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Pseudo Buddha:
3 Months in Fat City!
Pseudo Buddha. Why this name? You check it out and decide Then get back to me This is an hour-long album containing only four tracks. Each track is taken from a different date during the bands Fall 2002 performances. Semi-seamlessly, the tracks run through one another, which is pretty amazing seeing as how they were taken from four different nights. The sound quality is great; this doesnt play like a live album with all the clappin and hootin, rather it plays like an improvised jazz set nice and easy where you get real feeling and emotion. Each piece carries this air of haunting big band, spaced-out minimalism and blends of psychedelia with jazzy, druggy Indian prog-rock. Last night, after a month of procrastinating and putting this review off, I decided to listen to the album again as I was lying in bed at 3:30 in the morning. First, I realized that Im still no different from the way I was in college; here I sit, the day of the deadline and Im just starting my paper. I also realized that this album, through headphones with a cold drink next to the player, just summed up and eased my entire day. It was a hectic day off as I had done nothing except try and get out of bed and run an errand. Putting this album on and trying to conjure up some sleep demons did more than I thought it would. I think I originally wanted to put the headphones on and sleep on it much like you would with the history book under the pillow in grade school. However, I soon found myself unable to sleep to this particular album. I was caught completely off-guard, but was at ease as I was swirled up into this session which was pulsing, even grooving back and forth between my ears. My heart slowed down a bit, and I began to breath normally again. Maybe there is something in this name. The percussion creates a driving undercurrent, a bridge that holds you up and supports you while the other instruments float and dance through and above it, interacting with your thoughts and moods. I think its the lap steel of Bobdog (founder and force behind the idea) shoved through reverb and a delay effect and much, much more I presume that sounds like a sitar and lines the whole album so nicely. He can play. Besides the literal walls of percussion that this collective uses, heres a sample of some other instruments, as taken from their liner notes: the lap steel, eng/cheng veena, little green flute, Aztec clay flute, soprano sax, toy sax, sawblade, complex software, tangled cords, basses and so much more. This is a talented group of musicians. Each note played and instrument banged fits into place, and nothing is off or over the top. A guitar wails in the distance, and a flute responds to it or an electronic drone bleeds into it. All of it goes into the creation of this endless landscape which washes over and calms the listener. I believe I like this album.
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