GR & FULL-BLOWN EXPANSION (s/t) CD
Gregory Raimo is one of the few musicians who is driven by a free, uninhibited creative spirit. One detects that in his band Gunslingers (not to be confused with Alan Davey's band), but especially his solo recordings take the listener to a journey of a fancy world of sound, reaching from psychedelic outbursts to free-form jamming over unbridled funky boogie madness to 1960's garage rock aesthetics. Basically, it's almost impossible to describe his lysergic musical madness and this also applies to his new solo album, that has been released in 2009 by World In Sound. Gregory Raimo is a multi-instrumentalist but fortunately he knows his trade and he can live out his creativity.
All seven songs were recorded with the help of a 4 track analog tape recorder and mostly in one take. As mentioned previously, the tracks are pretty "out-there". Yes, that sounds like a clichéd description, but it definitely describes the album in the most emphatic sense of the term. To add more to the overwhelming strangeness, there are odd rhythms, tempos and elements, which seem to be haphazardly placed together, and overlap one another; as if all of these elements and ideas are slapped-together incoherently: polyrhythms, polytonalities (perhaps), and the overlapping of multiple genres tend to hit the listener as fast, and as powerfully as a freight train. Indeed, this is not lightweight stuff and tracks like 'The Scene (Slowly's Getting Louder)' could strain your nerves.
However, Gregory Raimo always manages to captivate me for the playing time of 43 minutes. It is like looking into a huge kaleidoscope where you never know what's next. Sometimes the music is cacophonous and unpleasant, but the grooves are irresistably good. Just listen to the first song 'Descent Along The An-Ti-Fohn-Nul' and probably you understand what I mean. This is definitely an album that is growing with every listening session. It's not for everybody, but if you like weird and trippy music, go ahead and buy this album. To round things off, Billy Miller (founding member of Texan 1960's psychedlic rock band Cold Sun and BliebAlien, which was the initial band to Roky Erickson's solo career) has written some liner notes that are as unconventional as the music. It's time to freak out!
(KK)