all this everything
Perpetual Groove

All This Everything, is the second studio album from Savannah, Georgia’s Perpetual Groove. All This Everything is a pleasure to listen to from start to finish. The continual flow of beautiful spacey jams, to vocalized ballads, into goovin’ bass and drum layers, creates a cohesive sound that can be heard on every track.

Perpetual Groove is a live band. You can tell by their large sound, and their ability to blend and melt together. This can be heard clearly on “53 More Things to Do In Zero Gravity”, “Crockett & Tubbs”, and “All This Everything pt II” where each member takes his turn jamming.

Guitarist Brock Butler plays a spacey guitar style that bends and weaves it’s way through songs like maple syrup pouring into the grooves of a waffle. The echoey sound is so large that it really should not be contained to a car stereo or a small venue. This music needs to be played loud and far.

Adam Perry on bass, and drummer Albert Suttle are an interconnected unit that guides this band. On “Stealy Man” Perry and Suttle lay down the perfect groove for Butler and keys player Matt McDonald to be free to noodle over.

“Left to Drifting” is reminiscent of the spacey jams that made Phish famous. The types of jams where after 18 minutes you turn to your neighbor and ask, “What song is this? I totally forgot.” The difference between these Phish jams and Perpetual Groove’s style is that P-Groove starts their songs in the middle of the jam. The CD closer “And Everything” is a beautiful jam that slowly fades up to expose the listener to a mid-jam moment, only to then fade back down to the abyss. Lucky for us P-Groove will not fade into the darkness.

In “Gone ‘Round The Twist” an eerie voice, repeats between riffs. He sounds a bit like the man in the red room from David Lynch’s Twin Peaks. Talking backwards, then forwards, he tells me that “he is just the little man that lives in my speaker.” That’s fine by me as long as he keeps playing All This Everything.

For more information on Perpetual Groove, including tour dates and band information, visit www.pgroove.com

Is
King Chubby

In the latest studio release from King Chubby, the band combines two distinct styles. The band is able to create beautiful, subtle and sensual sounds with the various reed instruments played by Robert Dick and Will Ryan. Then in a split personality decision, they will make a 180-degree turn and create intense, psyche-techno jams with heavily synthesized sounds, distorted vocals, and intense bass lines by Mark Egan.

In “Turn it On”, “Wandering Angus”, and “Rock Sand” the chanting vocals created by Ryan and distorted by master sampler Ed Bialek, can turn a peaceful woodwind arrangement into a mysterious, and almost disturbing, old world cry.

“Awaken” starts with drummer Michael D’Agnostino laying down a solo, and then is slowly overtaken by muffled chants.

While listening to Is, I can’t help but wonder if director Peter Jackson heard King Chubby before starting work on Lord of the Rings. The chanting and vocal distortions created by King Chubby are disturbingly reminiscent of Sauron chanting for the “one ring”. The power of the vocals is thrilling, enchanting, and unsettling. And to think, these guys look so normal on their CD cover.

All LOR references aside, Is can be defined as the ultimate in instrumental world fusion. They harness the sounds of the Middle East, Spain, Japan, and South America to create a new kind of jam music. The talented musicians that make-up King Chubby come from a diverse and unique background. Their originality can be heard on every track of Is.

For more information about King Chubby, visit www.kingchubby.com.

Kinetic Transfer
Infradig

How do you describe a band whose talent is so diverse that they can change from techno, to jazz, to funk, to raw rock n’ roll, back into drum-n- bass cycles all in a single CD track?
Infradig.

On Infradig’s latest CD Kinetic Transfer they infuse every track with originality, technical musicianship, and emotion. This band from Chattanooga, Tennessee encompasses the sound of so many bands and musicians past, that they have created their own sound for the present.

Infradig have the patience to lead the listener into a song. This endurance allows each track on Kinetic Transfer to build into a musical masterpiece. Every track is technically composed. The repetitions intertwine, and commingle together in a developed web of sound. The breaks are beautifully timed as all four musicians bend and twist through songs together.

While the four members play as a cohesive unit, they are all focused on their own instrument and its value to the overall piece. Almost every track takes care to highlight the talents of the individual musicians. Bassist, Dave Kaufmann, keys player Carl Cadwell, Andrew Hobbs on guitar, and Josh Green on drums, have created a cross genre sound that grooves and soothes.

For more information about Infradig visit www.infradig.net.

Harbor Nights
Mbandi

Sometimes in life we all need to take it down a notch. Having had a crazy summer myself, filled with emotional events such as weddings, meetings with friends, good-byes with friends, good-byes to bands, reunions, and friends becoming authors, I was in need of some balance.

We at Meniscus have a few cardinal beliefs. Among these is the fundamental belief in balance. Taking the advice of my acupuncturist, I searched through CD’s for one to help cultivate my yin. Situationally and constitutionally, those of us with too much yang need to balance the teeter-totter, and vice versa. In this topsy-turvy world of the rat race, could all use a little relaxing. Musically however, I didn’t know where to start.

Catching my eye, I picked up Mbandi’s new album, Harbor Nights. I opened the CD cover to be pleasantly surprised with exactly what I needed. The liner notes proclaimed “Relax and unwind to the soothing piano music of...Mbandi.”

The piano compositons of Mbandi are all tastefully arranged in a floating sonic ocean, where I could imagine myself sitting on the deck of a boat sipping a chamomile tea, and watching the sun retire behind the distant horizon. As I listen, cool ocean breezes float through my hair prompting me to curl up under a blanket and listen to the gentle waves brush against the hull of the boat. This is no Jimmy Buffett paradise; this one is soothing, and relaxing. It is not until the last song when vocals are introduced that the line is crossed into the cheesy realm of sappiness. But that’s OK, love is a beautiful thing.

Just the yin I need to ready me for the next blast of yang lifestyle that is inevitably around the corner. But for now, its time to turn off, and enjoy the evening in peace. Nothing matters but...right...now...

For more information about Mbandi visit www.mbandimusic.com.