TIME OF THE GRETS

One of the USA's most innovative avant-prog bands, UT GRET was formed in Santa Cruz, California as early as 1981 after multi-instrumentalist Joee Conroy had moved from his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky in 1979. A huge fan of bands like Gong, the Muffins and the various Fred Frith projects (amongst others), Conroy struck up a friendship with the similar musical mindedness of multi-wind player David Stilley, whom he convinced to follow him back to his native Kentucky.

Over those early years the duo recorded a great deal of what would become UT GRET's debut album TIME OF THE GRETS. The band name is a composite of the word UT which is the lowest note on a medieval musical organ, apparently the tone of C and GRET which is said to be a reference to a 12th century European invasion. This debut album is somewhat of a mystery as to when it was released actually. Some sources say 1990, some say 1996 and others will claim 1998. On the band's own Bandcamp site though they say 1994 so i'm going with that one.

This band is known for its far reaching expansions of the avant-prog world which bridges world folk (Gamelan, Americana, European) along with jazz, progressive rock, RIO, Canterbury jazz and zeuhl amongst many other styles. On this debut Conroy alone handles guitars, chapman stick, violin,bass, viol de gamba, santoor, psaltry, autoharp, cheng, shamisen, pipa and zitherphonics, whereas Stilley contributes saxophones, keyboards, bassoon, clarinets, flutes, wind sythesizer, percussion and midi mapping. The duo is joined by seven guests who play guitars, drums, piano, flute, cheddar and voice.

TIME OF THE GRETS is the typical angular avant-prog experience meaning that it's pretty much as far removed from popular music as bands like Henry Cow were during their 1970s heyday. While the general flow is on the RIO side of prog, the various accoutrements that come and go take various tones and timbres, rhythms and time signatures from the multitude of aforementioned genres that make this debut quite a wild ride with each track taking on a distinct personality unlike the rest. As one could expect the opening near 10-minute "Friend of the Cow" is very much in the vein of the great RIO pioneer Henry Cow" whereas the near 18-minute magnum opus "Magma Futura" offers a cool zeuhl treat only with the psychedelic aspects of classic Daevid Allen led Gong.

While primarily instrumental "Magma Futura" also features the few traces of vocals however in accordance to the Magma inspirations they are unintelligible and possible in an invented language of some sort. The incessant zeuhl rhythms are fortified with those warm Canterbury jazz sounds from Gong's "Angel's Egg" and "You" glazed over with trippy space rock sounds including glissando guitar playing. The track somehow manages to add a lengthy guitar jam and a gypsy swing bassoon segment with a fluttering flute accompaniment before melting down into a free improvisation avant-jazz outburst along with unhinged vocal gymnastics, or more accurately nonsensical utterances in the vein of Mike Patton at his weirdest.

"Silly Hat Frontier" is the weirdest and most detached from reality type of track i've heard in a long time sounding something like a jazz version of Yugen having a psychedelic journey with Sun Ra. It has sort of an Oingo Boingo bounce with Balkan gypsy swing cadences and John Zorn inspired sax squawking. In fact it's almost like a bunch of musicians competing for attention and each becoming more aggressive until it all melts away into a majorly bizarre escape hatch into something more akin to John Cage and other 20th century avant-garde classical composers with each instrumentalist pointillistically punctuating the freakfest with his / her own interpretation of reality. Mind blown for sure, but in a good way!

The grand finale comes in the form of the 19 1/2 minute "Time & Revolution" which immediately starts out as a skronk-fest with wind instruments erupting like fireworks and a bass piano roll that keeps the rhythmic drive. The guitar is allowed off its leash and delivers some Frith inspired angularity with shrill tones and titillating timbres. The angularity is set to full throttle with incessant brutal prog time signatures and each instrument seemingly existing in its own dimension bleeding over into our own. With nearly 20 minutes of freakery unleashed it becomes clear that UT GRET are the USA's answer to the most extreme avant-prog that can be experienced with complexities beyond belief and few life lines if any for the feint of heart stuck in the familiar world of melody, harmony and typical song structure.

This album is really the stuff avant-prog dreams are made of. It delivers on every level. The musicianship is top notch as everyone on board delivers like an academically trained maestro and the creativity is beyond friggin cool. The composiitons are chock filled with so many variations and twists and turns that it is impossible to keep a tally. This is a true transcendental album that completely divorces itself from convention but through the process of mimicry also firmly makes references to prog giants of the past but i'm not talking Jethro Tull and Pink Floyd here, i'm talking about the freakiest and most lysergic masters of the past. This will totally appeal to diehard fans of Henry Cow, Univers Zero, Present, Yugen and other similarly minded freakazoids. My kind of uncompromising avant-prog bar none.