Dreadnaught - Musica En Flagrante

Year of Release: 2004
Label: Big Balloon Music
Catalog Number: BBM 1101
Format: CD
Total Time: 54:06:00

Warning: Dreadnaught is back, doing things their own special way, and this time that adds up to what just might be this year's coolest album, Musica En Flagrante.

So, remember that "prog-abilly" thing? Nowhere to be found on Musica En Flagrante. Instead, what we get is lots of short experimental explorations of what might be loosely described as progressive rock, but mostly just damned good progressive ? well, music. Downright artsy in spots and hard to pin down almost everywhere, Musica En Flagrante shows Dreadnaught firing on all cylinders, stealing all bases, waving their sci-fi freak flag, and pushing the proverbial envelope right down the shredder. I don't know if I can rightly say "influences" here, but the sounds drifting in and out are flat out mind-boggling: Beck (only thing missing are those two turntables and a microphone), Herbie Hancock, Todd Rundgren, Devo, They Might Be Giants, Radio Massacre International ? hell, the list is endless, but the show is all Dreadnought.

Talk about nuts ? who else would have the stones to kick off their CD with a reference to Isaac Asimov ("R. Daneel Olivaw") by bouncing tinkling ivories over a thudding industrial beat? Or to name a song after a feisty freshwater game fish ("Northern Pike"), haul out that industrial beat and layer it over with whimsical harmonica, twangy blues guitar, and zippy strings? Or ask you "Are Your Pants Down? (Pants Down)" in anarchical, incidental fashion, only to come right back and demand that you "Pull Your Pants Down (Pants Down)" with fuzzed-up Rhodes and funky bass and drums? Or maybe trick you into believing that you're listening to Robin Lumley & Jack Lancaster's Marscape with a 'minor epic' ("The Sirens Of Titan") that pits gypsy fiddles against smoky saxophone in a haze of bluesy space funk, only to drop the curtain with a power trio workout featuring some fine Howe-ish geetar pickin'? Gots to be Dreadnaught?.

Still not getting it, are you? Fine, here's my point: Dreadnaught have outdone themselves with Musica En Flagrante by losing the "prog-abilly" tag and playing what's really on their minds, which might just be acid flashbacks. Like I said, it's not really rock, but the music sure goes places where most "real" prog acts are afraid to imagine and entertains all the way. Ballsy and original, Dreadnaught deserves your attention and Musica En Flagrante deserves some serious time in your CD player. So, what are you waiting for????

Released in conjunction with Red Fez Records

Tracklisting:
R. Daneel Olivaw (3:07) / One Trick Pony (1:52) / Kazak, The Hound Of Space (2:15) / Tiny Machines (4:24) / Northern Pike (6:37) / Gulf Of Tonkin (1:06) / Are Your Pants Down? (Pants Down) (1:15) / Pull Your Pants Down (Pants Down) (2:23) / Big Cats (3:43) / Threnody For The Victims Of Brother Theodore (4:03) / Fanfare For A Losing Team (2:20) / The Boston Crab (2:22) / Winston Niles Rumfoord (1:14) / Elba (Never Come Back, I Want You Gone) (4:39) / The Sirens Of Titan: Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum (0:58) / Back Through Newport, Rhode Island (2:37) / Unk And Boaz In The Caves Of Mercury (1:01) / Salo (2:41) / Royal Jelly (5:27)

Musicians:
Bob Lord - bass, keyboards, guitar, programming
Justin Walton - keyboards, guitar, saxophone
Tim Haney - drums

Guest musicians:

Andy Happel - violin
Ed Jurdi - harmonica
Duncan Watt - keyboards

Discography:
Dreadnaught (1998)
Una Vez Mas (2000)
The American Standard (2001)
Musica En Flagrante (2004)
Live At Mojo (2005)
High Heat And Chin Music (2007)

Genre: Other

Origin US

Added: May 2nd 2004
Reviewer: David Cisco
Score:
Artist website: www.dreadnaughtrock.com
Hits: 2556
Language: english