Short Reviews [The Bob Lazar Story - 2024 - "The Bob Lazarus Chronicles Pt 2 . Lo Fi Curly Fries"]

Following on from Matt’s EP last year, ‘The Bob Lazarus Chronicles Pt. 1: Foodstool Resurrection’, we now get another release of short choppy numbers which is Matt finishing off some pieces he has been working on for some years. The foodstool is ever present, as here the artwork is food on a stool! Plus the longest song on this release (at a whole 2:49) is “Foodstool vs Dronestool’ (for more of Matt’s work in a drone style then check out Dronestool, as he has been releasing material under that name as well). Matt is an eclectic highly skilled-musician, and I have often felt the reason he is not more well-known within prog circles is that, like me, he resides on the South Island of New Zealand, which is roughly a million miles away from any prog hub. Just one of the downsides of living at the end of the world is that very few musicians can actually make a living in their own country, although the isolation from the rest of the world has nothing to do with the quality, just that no-one can find us on a map, let alone discover the music. (Yes, Lorde and Neil Finn are outliers, while Alien Weaponry spend more time overseas than they do in their own country). Matt has allowed his imagination to wonder on this EP, much as he did on the last one, so there are far more keyboards than one would normally expect from his work, and not much guitar, but he packs a lot in within the 11:02 he has allowed himself (which actually includes 11 tracks). My only real complaint is that overall it is just too short, but I guess that is because I am still holding out for a new album given it has been five years since the last one. However, with Chris Jago residing in New York it does not exactly make for easy collaboration, but one can hope. This release is aimed more at fans like me who are already au fait with his releases to date, and it is yet another example of his fine musicianship and eclectic ideas. Six songs well under a minute in length, only one over two, if you don’t like what you are listening to then don’t worry as something else will be along in a minute. Not many progheads overtly display their humour like Matt does, and more power to him and his foodstools.