Progarchives, the progressive rock ultimate discography

IT'S UNDERSTOOD

Estradasphere

RIO/Avant-Prog


From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Estradasphere It's Understood album cover
4.05 | 62 ratings | 3 reviews | 32% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

Write a review

Buy ESTRADASPHERE Music
from Progarchives.com partners
Studio Album, released in 2000

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Hunger Strike (19:30 )
2. Cloud Land (1:04 )
3. The Transformation (8:25 )
4. Danse of Tosho and Slavi/Randy's Desert Adventure (7:29 )
5. The Trials and Tribulations of Parking On Your Front Lawn (4:14 )
6. The Princes (2:24)
7. Los Dias Sin Dias (2:52)
8. XQuiQ (2:43)
9. Hunnahpu and Xbalanque (3:29)
10. Spreading The Disease (8:10)
11. Planet Sparkle/Court Yard Battle 1 (2:21)
12. D(flat) Hell (12:16)

Total Time: 74:56

Line-up / Musicians

- Jason Schimmel / guitars, banjo, piano, throat voice, vocals
- John Whooley / saxophones, throat voice, vocals, percussion
- Timb Harris / violin, trumpet, mandolin, throat voice, vocals
- Tim Smolens / bass, throat voice, vocals, keyboards, production & mixing
- Dave Murray / drums, didgeridoo, flute, jaminator, throat voice, vocals

With:
- Aaron Seeman / accordion (1,4,5)
- Joel Robinow / lead vocals (3)
- Luke Kirley / trombone (3)
- George Smith / mystery rap (3)
- MonoMan (Dave Murray) / noises (12)

Releases information

Artwork: Arena Reed with Joey Ryken (photo)

CD Web Of Mimicry ‎- WoM005 (2000, US)

Thanks to licantropho for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
Edit this entry

Buy ESTRADASPHERE It's Understood Music



ESTRADASPHERE It's Understood ratings distribution


4.05
(62 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music(32%)
32%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection(39%)
39%
Good, but non-essential (21%)
21%
Collectors/fans only (6%)
6%
Poor. Only for completionists (2%)
2%

ESTRADASPHERE It's Understood reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by siLLy puPPy
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR PSIKE, JRF/Canterbury, P Metal, Eclectic
4 stars ESTRADASPHERE was formed in 1998 in Santa Cruz, CA and a part of the extended Mr Bungle family as the band was formed by members of Trey Spruance's (at the time) side project Secret Chiefs 3. This musical ensemble was founded by violinist and trumpet player Timba Harris and guitarist / banjoist Jason Schimmel of SC3 fame along with drummer Dave Murray. On their debut release IT'S UNDERSTOOD they take the Mr Bungle, Frank Zappa and John Zorn approach of applying technical wizardry, healthy genre shuffling and frenetic instrumental workouts that created mind-bending fusion styles such as "Bulgarian Surf", "Romanian Gypsy- Metal", and "Spaghetti Eastern" and sounded like "Psychedelic-Sci-fi", "Gypsy-Metal-Jazz" and "Epic-Cinema-Thon," as described by the band itself.

Stylistically ESTRADASPHERE is somewhat similar to Secret Chiefs 3 from which they sprang forth only whereas SC3 used Middle Eastern music and Surf Rock as their template to experiment upon, ESTRADASPHERE uses the violin saturated styles of Balkan gypsy music and Klezmer as their foundation. That means generally speaking they begin a track with an energetic violin led outburst of rhythmic gypsy sounds that ride down the Mr Bungle highway as they genre skip and incorporate everything from bluegrass and klezmer to death metal and video game chiptune. Zappa influences are abundant with whimsical titles ("The Trials And Tribulations Of Parking On Your Front Lawn") and hilarious musical contradictions ("Danse Of Tosho And Slavi / Randy's Desert Adventure") where frenetic death metal can sit side by side with placid slowed down classical violin solos. Same goes for the death metal meets yoga meditation chant on "Spreading The Disease" which finds evil sounding metal riffs alternating with relaxing soccer mom meditation class instructions!

