[ KEY REVIEWS | SHORT REVIEWS | DETAILED REVIEWS - LIST | BANDLISTS ]

Tumble Home (France) - 2003 - "Tumble Home" (34 min, 'TH') TRACK LIST: 1. Citizen Clone 5:45 (Ammeloot) 2. French Postman 4:54 (Moreau) 3. Tumble Home 3:01 (Ottevanger) 4. La Mardite 1:19 (Ammeloot) 5. Huis Clos 6:24 (TUMBLE HOME) 6. The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter 4:37 (Ottevanger) 7. Idem & Rye 2:14 (Ammeloot) 8. Judy Two 4:19 (Ottevanger) 9. The Process 1:23 (=) LINE-UP: Philippe Ammeloot - guitars & bass Onno Ottevanger - keyboards & vocals Francois Moreau - drums & percussion Remy Parisis - trumpet & bugle Produced by Ammeloot. Engineered by J. Barroy at "Studio Son", France. Prolusion. The eponymous Tumble Home album is the debut of this French band. Synopsis. The 34-minute "Tumble Home" features six instrumental pieces and three songs: Citizen Clone, The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter, and Judy Two (1, 6, & 8). All of the songs and most of the instrumental pieces: French Postman, Tumble Home, Huis Clos, and The Process (2, 3, 5, & 9) were created within the framework of a unified stylistics representing an original, mostly slow and quite atmospheric, Jazz-Fusion with passages of piano and solos of trumpet usually at the helm of the arrangements. Each of the said tracks contains many progressive features, among which syncopations and complex time signatures are especially evident. But while the parts of the main soloing instruments are for the most part diverse and interesting, the basic themes aren't that notable for diversity. Furthermore, some of them are as plain and simple as those in a traditional rhythm-and-bluesy Hard Rock. With the exception of those on Huis Clos, which is the longest and undoubtedly the best track on the album, the basic arrangements develop slowly with many repetitions and returns to previous themes. The music on both of the remaining instrumentals: Idem & Rye and La Mardite (7 & 4 respectively) is of a completely different matter. The first of them is a 'classic' guitar piece performed with semi-acoustic guitar and is okay. Whereas the latter, consisting of slow, space music-like passages of synthesizer, is nothing else but a makeweight, which was included in "Tumble Home" just to impart the status of a full-length album to it. Conclusion. The main value of this album is originality, and I always appreciate the ability to compose and play music, which sounds fresh and doesn't resemble anything. Nevertheless, due to the obvious lack of diversity in the arrangements, I can't rate "Tumble Home" more than with four stars. On the other hand however, it's unquestionable that these French guys have a solid potential, and I believe their further production will be stronger in every respect. VM: September 15, 2003 Related Links: Tumble Home

[ KEY REVIEWS | SHORT REVIEWS | DETAILED REVIEWS - LIST | BANDLISTS ]