CORNER OF THE WORLD

A few days ago received "Corner of the World", the latest SOLUS3 album by courtesy of my friend Ian Blackaby bassist of LUNAR DUNES, already had heard and reviewed their first release "The Sky Above the Roof", so I knew what to expect, but this guys still surprised me.

SOLUS3 is a relatively new band formed with four members of the Psychedelic LUNAR DUNES (Ian Blackaby, Julia Thorton, Krupa MaNomay Pattni and Hamilton Lee) plus Francesco Filizzola and a couple guests. This curiosity is what makes this album more Surprising, being that two bands with almost the same members, have such a different style, genre and atmosphere without allowing the quality to suffer.

Being that I received the album before it was officially released, and I don't like to review albums before they are in the market, had enough time to listen it carefully, and even when I knew their style from the first release "The Sky Above the Roof", the excellent "Corner of the World" caught me by surprise, because in a year, they have evolved and reached a maturity that would take much more time to most bands.

The album starts with the Spacey, atmospheric and Jazz oriented "Unfolded", where the delicacy of the piano and harp is enhanced by the beautiful voice of Krupa MaNomay in a delightful contrast with the percussion, trumpet and sudden throat singing explosions by Francesco Filizzola. The atmosphere is absolutely oneiric, like some sort of PINK FLOYD playing in a 1950's cabaret, a solid start for a solid album.

"Tricked by a Monster" is the only track of the album where the guest vocalist Jemma Freeman adds her tougher and dramatic voice, creating a Blues & Spacey sound, again the rest of the band is impeccable with the addition of Larry Whelan in the keys and sax.

"Lollardy" is one of my favorite tracks, even when the style is as usual jazzy and atmospheric, this time the piano shares the lead with the harp, while the trumpet hiding in the background adds a melancholic touch. The bells effect is just the cherry at the top of the pie, another extremely beautiful musical piece.

"Corner of the World" begins with an almost tribal introduction where the vocals and percussion are simply impressive. now the Jazzy edge has been replaced by some sort of oriental ambient supported by percussion and the strong bass of Ian Blackaby....Jazz, Space Rock, Psychedelia and Ethnic in one album, SOLUS3 is by far one of the most versatile bands I ever heard.

"Porn Jam" is an intriguing song, starting by the name and ending with the mysterious vocal performance of Krupa using her voice as an instrument instead of singing words, don't ask me about styles, moods or genres, because I doubt anybody can answer this properly, it's just beautiful Prog music that can't be pigeonholed in any category.

"Reich" reminds me a lot of "Tubular Bells" by MIKE OLDFIELD, the richness of the instrumentation with the constant variations on one theme, adding a new instrument each time a passage is repeated is absolutely fantastic, specially because few bands use harp so massively as OPUS3. I don't know if the band intended this, but in some sections reminds me of Venezuelan harp music....A real box of surprises.

The album ends with "Pumori", an 11:00 minutes epic that I won't even try to describe, because the way Jazz, Melodic Prog and Space rock mix with ethnic influence is created to be listened and descriptions can spoil the listening experience, just will say that it's a fantastic expression of talent, imagination combined with brilliant arrangements and some unexpected or even shocking passages.

It's obvious for this reviewer that SOLUS3 has developed incredibly since the already excellent "The Sky Above the Roof", which I rated with 4 solid stars, so I have no alternative than to give the next logical step and rate "Corner of the World" with 5 stars, being that it doesn't have a single weak moment that reveals a obsession with perfection with constant variations and brilliant arrangements.

Giving this rating to an Eclectic band with Jazz elements is not normal in me, because Symphonic Prog is my real passion and obviously I enjoy more this genre, but I wouldn't be fair if my musical preferences stopped me to give a perfect rating to an album that clearly deserves it, no matter what genre it's ascribed to.

Five stars from Ivan Melgar is something worth following up on--and I did. Found Corner on Bandcamp and have been listening to it three times over now for the past two or three hours. This is awesome stuff--eclectic in the truests sense of the word as SOLUS3 has drawn from so many musical styles and influences to make this album of amazing music. I'd have been more prone to place this one in the space/psychedelia category, though. It is so wonderful to hear the harp being used more and more in prog (also prominant in Frequency Drift and SKE's releases this year), and here it is an essential and usually central instrument of all arrangements--though the interplay between harp, bass and drum are truly the most compelling and interesting element to these jazzy spacey jams.

