Mark Guiliana: Beat Music! Beat Music! Beat Music!
Author: Mike Flynn
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Musicians: |
BIGYUKI (syn, Fender Rhodes, melodica) |
Label: |
Motéma (CD) |
Magazine Review Date: |
June/2019 |
Media Format: |
CD |
RecordDate: |
date not stated |
New Jersey-born Guiliana has been brewing his hybrid electro-jazz elixir for the best part of two decades now, and yet his latest solo album seems born of our strangely dualistic times. The omnipresence of the digital has given rise to a renewed analogue appreciation – vinyl is just the tip of a very large retro-futurist iceberg. Among forward-thinking musicians this has manifested itself in the passionate embrace of unwieldy Eurorack modular synthesizers, an avalanche of new analogue effects pedals, vintage instruments and strangely psychedelic music to soundtrack this new escapist sonic utopia. Thus Beat Music! Beat Music! Beat Music! is a hymn to all things analogue, from throbbing synth bass, ringing dub reverbs, chugging arpeggiated keyboards and juiced-up electro-grooves -notably on the attitudinal ‘Bullet’ and ‘Roast’. So far, so not jazzy, but there's another agenda being addressed too, which is an equally potent reaction to modern excess – taking the solos out of jazz. This heresy may infuriate some listeners, but Guiliana's highly detailed percussion and the intricacies of the groove, the myriad sonic layers and timbral sophistication of the production beg close attention and reward repeat listening. It's also testimony to the rolling personnel here – which includes former Bowie bandmates Jason Linder and Tim Lefebvre, and Donny McCaslin bassist Jonathan Maron – who maintain the album's sonic integrity such is the strength of their shared vision. If there's one cod-reggae moment too many on the otherwise plaintively epic ‘Human’, the song is soon elevated by its Zappa-ish bass counter-melody under a Vangelis-ian melody that rockets to the stars. On moments like this Guiliana's sound-science becomes truly transcendent.
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