AGAIN ALORS?

Celebrating your six year as a band may not seem like a big deal in the world of fly by night experimental jazz-prog, it can be an expensive and disheartening journey when you're sole passion is to craft otherworldly musical sounds that few will ever here. Well then there are band leaders like Guy Segers who has more than paid his dues as a founder of Univers Zero and then drifting on to Present, Gurumaniax and Uneven Eleven. THE ECLECTIC MAYBE BAND has lasted for over a half decade now and now only is that an achievement but this eclectic indeed musical entity has released its third album in the calendar year 2022!

One could call this some sort of musical melting pot of sort with more and more members joining forces on each subsequent release. The band's debut "The Blind Watchers' Mysterious Landscapes" hosted an impressive seven musicians on board but three of them only contributed to a single track so really it featured a "normal" band lineup in number however all hell brook loose with the sophomore followup "Reflection In A Moebius Ring Mirror" which incorporated a whopping 17 instrumentalists and vocalists to the mix!

Well can too much of a good thing be bad? Well not for these weavers of music magic. On this year's third release AGAIN ALORS? Segers outdoes himself and casts an amazing 21 musicians for the party. Like both previous albums this one is a lengthy beast and exceeds the 74-minute mark. That's a lot avant-pills to swallow for the uninitiated but if you are into this kind of weird musical expression that sounds something like Art Zoyd meeting The Necks and perhaps Heldon with hints of Univers Zero as well as other prog references then you won't think that this is too much music at all. In fact when music is this well crafted and original how can you NOT want more?

Only eight tracks but once again THE ECLECTIC MAYBE BAND showcases a diverse roster of talent that adds up to an amazingly wide range of stylistic approaches. The album opens with the uneasy abstract bleakness of "Disquiet" which exists in a darkened void of what many would deem the world of progressive electronic. Sounding something like a jazz-infused Heldon with angular references to Univers Zero during its "Heresie" era, this jangled mind blowing convocation of sounds eventually morphs into a bizarre strange of avant-jazz punctuated with avant-prog sensibilities, bizarre time signatures and ushers in a strange "conversation" between the instruments.

"Relatable Vertigineux" continues the avant-jazz focus but once again this is the type of jazz that doesn't obey any logic or set rules. Once again the freeness is forged by Segers' studio time that allowed large ensembles to craft live improvisation. The fact that these tunes were actually generated in live time makes them all the more impressive. "Further On The Ladder" lands back on Earth for a mopey yet oddly constructed vocal track. A rare but palatable "groove" keeps this one easier to follow than the freer drifting tracks that dominate. "Tingling Skin" is kept stable by a piano tinkling but enshrouded with a swarm of instrumental ambience that trades off the droning process while other instruments oscillate and reverberate as if everything has become an acoustic jazz reinterpretation of Klaus Schulze's strangest moments.

Just when you think it can't get more abstract "Voici Voila" drifts off into a world where no musical rules apply whatsoever and the entire thing sounds like an instrumental representation of various jungle animals in competition to be heard. Luckily a bass groove albeit on the avant-jazz side of things comes in and tames everything a bit well at the very least adds a bit of structure to make it sounds like a jazz ensemble go Krautrock from the early 70s. "A Beast Trophy" takes a complete left turn and sounds like a genuine jazz-fusion piece from the late 1970s only with lots of flute. Solid bass groove, tight chops and then some bassoon! Univers Zero gone jazz perhaps?

"Smudgy Cartography" is a reverb guitar improv sounding something like Fred Frith in Henry Cow with meandering motifs in full angularity. The grand finale "Atomos Keyhole" is an atmospheric freakfest in full improve mode on steroids. Basically a scary droning effect with lots of wordless vocals and a somewhat jazzy bass groove. Sounds a bit like Dimanda Galas crashing the party while the band is warming up. While it's always hard to express why some improv tracks work and some don't, i can safely say this one is my least favorite of the lot. A simulation of a heartbeat creeps in and so does some guitar licks. Sounds a bit like Magma dropping the zeuhl and engaging in a free-for-all.

Wow. After the more accessible grooves of the previous album i was wondering if THE ECLECTIC MAYBE BAND were going to continue into a commercial arena or even exist at all. This is exactly the direction i was hoping for! This album is even weirder and wilder than the debut and that's in a good way. Of course these improv avant-proggy jazz types of albums will only appeal to the most adventurous and open-minded music freaks out there but i am happy to report that this one is done so very very well. The musicians all gel together perfectly. The tracks all differ sufficiently as to make the album not fall into tedium and the production is perfect as well. There's never a cluster of sounds that suffocate the desired emotional response and best of all this is all very original as it doesn't sound like anything else out there and even distinct from the two previous albums. Overall i'm extraordinarily happy with this third EMB release. Right on, Guy Segers! There is life after UZ and Present!