KEW RHÔNE

John Greaves and Peter Blegvad project Kew. Rhône is a jazzy RIO project quite similar to some Henry Cow music. The music is more accessible in this album, though. But it doesn't mean that the band is not RIO or that the music is not crazy and innovative in this album. Lisa Herman does most of the vocals, with the help of the other members and is credited as a main member of the project, along with Greaves and Blegvad.

A kind of a concept album, with many songs having their names containing numerals. The music is primarly jazzy, with great piano, bass and guitar work by Greaves and Blegvad. The album starts with a short interlude and goes directly to a RIO song, Twenty-Two Proverbs, whose lyrics are really proverbs. The instrumental part of the music is rich and diverse.

Seven Scenes From The Painting, the third song, is more jazzy, with great piano, saxophone and vocal work. The title track has good orchestral and piano work, with a very good melody. Pipeline is another jazzy song with good piano and saxophone work, with not much RIO elements. Catalogue Of Fifteen Objects & Their Titles is another RIO song, with good piano intro and many changes and strange elements in the song.

One Footnote has a long brassy intro and a good melody. Three Tenses Onanism is a song with a great piano work and some instrumental craziness in the middle of the song. Nine Mineral Emblems is a good jazzy song with good bass, guitar, piano and drum work, which changes and contains crazy saxophone and guitar solos. Apricot is another RIO song with good musicianship. Gegenstand is the last song, a quiet and somber song that closes the album.

The album is very good and it is the album that made me become interested in RIO. I didn't become a huge fan of RIO, but I enjoy it and I think this album is good both for people who like RIO and for people who don't know RIO very well, because, along with Henry Cow's debut, it blends jazzy songs with crazy RIO songs and are easier to get.