FISH RISING

From the sizzling opening of "Solar Musick Suite" to the unrestrained cacophony of "Aftaglid" it is quite obvious that this album would fit just as well under the "Gong"-umbrella. That should come as little surprise, when you see the musicians credited. I do feel that the music gets much more elbow room, which leads to more instrumental and jamming passages and ultimately longer songs. The "You" album showed signs of these progressions, whereas "Fish Rising" sounds more full fledged and dedicated to these aspects of the music(I am not saying that "You" is inferior by any means.) In my wacky mind it sounds something like "You" graduated and sought out the wild and free-form world, where it´s allowed to dance on the kitchen table, sing with a mouth full of asparges and pop a tab of acid at the dentist without anyone pointing fingers...

My mouth waters up every time I put this album on. The opening is like slipping into a hot bath with millions of small electric underwater fireflies zippin about in it. -Well, or some other dangerously disturbed imagery that entails space midgets and a mountain of Roque fort cheese... This is pure imagination-gasoline and I feel sorry for the peeps out there, who aren´t capable of letting themselves go to the blistering sounds of Steve´s guitar, that will sweep you off your feet and shoot you right out of the solarsystem. There are times on this album, where you could swear that he is playing on a borrowed lazergun from Han Solo.

I can´t review this without mentioning the formidable "Aftaglid". What a song!!! I am a drummer and self taught, which means that I have no real knowledge of time signatures and chords. I hope you´ll catch my drift anyways... What I find truly amazing about this song, is that it doesn´t follow any kind of melody structure. It´s almost as if the riffing is played AROUND the melody. It is the power of suggestion, and therefore the song is never handed over on a silver platter. If that isn´t progressive - then I´m a lobster with weird musical tastes.

I would imagine, that this music takes the human mind the closest it can get to understanding the terrifying experience of being smashed to pieces by thundering white waterstreams and pushed down in huge razorsharp boulders from beneath. The last swim of the salmon....

A Canterburyan masterpiece that doesn´t smell at all. -

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