Ashcraft, Published 2001-12-01

Filed under: New releases, Issue 23, 2001 releases

Related artist(s): Steve Roach, Avant Garden

 

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