John Mclaughlin - Industrial Zen
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CD Details
Artist: John MclaughlinEdition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 2006-08-01
Music Label: Verve Fontana
Soundtracks:
- For Jaco
- New Blues Old Bruise
- Wayne's Way
- Just So Only More So
- To Bop Or Not To Be
- Dear Dalai Lama
- Senor C.S.
- Mother Nature
Music reviews of Industrial Zen
Music Review: generic compositions with too much generic jazz influence instead of exotic steam and spice
Rating: 2 Stars
McLaughlin. Who is he and why are his new recordings anticipated eagerly? Answer: He's a true living legend and mysterious continuing saga in music, one of the most influential guitarists and a serious artist. Why? Because he has somehow managed to create many diverse kinds of high-quality, intense and often quite extended glimpses into states of ecstasy and grace belonging to the transcendent-beyond through highly skilled and subtle manipulation of the art form of music in its many incarnations.
What are these indestructible and time-tested creations?
"Extrapolation" (1969) (progressive jazz with awesome `60s ambience),
"Where Fortune Smiles" (1970) (free-jazz with Dave Holland, John Surman & Karl Berger)
"My Goal's Beyond" (1970)- The birth of both new age and world music in their best and least diluted incarnations
Mahavishnu Orchestra Mark 1 - "Inner Mounting Flame," "Cleveland 1972," "Hunter College Live," "Birds of Fire," "Between Nothingness & Eternity," "Trident Sessions" etc. The fastest, most intense and loudest band on the planet that somehow managed to be intelligent and compositionally brilliant also courtesy of Mr. McLaughlin.
Santana / McLaughlin - Love, Devotion, Surrender / Chicago Concert
Mahavishnu Mark II - "Visions of the Emerald Beyond" "Live in Montreux" - Super Intense though more pretentious and less organically punkified than Mark I -
Shakti with John McLaughlin / Handful of Beauty / Natural Elements - Firebreathing acoustic world music that also manages to be sublimely meditative and subtle, east meets west
Friday Night in San Franciso / Passion, Grace & Fire - McLaughlin switched into a more flamenco-influenced mode and became 1/3 of the land speed record of acoustic guitar albums with virtuoso pals
"Music Spoken Here" - McLaughlin fused the flamenco-influence with progressive jazz to create a unique concoction
"Live At Royal Festival Hall" - McLaughlin took his new flamenco-influenced acoustic progressive jazz and fused it back into a more energetic version of Shakti-style Indian music once again through the percussion artistry of Trilok Gurtu and the lyrical bass artistry of Kai Eckhardt.
"Remember Shakti" Box Set - McLaughlin re-visits the Shakti-style fusion with new and different Indian musicians but this time with his jazz guitar. After a very uneven output throughout the 80s and 90s, a whole box of classic concerts came as a very pleasant surprise to fans
"Montreux Concerts" - 16 great concerts from McLaughlin's career that sit with great sound quality next to the many legendary but flawed sound quality 1970s bootlegs to fan the flames of the McLaughlin legend for many generations to come
"Live in Paris" - a mellower but highly satisfying return to Jazz-Rock fusion
All this track record makes people wonder: how did McLaughlin do it & why was he so much more inconsistent in the 80s and 90s as opposed to the 1970s? The McLaughlin blueprint of 1969 still works when all the elements are gracefully balanced. One of the hallmarks of McLaughlin is that just when people are writing him off he comes up with something classic once-again.
So is "Industrial Zen," McLaughlin's highly anticipated, self-proclaimed new fusion with house-music and acid-jazz one of these classic surprises? Far from it. It is more like "Adventures in Radioland" Part II
Is the playing virtuosic? Yes but that's routine on all McLaughlin albums since only the cream of the crop need apply. In the case of this album it is mostly just your standard fusion virtuosity with no real passion, mainly because the compositions, though complex and complicated to be sure, come off as mostly generic prog jazz and uninspired. If they had been playing the classics of the McLaughlin catalog you would have definitely heard some serious passion. Here they go limp no matter how hard they try to get it up. The exceptions that possess some viagra are "For Jaco" and "Senor C.S." Bill Evans on Sax and Hadrien Feraud on Bass are the most inspired players. McLaughlin himself should completely re-think his improvisational approach and once again play like he doesn't know how to play as Miles Davis advised him. Every time he starts a solo here he sounds like a generic jazz guitarist trying to do his best McLaughlin impression. Mac should try to do his best Ben Monder impression instead to see what it sounds like.
How about the acid-jazz/house fuse, where is it? Answer: nowhere to be found except the last track which sounds like a standard ambient groove with Indian style singing, corny English lyrics and some light McLaughlin guitar doodling in the back. It's a good track if a little unhip but this kind of stuff has been done to ultra-hip perfection on the classic Trilok Gurtu / Robert Miles album of a few years back.
Should you buy the album? Yes, if only for the 2 fully erect tracks I mentioned and to hear Bill Evans and Hadrien Feraud burn. My advice would be to buy, burn a copy and sell it back on e-bay or amazon. Then take the money and buy Gurtu-Miles which is the already established classic for acid-jazz/ house/ jazz-fusion fusion. Then if you want to hear some insane and wildly inspired playing check out more McLaughlin disciples outdoing the master on the Jonas Hellborg/ Paul Hanson/ Jeff Sipe album (not available on amazon for some reason but attainable at the abstractlogix site). When you're done with that do not forget to check out the excellent "Mondo Garaj" album by Garaj Mahal, ex-johnny-mac bassist Kai Eckhardt's band with guitar-wiz Fareed Haque who himself put out a brilliant CD recently called "Cosmic Hug" which is the second best ever fusion of Acid-Jazz/House with Fusion after the Gurtu / Miles album.
Description of Industrial Zen
Since the 1970's John Mclaughlin's Long Career Has Always Taken Mysical Turns, from the Mahavishnu Orchestra to Shakti. Here on "Industrial Zen", Mclaughlin Turns his Well Honed Skills to Jazz Fusion. He is Joined by Many Names that Brought Power-house Jazz Fusion to the Frontline During the '90's, Including Bill Evans, Gary Husband, Mark Mondesir, Vinnie Colauta and Dennis Chambers as Well as Texas Guitar Legend Eric Johnson.McLaughlin develops an intensely contemporary take on fusion here, combining with some fresh musicians while paying tribute to his fellow founders of the idiom. Updating his Mahavishnu Orchestra, the guitarist mixes electric jazz and Indian rhythms and scales with current synth and drum programming, creating a. maze of rapid lines that weave through a minefield of percolating electronics and percussion. Along with tributes to Carlos Santana and Michael Brecker, bassist Hadrien Feraud is prominent on "For Jaco," and Ada Novelli's soprano sax invokes Weather Report-era Shorter on "Wayne's Way," but all the music bears McLaughlin's trademark group virtuosity, the musicians moving fluidly in and out of complex patterns. "To Bop or Not To Be" stands out, flying atop the dense rhythmic dialogue of drummers Zakir Hussain and Dennis Chambers and bassist Matthew Garrison. There's a certain electronic sheen here, but strong personalities --McLaughlin, Feraud, and saxophonist Bill Evans--regularly break through to create intense moments. --Stuart Broomer
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