MCM - Ritual Factory 2004

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Fusion, Progressive Metal

Original Release Date: 2004

Label: Lion Music

This is a hard one to review. Rarely do I like to criticise such creativity within the Metal genre but on some occasions an album comes along that beggars belief as to what the musicians are hoping to achieve. One such album is MCM’s debut ‘’Ritual Factory’’ An album that ‘’spans from Progressive Rock to Experimental Jazz, from Funk Fusion to Indian Rhythms and phrasing’’ Yeah, you’ll be as bewildered as me when you hear it.

MCM is the brain child of the talented guitarist Alex Masi and he has joined forces with Randy Coven (Steve Vai/Malmsteen) on bass and John Macaluso (TNT/Malmsteen/RIOT) on drums. (I’ll let you work out where MCM comes from) and the music is extremely challenging, with emphasis on challenging. By the way it’s almost entirely instrumental with the odd spoken verse chucked in for good measure. Obvious influences are DREAM THEATER (them again!) and a big, big RUSH influence also. Each song is a master class is superb technical ability but at the same time it’s totally lacking in emotion as the playing standard is above what us mere mortals could ever hope to understand. Wave after wave of Jazz Fusion guitars, drum and bass come rolling from the speakers all mixing into a complex dispersal of sounds and shapes. After awhile it all sounds so bloody samey! And once you’ve heard one Randy Coven bass solo (utterly impressive though it is) then you’re not going to hang around for anymore. I guess you could place Masi’s guitar solos in that pigeon hole as well.

All three musicians are pushing themselves to the limit here both musically and commercially. You’ll be hard pressed to hear anything quite so diverse in the Metal world and for that MCM should be congratulated but for a spectacle of music it’s tough going. (Online August 24, 2004)

Anouar Brahem - Conte de L'incroyable amour (1992)

Format: flac + cue + log

Genre: Jazz, Folk, World, & Country

Original Release Date: 1992

Label: ECM Records

After a memorable ECM debut with Barzakh, Anouar Brahem recorded this even more memorable sophomore effort one year later. Carrying over percussionist Lassad Hosni, Brahem welcomes Turkish musicians Kudsi Erguner on ney and Barbaros Erköse on clarinet. Erköse, a gypsy music specialist, adds rich colors to an already dense palette, weaving tethers that pull us into tender worlds. His duets with Erguner (“Etincelles” and “Peshrev Hidjaz Homayoun”) stand out as some of the album’s most flowing. The title track brings the patter of clay drums, weaving a gorgeous ney into our vision. (The melodies and rhythms here put this listener immediately in mind of the song “I Love You” from Omar Faruk Tekbilek’s album One Truth.) Captivating. Erguner shines again in “Diversion.” Slaloming through every drummed pillar with the conviction of a bird in search of prey and yet with the delicacy of an angel avoiding such violence, he brings a sense of history to every lilting gesture. “Nayzak” revives the clarinet amid oud and drums for a stunning taste of mountains and the plains. The album’s meat, though, comes in Brahem’s unaccompanied storytelling. From the dawn chorus of “L’oiseau de bois” and invigorating virtuosity of “Battements,” through the tender air “Le chien sur les genoux de la devineresse,” and on to “Epilogue,” there is unimaginable depth of yearning in every twang and strum.

This album is all about the composition, stripped to the barest essentials of melodic craft and burrowing straight into the marrow of our past lives. One of Brahem’s best to date.