PORK

Both frightening cover and ridiculous title should make you warned. This time mr. Taylor goes really Avant, and this is no more enjoyable as much as TAYLOR’S UNIVERSE eponymous debut – for me, at least. It’s fun and challenging, and it’s good as an experiment and some kind of journey (“Lets Runaway and Be Indians” is one of the best song titles I ever known!), still far from ear-hurting noise other Avantgardists trying to produce ;) Unfortunately, this one made me put the whole Taylor’s catalogue aside for a while, but don’t bother much, since I ain’t an Avant lover (only few bands from the whole genre are of my liking). Don’t know if this MUST be recommended…at least try it – it’s worthy.

Well I guess you could say that this is where I get off of the Robin Taylor bus. I've listened to a good cross section of his music from his three different projects and have come to the conclusion that he is one very talented multi-instrumentalist and composer. And he certainly likes to work with like minded people. This is not to say I won't be checking out any more of his music in the future, I just feel like my journey with him has come to an end here. And i'm thankful to be ending it with this album called "Pork" because it's one of his best. The album cover features a young cross-eyed Mary (maybe not) and the music continues to be adventerous and very enjoyable. This is a great album and I believe it was the second release under the TAYLOR'S UNIVERSE band name.

"Sir Vannah" has these intricate sounds that build as the trumpet comes in and plays over top. Some vocal expressions too. The trumpet becomes the focus ala Miles Davis. Great track. "Horsemens Parade" has this intense intro then it settles with organ. Drums, guitar and fuller sound follows. Outbursts of sound come and go to end it. "Porky Park" is one of my favourites. A mechanical rhythm with bass and synths early on before vocal expressions and trumpet join in.The tempo picks up late. "Ghost Dance (Indian Hip Hop)" features drums and percussion before turning fuller before a minute. "Syte 2" is mostly bass, trumpet and cymbals with some brief spoken words.These spoken words open up "The S.O.S. Coincidence" then trumpet and sparse sounds take over. I like it ! Spoken words end it.

"Hard To Realize" opens with keys, trumpet and percussion. It kicks in heavily around 2 minutes with guitar, drums and more. It settles back again before 3 minutes. It's building before 4 minutes. Nice.These contrasts continue. "Another Rainy Day" opens with atmosphere and it's kind of eerie.This continues throughout. Drums come to the fore around 5 minutes as the guitar cries out. The drums settles back but the crying guitar and atmosphere continue reminding me a lot of Terje Rypdal. "Let's Run Away And Be Indians" opens with the sounsds of people struggling as the music pulsates. Female vocal melodies a minute in. Amazing sound 2 minutes in then it settles back. An eerie calm 3 minutes in. This is really good.

I highly recommend "Pork" and for that matter most of Robin Taylor's works.This was a lot of fun.

The critical acclaim of Taylor's Universe's debut was a nice push for Robin Taylor to immediately starting working on a follow-up album.The standard trio of Taylor, Marsfeldt and Hansen was again helped by trumpetist Hugh Steinmetz and for the first time female singer Jytte Lindberg appears on a Taylor's Universe album.''Pork'' was recorded between 1994 and spring 1995, I guess Marvel of Beauty Records was not on full operation by the time, as the album was finally shelved for selling early in the next year.

The diverse and varied elements apparent on the band's debut are still the main forces on this album, but unfortunately ''Pork'' sounds a bit like a mess, the sound ends up to be more experimental than properly structured, now borrowing some elements from the laid-back stylings of PINK FLOYD, like the smooth guitar plays and the soft organs, and throwing them into an abstract and chaotic collage of Fusion, R.I.O. and Industrial palettes.The album still retains some very interesting, cool passages with lovely jazzy orientations, but all this unrelated stuff coming from acts like KING CRIMSON, RASCAL REPORTERS, PINK FLOYD and PASSPORT are far from tight and more on the loose side of music.Odd synth experiments, highly distorted wordless voices, proggy overtones, Latin-spiced echoes and EKSEPTION-like Horn Rock values are hard to be comnbined and the overall atttempt here is trully sincere, but fails to deliver.Too many stretched themes with dominant trumpets, nonsense vocal experiments and absence of melody make ''Pork'' a hard pill to disgest.Expecting some good material on the long ''Another rainy day'', but these extended opening bells, sound effects and minimalistic vibes lower its value, even if the following section with the beautiful FLOYD-iang uitar work and the atmospheric keys is definitely attractive.

Not an album I would easily recommend.It's too loose and obscure, lacking direction and strong structures, making it far from an easy task.Thus, this would be appreciated by fans of the more experimental and jazzy side of Prog Rock.

Robin's fourth album again appeared under the Taylor's Universe banner, although it was now down to a duo of Robin and Jan. Mads and Hugh were there as guests, along with Jytte Lindberg (voice). Yet again Robin takes the music wherever he wishes ? feeling no need to conform to anyone's idea of what boundaries he should stay within. While maintaining the use of space and even silence that one expects from him, there is even more experimentation and use of dischord. But it always gives way to melody and there is always the feeling of direction and purpose that can be missing from some forms of jazz. This is rarely music that will be appreciated by those who follow the herd, but if you wish to listen to music of substance and depth that requires some effort on the part of the listener then of his early works it is this album that I feel needs to be discovered first.

Just because Robin has been releasing a lot of material it is never down to poor quality control, rather that he has many musical ideas inside him that luckily for us he wishes to share. Again this is more of a buffet served on a long table with many dishes for the listener to delight in as opposed to the snacks often served up as 'popular music'.