PARADIGMS

Be warned!! This is not the same Maelstrom you are used to. After only having listened to their amazing debut album, I was hungry for more. I searched high and low for this and finally found a copy. I listened to it and immediately was disappointed. This album has a STRONG R.I.O influence and is not at all the charming Canterbury style jazz rock that the first album is. It is jarring, it lacks normal tempos, and is about as R.I.O as R.I.O gets. So if that's your thing pick it up, if you are looking for more of the same then unfortunately you will not find it here. That said it makes good background music.

No progressive rock here just pure avant jazz.

There is no singing, just a tinkling of vocalizations. Aside from that the music is very sparse. I find it indistinguishable from other similar records and the songs themselves unmemorable. Listening to this album was like listening to cars driving by. I don't find it's presence pleasant. On the flip side the music is quite inoffensive for Avant due to the spacey instrumentation. I also like that instead of becoming less "weird" music, Maelstrom developed into a different kind of quirky, which really gives them an interesting discography.

Overall very meh, only people I'd recommend this to are people interested in an ambient avant jazz record.