Detailed Reviews [The Addison Project - 2003 - "Mood Swings"]

Prolusion. Bassist and composer Richard Addison is above all known for being the founder of the Jazz Rock band Sojourn, with which he released one album in 1990, and a bass player for Mystery (on the first two albums). "Mood Swings" is the first output released under the moniker of The Addison Project. In the line-up on this album, you can see the name of Michel St-Pere, the bandleader of Mystery and the owner of Unicorn label. The old friends and long-time partners are together again.

Synopsis. The number of the Jazz-Fusion-related albums released by Unicorn Records has grown again and now exceeds that of all the other outputs taken together. Like that of Spaced Out, The Addison Project's music goes beyond the framework of a pure Jazz-Fusion and features almost as many 'classically progressive' solos as those of an improvisational character. The basic themes on "Mood Swings" are predominantly provided with solos of bass, riffs and rhythms of electric guitar, and passages of synthesizer with the support of the parts of drums, while saxophone, guitar, piano, and violin are the main features of 'improvisational department' of the album. A unique Modern Jazz-Fusion with elements of classic Progressive is presented on the first two tracks: Sleepwalking and The Muffin, and also on After All (7). These three are structurally close to the latest works of Gongzilla and are above all notable for the frequent use of syncopations and 'parallel' solos of different instruments done in fourth and fifth. Saxophones and synthesizers, the solos of which sound often not unlike those of vibraphone, are mostly at the head of the arrangements here. Guitars manage a team of soloing instruments on Montee de Lait, Le Grand-be, and Mceuet (3, 5, & 6), and all three of these pieces are richer in elements of Prog-Metal than any of the other tracks on "Mood Swings". Some quantity of heavy elements is present also in the structures of 10h10 (8), while overall, this composition is about Jazz-Fusion with a solid number of arrangements typical for a dramatic Symphonic Art-Rock rather than something else and is probably the most diverse and intensive track here. The music on the title and the closing tracks of the album: Mood Swing and Controlled Freedom (4 & 9) is both melodious and bluesy (melancholic) with jazzy and symphonic textures being well intermixed, and since a violin is mostly at the helm of the arrangements on these pieces, it certainly plays the first violin there:).

Conclusion. "Mood Swings" is ProGduction of a highest standard. All the arrangements on the album are greatly thought out, and most compositions are amazingly both complex and hypnotic. Traditional Jazz-Rockers, take this!

VM: Agst 2, 2003