"The Transformation" and "Planet Sparkle / Court Yard Battle 1" both find use for cleverly crafted use of classic old school video game music. The album is bookended by two monster tracks with the opener "Hunger Strike" clocking in at 19 minutes and 30 seconds. Both are based in the same Balkan gypsy folk music but deviate from their belying intros manyfold and seemingly leave no genre stone unturned in their wake and if that weren't enough ESTRADASPHERE which is a band of highly trained virtuosos is quite playful in creating some of the most sophisticated and convoluted progressive rock time signature changes that never sound forced and always succeed in blowing the mind.

ESTRADASPHERE comes off much like Secret Chiefs 3 in their focus on the ethnic elements but is more adventurous and therefore seems a bit like a more refined and less schizophrenic version of Mr Bungle so in effect, the perfect extended family member of one of the most creative branches in the experimental rock universe. IT'S UNDERSTOOD is a highly enjoyable debut and one of my favorites in the band's canon. It is well-paced with the disparate elements utilized for maximum effect while incorporating strong ethnically based hooks that often make you think you've crashed some sort of alternative music festival in Bosnia & Herzegovina or something! Very few musicians could pull off these musical gymnastics with such grace and precision but the members of ESTRADASPHERE truly conjured up some highly addictive musicomania. Another one that will surely please all the adventurous listeners out there.

Review by Wicket
PROG REVIEWER
4 stars There must be a reason I haven't reviewed the discography of Estradasphere. I believe for a time the band didn't have a page on this site.

Yeah, that had to have been the reason, because there is no excuse not to give these guys a listen.

There are two key factors I always use to grade prog albums: innovation and accessibility. Sure, prog music isn't written to hit the billboard charts, but no one is going to listen to Karlheinz Stockhausen's music because it's got a catchy chorus. I've played and listened to many contemporary pieces in college, and although musically and technically they're groundbreaking pieces, once you hear them once, you're not likely going to want to hear them again in the near future. So if you're going to do prog right, make sure its prog you want to come back to over and over again.

That's why the Beatles shook the world with "Sgt. Pepper", each song had a different texture or culture or influence that broke the norm, but each one was catchy and memorable. It completely rewrote the possibility of what music can achieve. From psychedellic, to classic British marching bands to raga to circus music to teary soundtrack string quartets, nearly every musical influence under the sun could be found on that album. The same of which can be said of Estradasphere's albums.

Which is why even during its (relatively) brief tenure, Estradasphere is on of the greatest prog outfits to walk this planet. Bar none.

What other band incporates elements of middle eastern and Turkish music with jazz, surf rock, death metal and video game chip tune music, and actually gets you coming back to listen to it over and over again? Go ahead, I'll wait. In the meantime, I'll wax poetic on their debut album.

Right away, the band comes in with a bang with their 19 minute colossus "Hunger Strike" (the longest song off any of their albums btw). Immediately the Turkish/middle eastern elements come in with Timb Harris's violin, but for the most part this track is very jazz oriented, with multiple sections for each instrumentalist to strut their stuff, like a cool jazz guitar solo by Jason Schimmel that segues into a cool funky flamenco groove. John Whooley's sax is ever present and rips like no one else. Throw in a few seconds of banjo and a few seconds of spastic grindcore beats and you've got yourself a winner. To cool you off after that monstrosity, "Cloud Land" takes you on a 1 minute time capsule back to your Super Mario Bros. playing days (because let's face it, everyone played one of those games at least once).

"The Transformation" is a bit looser with the influences. It's a bit funkier, perhaps even livelier than "Hunger Strike" at times, it's jazzier, it's got cuts of classic 50's soundtrack influences, and even breaks out into full out swing, capping off with a phenomenal display of drums by Dave Murray to close out the song.

