OUT OF THE BLUE

Mackenzie Theory were certainly unique in the Australian context, as an all-instrumental group, playing mostly improvised music, with an electric viola sharing lead duties with guitar. The music isn't dreadfully sophisticated though - most of the pieces revolve around long repetitions of a few set chord changes, with only a couple of pieces ("Opening Number" and "Out Of The Blue") featuring riffs that go beyond the ordinary - over the top of this, guitarist Rob Mackenzie and violist Cleis Pearce jockey for position. Both of them seem to favour playing as fast as possible - in Pearce's case, often at the expense of intonation or melodic comprehension - and one often gets the feeling that they're not really listening to each other. Having said that, there are some genuinely exciting moments on this record ("Out of the Blue", with it's shock-value dynamics, slightly convoluted main riff, and relatively short running time, is the highlight for me). Maybe the album would have been stronger if they'd been allowed more time and budget to work things out in the studio, instead of recording the whole thing 'live in the studio' in one night.