Steve Lieberman - Jewish Engineer 18

Steve Lieberman - Jewish Engineer 18
2010, JDub Records

Steve Lieberman, AKA The Gangsta Rabbi is at it again with his 18th album, his second for JDub Records, Jewish Engineer 18. The post-punk, flute-toting Jewish street poet and songwriter continues down the path he's been on for a number of years now; a bi-polar political diatribe against all that doesn't make sense in the world.

Like Lieberman's other albums, it's hit or miss whether you'll understand the lyrics. Lieberman's rants are conducted in sing-song fashion over his highly distorted bass guitar and percussion with Ian Anderson-like flute fills dotting the musical landscape. The result is surreal and fun, particularly when Lieberman works up an angry head of steam over some social injustice or simple act of human stupidity. Lieberman's social observations ("400 Pound Cop", "Garbage Truck", "The Double Clutch") can be as funny as his political ones ("Riot At The Tax Lien Sale", "Life Crisis Man-Machine", "The PBA"). But Lieberman saves his full ire for religious considerations ("Preach The Deuteronomy"), while also acclaiming his own faith ("Cool To Be Hebrew"). Lieberman's best moments come in moments of pique, ("Poor Man's Matisyahu", "I Want A Bass With A Whammy Bar").

Some folks are going to find Lieberman difficult to impossible to listen to, and I'll admit he's an acquired taste. Lieberman rests somewhere between Gibby Haynes and Wesley Willis on the depth chart. His insights come from left-center field, driven by the Bipolar disorder he deals with every day and from years living in a city where poverty and luxury often live across the street from one another. The Gangsta Rabbi knows both sides of the street and speaks from the heart for all of those who will listen. If the music on Jewish Engineer 18 is tempered in hues you could never imagine, then so much the better.

Rating: 3.5 Stars (Out of 5)

Learn more about Steve Lieberman at http://www.gangstarabbi.com/ or www.myspace.com/gangstarabbi.   Jewish Engineer 18 does not appear to be commercially available yet.  Keep an eye on Lieberman's website for availability.

Review: Smile Case - Lose Our Heads

Smile Case - Lose Our Heads

2009, Blacktop Records

Ben Andress is not a coward. He ventures forth as a tone deaf singer/songwriter with a sense for good hooks and near-stream of consciousness songwriting. He's also the driving force behind Smile Case, an artist collective of one mind and multiple personas. The Canadian singer/songwriter/Pickle Pizza eater set forth with his debut album in July of 2009 called Lose Our Heads. The album was released by Andress' own Blacktop Records in Canada, and features some of the most fractured songwriting of the year, to date.

Lose Our Heads, the title track, is a diatribe about living for the weekend and plays like an imbalance co-worker revealing the unfortunate and un-hearable aspects of his social life. Up next is Motivational Speaker, a take on bravery with low expectations. There's actually a message about being yourself no matter what that is in there somewhere, but you might miss it in a composition that runs well under two minutes. Waking Up To Sunshine sounds vaguely like two bands practicing in adjacent rehearsal spaces and essentially repeats the same lyric for the full nearly-two minutes of the song. In Some Other City clocks in at a robust four minutes sounding once again like there are two distinct tracks playing at once. The guitar and voices sound like they might have been recorded in someone's bathroom, while the come-and-go strings (synth) sounds like it was done in a studio. The two are merged together in a surreal fashion but never really sound together. The vocal/guitar portion of the recording is pure Lo-Fi and includes what sounds like mistakes such as forgotten lyrics and missed queues at times.

Take Good Care My Brother And Sisters opens with a voice part from Jon Favreau's Swingers and seems to be about a game of chance over someone's sister before it devolves into an unintelligible storm of notes and garbled lyrics. 50 Below Zero is the sort of declaration almost anyone would make in such conditions set to music. Kim Kelly is simply unlistenable. Nothing is in tune, no one really sings/plays together and the words border on unintelligible at times. Life Of A Party opens with a snippet from Chasing Amy, easily the most understandable part of the song. Three Generations shows signs of wanting to be lucid but devolves as soon as Andress opens his mouth to sing. Andress is even more difficult to understand than The Gangsta Rabbi, Steve Lieberman. Lose Our Heads closes with The Art Of Losing Your Head, which opens with a line from Girl, Interrupted that is probably the most apropos statement on the entire disc.

