Track List:
1. Entering Universe 1:58
2. Emmadusa 3:12
3. Strange Meetings 6:43
4. Secret Wedding 3:49
5. Hearing Noises & Imagining Things 4:34
6. Pulling Icon 1:51
7. Saturday Night 4:50
8. Trick Or Treat 6:03
9. Joie De Vivre 2:57
10. Flemming Junker 2:50
11. Mr. Garlic 4:37
12. Jeff's Office 5:48
13. Meetings 5:13
14. Feel 1:11
All tracks: by Taylor, except:
4 & 7: by Marsfeldt & Taylor.
Produced by Taylor.
Recorded mainly at 'Taylor's Place' studio, Denmark.
Mixed at "Soundscape" studio, Copenhagen.
Engineered by Taylor, Marsfeldt, & A. Nipper.
Line-up:
Robin Taylor -
- electric, acoustic, & bass guitars;
- keyboards; additional percussion; some loops, etc
Jan Marsfeldt - analog & digital keyboards
Mads Hansen - drums & percussion (except 4, 9, & 13)
With:
Jakob Mygind - saxophones (on 3, 5, 7, 10, 11, & 13)
Hugh Steinmetz - trumpet (on 2, 4, 8, & 12)
Henning Plannthin - electric guitar (on 5, 7, & 9)
Henrik Andersen - electric guitar (on 3 & 8)
Synopsis.
Above all, it must be said that the first flight of Robin-and-the-crew to Taylor's Universe was very successful and, by the way, they entered it without any turbulence. Featuring varied, yet, mostly easy-tempered interplay between passages & solos of acoustic guitar, solos of synthesizer and bass, and those of drums, Entering Universe (1) is one of the two compositions on the album that are about a guitar-based Art-Rock with elements of Symphonic Art-Rock. Surprisingly, the only stylistic 'compatriot' of Entering Universe, Feel (14), is located in the very end of the album. It consists of the interplay between passages of piano and solos of slide guitar. Although both of these pieces are very good on the whole, they, along with Pulling Icon, to which I'll return a bit later, surpass any of the remaining eleven tracks on "Taylor's Universe". The stylistics of the excellent Emmadusa (2) represents an original Symphonic Art-Rock with elements of Jazz-Fusion and the bits of Prog-Metal, which, though, is not of a high complexity, as well as both of the boundary tracks of the album and Pulling Icon (6). The latter of them is about a blend of Art-Rock and some old-fashioned music. A few of the solos that are present here remind me of those of hand organ. As you can see above, though, almost all of the described pieces are the shortest tracks on the album, which, in this very case, is a positive factor. Especially since all ten of the remaining compositions that, taken together, last almost 50 minutes, are outstanding. Two of them, Secret Wedding and Joie De Vivre (4 & 9), are the Classical Music-like pieces, both of which feature also the elements of somewhat of a symphonic Space Rock. A general definition of the style that the remaining eight compositions are about should, in my view, be explained this way: a highly innovative, intricate, and eclectic Art-Rock, which is both symphonic and guitar-based, with elements of Jazz-Fusion, Prog-Metal, and Avant-garde and bits of Free Jazz. However, instead of operating with bulky terms, I prefer to define any polymorphous and highly innovative manifestations of progressive music as Fifth Element, though, of course, I admit that this term is more generalized than those of the other main genres of Prog: Art-Rock, Prog-Metal, Jazz-Fusion, & RIO. So, the following eight compositions: Strange Meetings, Hearing Noises & Imagining Things, Saturday Night, Trick Or Treat, Flemming Junker, Mr. Garlic, Jeff's Office, and Meetings (3, 5, 7, 8, 10, 11, 12, & 13), are the representatives of the only Progressive Rock genre that just cannot be related with anything commercial. Each of the said eight compositions represent somewhat of a journey to the world of diverse and unusual musical dimensions filled with lots of different events, which is both highly intricate and intriguing. Since both of the aforementioned Classical Music-like pieces are practically of the same story, in my view, it would've been much better if Meetings would have located on track 6, instead of Pulling Icon, and vice versa. Then all of the core compositions of "Taylor's Universe" would've been the real core of it. Though, as I said above, while both of the boundary tracks of the album aren't masterpieces, they, nevertheless, are very good compositions. In any case, the eponymous Taylor's Universe debut is very close to the status of a complete masterpiece. Next week, look for the review of Taylor's second flight to his personal Universe.
Synopsis.
I haven't reviewed the works of Progressive's Fifth Element genre for quite
a while, so the arrival of the "File Under Extreme" CD just before my birthday
I regard as a good sign. ("File Under Fifth Element" could've been also an
appropriate title for this album.) A very unusual, yet, truly unique blend
of all five of the traditionally classic genres and sub-genres of Prog:
Jazz-Fusion, Art-Rock, RIO, Prog-Metal, & Space Rock, raised to the power
of Avant-garde Academic Music, along with something absolutely new, is what
the music on this album is about overall. Though it must be said that all
the elements of these classic genres and sub-genres of Prog are actually
featureless in the music of Taylor's Free Universe. Here, they're really free
of their classic constituents, so the terms that I used when describing the
stylistics of this album in detail should be perceived only relatively.
