Spaced Out - Slow Gin


Year of Release: 2001
Label: Unicorn Records
Catalog Number: UNCR-5006
Format: CD
Total Time: 53:24:00

Anyone who read my review of Talisma's Corpus, will understand I am not exactly into prog rock with dominant jazz/fusion stuff. Yet their labelmates Spaced Out, who create similar styled music, did manage to keep me interested and listening to their album several times in a row. Their third release, Slow Gin, has some interesting elements that might even get metal heads listening to (albeit parts of) this album.

Again a band from Canada, Spaced Out was formed in 1998, by Antoine Fafard and signed to Unicorn Records in 2000. In 2002 they played at NEARfest, which is a very prestigious festival in the US, so that gives credit to the band. Now, the album ... as said, it kept me interested and most likely this disc will end up in my player once in a while. After a spacey intro ("Introx"), the title track "Slow Gin," shows us the face of Spaced Out: very funky bass and heavy riffs, although they are a bit back in the mix, so it does not come out as too heavy. The organ gives it a bit of a psychedelic 70s sound. The synth sounds really spacey and the drums (again, too far back in the mix), played by Martin Maheux provide the additional foundation, together with the bass (played by Antoine Fafard).

They keep up this psychedelic sound in "Spaced In," although with less drums and sharp, guitar play, no heavy riffs. Here they bring a mix of fusion and space rock. From here on, the music will be mainly jazz rock, but still with lots of synths, like in "E.M.O" and in "Bright Space," the guitar is back, with an amazing solo and some short, crunchy riffs. Closing track "Blue Ron Pipe P.M.," brings the drums a bit moer to the front and also features some excellent guitar parts by Mark Tremblay!

But, at times the band seem to lost their direction a bit, like in "Minor Blast," which sounds more like a jam session, but without a continuing melody. Fortunately this is just a small part of the album and the rest of the album is filled with psychedelic progressive jazzrock, with matching 70s look artwork. A must for jazz/fusion rock fans, but also interesting for progressive rock fans, who would like to try out something different than The Flower Kings or Ayreon.

[This review originally August 2004 appeared at the ProgPower Online review site -ed.]


Tracklisting:
Introx (1:05) / Slow Gin (8:10) / Spaced In (6:50) / Minor Blast (6:06) / The Thing (5:36) / E.M.O. (5:29) / Bright Space (6:43) / Glassosphere Part III (2:41) / Blue Ron Pipe A.M. (4:25) / Blue Ron Pipe P.M. (3:28)

Musicians:
Antoine Fafard - bass
Martin Maheux - drums
Éric St-Jean - keyboards
Mark Tremblay - guitar

Guest:

Ron Stewart - tenor sax

Discography:
Spaced Out (2000)
Eponymus II (2001)
Slow Gin (2003)
Unstable Matter (2006)
Live At The Crescendo Festival (2007)
Evolution (2008)

Live In 2000 (DVD) (2005)
Live At The Crescendo Festival (2007)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin CA

Added: May 29th 2005
Reviewer: Marcel Haster
Score:
Artist website: www.spacedoutmusic.com
Hits: 1728
Language: english

  

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