|
Bent Leg Fatima is a quartet from Philadelphia
(Keyboardist Dale Jimenez,
vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Jeff Bradbury,
bassist Jamie Robinson,
drummer Chris Powell)
that bridges progressive-rock
and trance-oriented rock.
The imaginative tracks of Bent Leg Fatima (File 13, 2000) harked back to
Soft Machine (Hemingway, Seamless Suite)
and early Pink Floyd (Saucer And Cup, Cat Crow And Snake).
But ethereal compositions like Greetings And Farewells have no
predecessor.
Occasionally, their songs bring back to mind giants of rock music like Robert
Wyatt and Syd Barrett. Quite an accomplishment for a debut album.
Dale Jimenez, Jeff Bradbury, Chris Powell,
plus bassist Chris Reggiani and saxophonist Larry Brown,
formed Need New Body and released the
22-track album Need New Body (Cenotaph, 2002), permeated by
Eastern and jazz influences but largely unfocused and fragmented (on purpose).
The 23-track album
UFO (File 13, 2003), recorded without Brown and with the addition of
Jamie Robinson (now on piano) and percussionist Jim Reggiani,
is a much more effective and even violent work, that dispenses with both
the jazz and the Eastern variables of the equation while retaining the
anarchic attitude. The disjointed flow of the songs is a treat in itself,
from the Zappa-esque ballad Moondear to the demented
Popfest (which is not pop at all).
Perhaps indulging too much in the same old joke, Need New Body failed to
attain the same level of superhuman dementia on
Where's Black Ben (5 Rue Christine, 2005), the first album
without Chris Reggiani. Its pieces (and their barbaric incursions in all sorts
of musical genres, from hip-hop to jazz) sound gratuitous and incoherent where they used to sound
challenging and meaningful.
Chris Powell also plays in Icy Demons that released Fight Back (Cloud, 2004).
|
(Translation by/ Tradotto da xxx) Se sei interessato a tradurre questo testo, contattami
|