Yes-yes, such a polymorphous and highly innovative style that lies in the
basis of music presented on "File Under Extreme" must be defined as nothing
else but Fifth Element. There are no any repetitions on the album, and all
the musical structures of it are very, yet, positively unstable. Then, back
to the classic terms, the following detailed definition of Taylor's Free
Universe's music would be the best, in my view. This is a fusion of
Avant-garde Academic Music and Free Jazz with elements of all five of the
aforementioned Progressive Rock genres and sub-genres. Certainly, both of
the bits that are presented in the track list of this CD as separate pieces:
Stand Apart and Bonus Tragg (tracks 2 & 9), should be regarded just as an
intro to Free-Bop (3) and the outro of the album respectively. The first of
them consists of only a couple of riffs of electric & bass guitars done along
with a couple of beats of drums. The last track on the album, "composed" by
Tailor, features naturally only one riff of guitar with an echo. Well, in
comparison with "voices of a void" (long pauses) that came into fashion in
the second half of the 1990s, such funs are quite acceptable, especially
since they're just a smallest part of a gem titled "File Under Extreme".
The arrangements that Germanism, More Germanism, Less Is More, and Aspects of
a Myth (1, 4, 6, & 8) consist of are for the most part slow, yet, at the
same time incredibly diverse and wonderfully eclectic. The number of highly
eclectic improvisational jams is there small in comparison with those on Age
Concern, Evaluation, and Free-Bop (tracks 5, 7, & 3 respectively). Certainly,
all three of these pieces, and especially Free-Bop, appear less structured
than any other composition on the album. Both Age Concern and Evaluation
consist of various, slow and fast, arrangements. While Free-Bop, in its
entirety is covered by a really wild jam where, with the exception of 'lazy'
solos and riffs of electric guitar, all the soloing parts are fast and frantic.
Here, the band literally erases the border between Avant-garde Jazz,
Avant-garde Academic Music, and Classic Progressive Rock, pushing all of
it on and on and, finally, transforming all of it into a highly innovative,
eclectic, and intensive improvisational jam. It must be said that the solos
and riffs of electric guitar, unlike those of all the other instruments, are
almost always slow on "File Under Extreme". Not as evident as those of
saxophones, violin, and double bass, the parts of electric guitar are,
however, the most unique on this album, even though they play a really
prominent role only on Age Concern (5). I have never heard such an unusual
and clearly innovative method of playing a guitar. Quite the contrary,
the drumming is highly intensive and, often, powerful and fast even in those
pieces that are basically slow. Along with uniqueness and eclecticism,
effective contrasts are one of the key aspects (or trumps, if you will)
of this album. I wouldn't say that there are some traditionally familiar
moods on "File Under Extreme", yet, an overall atmosphere of the album
is either tense or rather dark. All of this is quite typical for RIO,
but I doubt that someone would be able to find here at least only one
episode that would be at least more or less obviously about RIO and any
of the other classic progressive genres as well.
Conclusion.
Despite the fact that the musical structures of this album are very unstable
and, sometimes, completely unstructured and even chaotic (they're mostly
just seemingly chaotic, though), there are lots of classically essential
progressive ingredients on "File Under Extreme". In fact, the continuous
development of anything that is featured on this remarkable album is the
main and the most exciting characteristic of it. Nevertheless, I can
highly recommend this album only to those lovers of progressive music
who are both very mature and adventurous.
Synopsis.
"On-plugged in Elsinore" is another great example of a top-notch contemporary Progressive, and although this music is a bit farther from 'classic', completely structured and harmonious, forms than that on >"Nekropolis 23, Vol. 1", it should be comprehensible for most of the profound Prog-lovers, including 'classic' ones. This album was in its entirety created within the framework of a unified stylistics representing Fifth Element - the most unusual and polymorphous progressive genre, the essence of which is nothing else but a daring innovation. And by the way, one of the tracks here is named in full accordance with the music on it. However, the best definition of this 'on-plugged' music would probably be Mysterious Atmospheric Fifth Element consisting of avant-garde kinds of Jazz-Fusion, Space Rock, Art-Rock, and RIO with some quantity of elements of music of the East and the bits of Prog-Metal, all of which, in addition, is intermixed with magic. (All becomes simple like arithmetic after a few successive listens to any material.) The album consists of six compositions, and there are only a few differences between them, all of which concern only the combination of constituents forming Fifth Element. Jazz-Fusion, Art-Rock, and RIO prevail on Amalie (1), Jazz-Fusion and Space Rock on Picnic at Noon and Tight Little Waves (2 & 3), Space Rock on The Fifth Element and Exit Elsinore (4 & 5), and Prog-Metal, Space Rock, and Jazz-Fusion on Train (6). Please don't forget to mentally place "Avant-garde" before each of the said genres and styles when reading this and try to imagine what this album is about, which however won't be effective without hearing it. Do you think I am too keen on classification? Of course, all classifications are imprecise, especially those concerning such complex music as Fifth Element, and nevertheless, classification is what all sciences and arts are stand on; it's like Ariadne's thread for them. After all, it's impossible to use any concrete comparisons while describing music by such innovative performers as Robin Taylor. And thus, it would be very hard for me to give you an idea of the UMO (unusual music object) I tell about without using genre classifications. Finally, I must notice that the music on this album is very imaginative, and it's preferable to listen to it with headphones.
Conclusion.
I believe you have guessed dear readers what I am going to say in closing. Yes, "On-plugged in Elsinore" is a mind-blowing masterpiece, and I heartily recommend it to all those who know to whom I appeal.
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