The lengthy titled "Dance of Tosho and Slavi / Randy's Desert Adventure" once again goes cultural on us, this time veering more towards Jewish and Greek influences before cutting into early Mastodon-ish metal, verging on full on blastbeats with Whooley wailing and screeching away on the sax like it was a Mars Volta song. This is just loud and busy. It erupts into a flurry of screaming and growling before Whooley's sax fades into a soft, jazz-rock interlude before the metal chords kick in again in a more controlled march before the song closes with a reprise of the opening Jewish/Greek theme.

In case you got tired of all the middle eastern or foreign influences, "The Trials and Tribulations of Parking On Your Front Lawn" goes full bluegrass. Yes. Bluegrass. With some sax, because why the hell not? Oh, and some death metal. For like 30 seconds. Because again, why the hell not? (Sidebar: Schimmel SHREDS the banjo)

Sure, there are some cuts here and there that are very abrupt, but the songs are still listenable, still melodic. Ok, if you're not a big fan of death metal, you may get turned off a bit, but there's no denying the fact that a) these guys are all talented as hell and b) nothing you've ever heard sounds like this and nothing even remotely comes close. "The Princes" is a quick dance of sorts, "Los Dias Sin Dias" is a Spanish influenced ballad, "XQuiQ" is another middle eastern groove with a bit of a side-step kind of beat, while "Hunnahpu and Xbalanque" continues the trend with a banjo lead. I like to consider these four tracks all part of a four movement suite as they all share the same musical influences and for the most part segue nicely into each other.

"Spreading The Disease" is the only iffy one of the lot. It's basically a death metal track build around a sort of yogi meditative thing, although I think lyrically it underpins more religious elements and possibly even hints at rape? It constantly segues between meditative music and death metal breakdown and there's no real synergy or smooth transitions, and overall just feels very uncomfortable to listen to, and that's ok because it's followed by "Planet Sparkle/Court Yard Battle 1", so the happy video game vibes come back and everything's ok! Yay!

This phenomenal groundbreaking album concludes with the second monstrosity "D(b) Hell", clocking in at around 12 minutes, and once again roots around middle eastern dance traditions with some loose jazz improv. Overall it's quieter than "Hunger Strike", and it ends with just annoying noises and screams by the band members and random audience applause thrown in at the end.

So yes, it has its flaws, yes, it's not for everyone, and no, I didn't give it a 5 star despite my raving about it because of these little foibles. It's the abrupt transitions into death metal breakdowns and random noises and clips they throw in that just throw off the whole momentum. That said, it is their first album, and it's more middle eastern/turkish heavy than say "Buck Fever", but it's still the groundwork for an incredible band that released 4 albums in only 6 years. It's an outlier in the world of prog music, groundbreaking musically and culturally, but still listenable, and begs you to come back again and again to hear something new you missed last listen.

4.5

Latest members reviews

5 stars as the star rating says: a masterpiece of progressive music, meaning that it is not merely a demonstration of technical skill, it is an original piece which pushes the boundries and would make other masters of prog applaud. the fact that this album appears so late in the life of progressive mu ... (read more)

Report this review (#72133) | Posted by | Friday, March 17, 2006 | Review Permanlink

Post a review of ESTRADASPHERE "It's Understood"

You must be a forum member to post a review, please register here if you are not.

MEMBERS LOGIN ZONE

As a registered member (register here if not), you can post rating/reviews (& edit later), comments reviews and submit new albums.

You are not logged, please complete authentication before continuing (use forum credentials).

Forum user
Forum password

Copyright Prog Archives, All rights reserved. | Legal Notice | Privacy Policy | Advertise | RSS + syndications

Other sites in the MAC network: JazzMusicArchives.com — jazz music reviews and archives | MetalMusicArchives.com — metal music reviews and archives

Donate monthly and keep PA fast-loading and ad-free forever.