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Cloud over Jupiter — Atomic Jupiter
(Bandcamp Melodic Revolution Records 22250, 2024, CD / DL)

by Peter Thelen, Published 2024-09-10

Atomic Jupiter Cover art

Cloud Over Jupiter began around ten years ago as the project of multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Jerry King, collaborating with other musicians that he has worked with in varying capacities, often having contributed to their projects along the way as well. Atomic Jupiter is the fourth COJ release (actually 2018’s Spaceship Landing in a Cemetery by John Shirley and Jerry King could almost be considered a COJ album as well, though technically it isn’t) and it came to be much like the earlier releases, using whatever musician friends were on hand and available to execute King’s compositions and arrangements, sometimes sharing in those duties as well. Categorists (those who need to categorize things — I just made that word up) might want to say this is progressive rock, well informed by psychedelic, experimental, jazz, and a number of other styles all at once — but not your typical proggy-prog that looks backward to the past for its inspiration. Who’s on board this time? Jerry King plays a lot of things, mostly things with strings (guitars and bass), but he’s also credited with trombone, oboe synth, and such. Also on board on select tracks: guitarists Richie Castellano, Kevin Stellman, Casey Clark, Ron Anderson, Nick Didkovsky, Steve Kuehn, Pete Prown, and Derek Pavlic; bassists Jamie Bruhn, Dereck Higgins, and Fred Hodshon; keyboard / piano players Amanda Chaudhary, Michele King (plus clarinet and lead and backing vocals too), Dave Newhouse (plus all manner of saxes, horns and lyrics on some tracks), drummers Paul Sears, George Newhouse, Rick Parnell, Chad Wardwell, Travis Plantico, Pete Zolli, and Bill Jungwirth; singers Gary Maiullo and Mark Larson; Ian Beabout, who mixed and mastered everything and played some flute too. Sorry if I missed anybody. Many of these players (guitarists and drummers) are on for part of a song, then another picks up where the other left off… I know that sounds messy and confusing, but  it all works splendidly well. Most of the cuts are instrumentals, but the vocals where they appear are excellent. Standout tracks include the somewhat experimental “Lazarus” and “Leviathan! Leviathan!,” with “Lord of the Flies” moving from ambient to snarly hard rock, but my personal favorites are “Love under the Blue Oyster Cloud” and the beautifully melodic “Levitation to Eden,” but quite honestly every one of the album’s ten songs is outstanding in every way, encompassing a bounty of stylistic variety.

Filed under: New releases, 2024 releases

Related artist(s): Dave Newhouse (Manna / Mirage), Paul Sears, Nick Didkovsky, Jerry King / Cloud over Jupiter, Amanda Chaudhary

More info
http://cloudoverjupitermusic.bandcamp.com/album/atomic-jupiter

 

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