1. "Unfold" (9:46) is so SOUIXIE AND THE BANSHEES (her unparalleled cover of Disney's The Jungle Book's "Trust in Me") BRAINTICKET, Popol Vuh, Amun Düül II, and, now Vespero. (18/20)

2. "Tricked by a Monster" (9:26) Many times on this LP am I tickled to hear some Reggae sounds: here the bass, occasionally guitar chords or percussives. Guest singer Jemma Freeman brings so much Donna Summer-like soul to this space jam. Awesome trip! (18/20)

3. "Lollardy" (4:15) takes us on a totally different trip: an industrialized harp-bass and trumpet trance dance; part "Blade Runner Blues," part 21st Century Miles Davis, part Celtic funeral march, this is a song unlike any you have ever heard. (9/10)

4. "Corner of the World" (6:42) returns us to a kind of Reggaed SOUL II SOUL jam--just as S2S used to do to us, it's filled with cameo appearances of all sorts of totally unexpected instruments, sounds, tricks. As a matter of fact, the only thing fairly 'normal' in this song is--surprise!--the rather straightforward drumming! Love the wild harp playing around 4 minutes in! (7/10)

5. "Porn Jam" (4:46) again brings me back to BRAINTICKET--especially the voice of pleasure and ecstacy Krupa here pulls off. Etheric and angelic, yet sultry and very sexual. Weird horn/synth at 3:00 kind of 'ruins the mood' a bit. Nice groove from the bass, drum & harp rhythm section. (8/10)

6. "Reich" (7:54) is my favorite. It is mesmerizing and hypnotic yet the bass and harp inter-playing are so fascinating. Very Celtic-New Age yet entirely jazz-fusion--especially thanks to surprises at 3:00 (Japanese koto-sounding harp section) and synth-saw at 5:00. (There is an unfortunate period where rapid percussive beat land harp and bass lose their entrainment. Just enough to 'awaken' the listener from his/her blissful transport. Quite reminiscent of the amazing ENO/LARAAJI Ambient 3: Day of Radiance album. (14/15)

7. "Pumori" (11:01) reminds me of a beautifully drawn out, free form version of Jazzmaster 4 PAUL HARDCASTLE & HELEN ROGERS' "Emerald Stardust." Love the "Shhh!" and "You can go to bed now" after the 9:00 mark. Outstanding fade out/end. (18/20)

Wow! What can I say! A totally unexpected trip (four times continuously now!) The only thing missing is the pleasure den. Oh, well. Great music, great creativity, great album. Not sure this is a prog masterpiece, though it is a masterpiece of progressive creativity.

B/four stars; an excellent expression of eclectic progressive rock music; not quite a masterpiece yet delightful for its unexpectedness.

SOLUS 3 is a relative newcomer to the UK indie scene. They didn't stir up much commotion so far but the potential of their trip-hop nu.jazz mix could change that in the future. I'd say they will have to work on their songwriting though, both in terms of variation, depth and memorable moments

The album starts with the easy-going trip-hop of 'Unfold', in a style very close to MASSIVE ATTACK's 1994 album 'Protection', but substituting the samples with some cool and airy spacey-jazz musicianship. This adds a resemblance to NO-MAN, specifically their album 'Returning Jesus'. A good start, nothing new under the sun but nicely executed, one for fans of new-age-y trip-hop.

'Tricked by a Monster' continues the mood, with a lazy dub rhythm and prominent acoustic/reverb effects on the vocals. This album is a production marvel for sure. The vocals get more expressive reminding me a bit of TRICKY's "Maxinquaye", be it less experimental unfortunately. The supporting male rap vocals are low and whisper-y, completing the TRICKY resemblance. Nice touches of harp and Rhodes let in that new-age-y vibe again.

By the end of the second song, the album starts losing momentum and the instrumental "Lollardy" is the last song that fully convinces before the album starts dragging on for another half hour, continuing the same old dub pace, similar melodies and no change whatsoever in the arrangements compared to the preceding songs. Due to the lack of memorable moments, the interesting impression of "MASSIVE ATTACK on spacey jazz herbs" gradually fades to an anonymous and unremarkable listening experience. The band has their sound just right but they lack the guts to further explore and experiment around it.

I can't exactly see the Eclectic Prog in this, let alone the Prog. The band tag their music as "post-jazz post-punk chamber dub" which is a neat description of what it is: trip-hop with some nu.jazz touches, and this album could be the result of MASSIVE ATTACK teaming up with a nu.jazz artist like H.P. MOLVAER. It sets a nice groove and mood but it lacks the songwriting excellence of the former as well as the more daring and exciting improvisational side of the latter. Overall, nice trip-hop-light but not impressed at all. 2.5 stars