SPACED OUT

The album cover to the Canadian band SPACED OUT's debut album looks like a heavy metal or hard rock album, while the band name makes me think of Space Rock. The music proved me wrong; because it was far more interesting than I could ever think. This is all instrumental and highly technical complex progressive jazz-rock-fusion with lots of breaks, polyrhythms, twists and turns. Especially the bass player Antoine Fafard is astounding.

There are reminiscences to BRAND X, Allan HOLDSWORTH, MEZZOFORTE, UK and FRANK ZAPPA. Musically this is close to perfect, but a little more melody could've made this album even better. All in all this is a really well played and interesting album if you're into jazz-rock. Perhaps it can be too intriguing for some listeners. Music for the brain!

This band is from Quebec: all the members speak French and they are all VIRTUOSOS!!! The tracks are speechless! They definitely sound like UZEB here! So, this album is modern urban fusion with prog tendencies. Antoine Fafard is really one of the best bassist in the world! He is truly comparable to Pastorius, Jeff Berlin, Alain Caron and Stanley Clarke! The awesome guitarist really sounds like Allan Holdsworth! The keyboardist has a real modern & varied urban sound, a bit like Dave Stewart. Finally, the drummer is very varied and has a perfect sound. The tracks are played with an OUTSTANDING SYNCHRONIZATION, sometimes amazingly fast, and all the instruments take the maximum room: no one really steals the show, so that the instruments are very well balanced. The tracks are very loaded and rather restless. This record, unlike UZEB, is often very dark and bizarre, but it is so well played & composed, and the involved technique is so perfect that it is just more intriguing! Usually, I do not like bizarre and dark compositions: an exception must be made here!

EXTREMELY RECOMMENDED!

Another modern and very interesting jazz-oriented prog group,SPACED OUT's formation was an idea of super-talented bassist Antoine Fafard.He recruited Martin Maheux on drums, Mathieu Bouchard on guitar and Eric St-Jean on the keyboards and after this line-up the band recorded and released an eponymous work in 2000.Strongly inpired by a variety of musical styles and sounds,SPACED OUT presented an instrumental effort with,which sometimes sounds like a lesson of virtuosity,other ones the groovy rhythms are on the front.The music is led by the hyper-complex bass lines of Fafard and the extensive soloing of Bouchard,while keyboardist Eric St-Jean fills the compositions with nice electronic parts and background keyboards.In some spots their music reminds me a lot of DEREK SHERINIAN's solo works with their rich and complicated arrangements,some KING CRIMSON complex parts also pop up,then its time for some accesible jazz/fusion approach close to theIr compatriots UZEB.A great starting step for this instrumental quartet,who did it very well on their debut and could do it much better in the future.Recommended!