Smile Case is a seriously demented musical project that borders on performance art. The presentation of insanity enclosed in Lose Our Heads is either a frightful diorama of madness or an attempt at a Jackass style send-up of insanity. Either way it's not a terribly pleasant listen. I sat through it for the purpose of giving it a fair listen but wouldn't choose to do so again. I don't have a strong opinion on whether it's good or bad, it's just so far off the chart there's not a lot to compare it to. Some who are more into the realm of musical masochism will definitely find this a treat. If you think Phoebe Buffay should have had a child with Gibby Haynes and taught him to play guitar and sing, then this would be your reward.

Rating: 1.5 Star (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Smile Case at www.myspace.com/smilecase, where you can purchase a copy of Lose Your Head directly from the artist.

Review: Fractal - Sequitur

Fractal - Sequitur
2009, Fractal

Fractal is an original Progressive Rock quartet based out of San Jose and the San Francisco Bay area of California, beginning as a trio in 2000 and expanding to their current lineup in 2004. Their second album, Sequitur, moves mostly away from the improvisational approach of its predecessor, Continuum, while containing some of the most stylish and artful Progressive Rock of the decade. Fans of King Crimson, Yes, Rush, Radiohead, Pink Floyd and even Dream Theater take note; Fractal may just be the second coming of Prog.

Sequitur opens with Ellipsis, a busy instrumental that reminds me of some of Rush's later instrumental work (perhaps a wayward cousin of the Where's My Thing trilogy). Aftermath is the band's response to the events of September 11, 2001 and the loss of personal and cultural innocence. At over nine minutes, Aftermath covers a lot of musical ground, churning through musical mourning, anger and fluctuations of fear before a soaring guitar solo lifts your hopes heavenward. Mantra: Eternal Spring Of Life was perhaps not intentionally written as an epilogue to Aftermath, but does seem to capture the resilience of human spirit springing back to health even after the tragedy and burgeoning recovery of Aftermath. Soft, legato guitar solos capture the fragile first steps of confidence inside the tougher shell formed by guitar, bass and drums.

Coriolis is one of only two pure improvisations on Sequitur, taking on an ethereal, Pete Namlook/Fax type feel, particularly when the keyboards are in full force. Coriolis is somber and serious and other-worldly. Fractal slips into an almost Radiohead-like transcendentalism on A Fraction Of One, imbuing a quiet sense of urgency on an almost supernatural soundscape. Pataphysics, the other improv on Sequitur is an angry and impetulant rage on musical canvas that neither progresses nor devolves, but simply sits as a sonic mass to be passed through on the way to Mauve and The Great Pain. Influenced by a Jimi Hendrix blues feel and Fripp/Belew guitar stylings, Fractal takes us on a 13/8 time odyssey of sound that is closer to improv than pure composition. The Monkey's Paw is a jumbled mass of musical styles that persists in its chaotic state rather than evolving into something new. Imagine if Rush jammed with Gibby Haynes and you might have an idea of how this one will go, except that it's a lot more pure Prog than you might expect.

The epic Churn opens with a classical style overture that leads into the three movements or parts. Part I is eerily reminiscent of classic Yes, with Steve Howe-style guitar chops highlighting a highly rhythmic piece. Part II goes more for a Floydian disposition with an incredibly funky bass line adding musical commentary to randomly dubbed voiceovers; all played against a varying sonic landscape of dark intent. Part III brings a sonic resolution of acoustic guitar and keys that plays like an outro to one of the classic Styx albums of the 1970's. Closing things out is Bellerophon, a bit of musical sleight of hand that is like aural vertigo compared to the rest of the album. Bellerophon is an electronic composition that the band describes as a non-sequitur.

Sequitur is far and away the most exciting and original pure Prog album of the decade. There is a vibrancy and sense of creativity running through the work of Fractal that you have to go back to the early days of Prog to duplicate. It's easy to picture Fractal sharing a stage with groups like Yes, Rush or King Crimson in their heyday. If you have an ear for Progressive Rock then this album is definitely for you. if you're not familiar with Prog but love classical music, musical with unusual time structures or even some of the more experimental electronica then you would do well to give Sequitur a listen. Fractal got it right.

Rating: 4.5 Stars (Out of 5)

You can learn more about Fractal at http://www.fractal-continuum.com/ or www.myspace.com/fractalcontinuum. You can purchase a copy of Sequitur at www.cdbaby.com/cd/fractal3.