Short Reviews [Kris Gietkowski - 2020 - "Four Appointments With Doctor Jam"]

Gietkowski’s fourth album saw him moving his music in a slightly different direction, as while it was still very concentrated in the Canterbury scene, here he is now also playing electric guitar. He also brought in a drummer, Jacob Slous, while he performed keyboards, guitar, and bass. Given there was no guitar on his earlier albums, it is somewhat of a surprise to hear it being given such a prominent role on this one. The same is also true of the bass, which at times is very much the focal point. The four ten-minute-long instrumental tracks feel much more like a band than a multi-instrumentalist, and if there had been a group name on the cover, no-one would have been surprised. He is allowing himself to expand his musical repertoire, while staying within the same area, and he is again bringing in Emerson references, and there are times when it is more like The Nice than Canterbury, but the lines blend and merge. The result is something which yet again sounds as if it should have been recorded 50 years ago, with dated keyboard sounds and arrangements which feel as if they are coming straight from the mind and fingers of Dave Stewart. The use of echo at the beginning of “A Finger Bell to Dispel a Nasty Silence” is particularly effective, with the bass bouncing around in stark contrast to the clean keyboard lines, while drums and guitar are silent at this point, only coming in as the song starts to develop. I have always thought of Gietkowski as a keyboard player, but he has a strong touch on guitar and bass, using different effects and distortion when the time is right. The result is yet another very powerful album which very few seem to have discovered. As with his previous album, this is also available to download from Bandcamp for just GBP 4, which to me massively undervalues the music on offer. If you are at all interested in the Canterbury or late Sixties progressive scene then this is strongly recommended.