Customer Reviews

Industrial Zen

5 star:		(16)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(5)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

While John McLaughlin is my favourite guitarist, as my own guitar teacher once said, some of his stuff is kind of "out there." As such, while his playing and compositions with Shakti, on My Goals Beyond, The Promise, Inner Mounting Flame, etc are amazing, he's always got some stuff I haven't quite been able to "get in to."

However, Industrial Zen, perhaps his most experimental and "out there" album, is, I think, one of his best. His playing is absolutely flawless on this recording. His characteristic long phrasing, chromaticism, and speed-of-light flurries of notes are fully developed and expressive. McLaughlin solos like most of us breathe.

Right now my favourite track is For Jaco. If you're a McLaughlin fan (or just a fan of jazz, rock, or fusion) you will NOT be disappointed.

The 1980s and 1990s was mostly a recording rut for John McLaughlin, as he seemed to have grown weary creatively. But there was always that one or two cuts that would keep the hopes up for fans that he had at least one more classic album to issue.

The wait is over, as Industrial Zen is that CD.

With tributes to a variety of artists - Jaco Pastorius, Wayne Shorter, Michael Brecker and Carlos Santana - and a great cast of musicians, McLaughlin takes a retrospective look at his career while (finally) forging a sound artistic path for the future.

For Jaco (Jaco Pastorius) picks up where the Trio of Doom - McLaughlin, Pastorius and Tony Williams - left off in their much too brief existence, as Hadrian Feraud's fretless bass and the percussion of Mark Mondesir & Gary Husband propels the rhythm.

The brilliant colors painted by electronica in New Blues, Old Bruise are sparked by a sizzling introduction by guitarist Eric Johnson. To Bop Or Not To Be (Michael Brecker) highlights the synthesizers and keyboards of Otmaro Ruiz and Gery Husband, respectively, and the outstanding work from Paul Chambers (d) and Zakir Hussain (tabla).

Dear Dalai Llama starts with the excellent vocals of Shankar Mahadevan & tenor sax of Ada Rouvatti and then it's off to a sound explosion that would easily be at home on the 1978's Electric Guitarist, arguably the last important release from that era's fusion movement.

I hope the obvious energy from the sessions that resulted in Industrial Zen will spur McLaughlin to forge ahead musically instead of stumbling around near the back of the field.

I highly recommend this album to drummers, guitarists, and jazz-rock fans who are tired of hearing overly funk-influenced cool jazz. Don't get me wrong, I love Jazz-Funk music but feel that what began so many years back as a challenging art form for both Jazz and Funk and Rock players alike has been delegated to a low point. Improvisational Jamband funk has all but taken hold and I enjoy the improv but have yearned for some complexity. John McLaughlin's Industrial Zen has filled the void.

I have heard quite a few of John McLaughlin's albums over the years, and John has constantly surprised me with his chameleon-like ability of changing styles depending on who he's playing with. This album is great because it shows really what McLaughlin is about. This album features incredible Indian drumming, knods to friends Wayne Shorter and the late-great Jaco Pastorius, and also manages to create fusions with incredible bass-lines (of course great guitar work) and odd-time signatures used, tastefully, creating a very nice mood despite the speed at which the proceedings are going on at.

Appropriate title: Industrial Zen.. Highly recommended!

This CD is a look backward and a summing up of his career and influences, very much as Miles Davis did in his "Your Under Arrest" recording. It was great to hear him play like he did with the Mahavishnu Orchestra on the first cut and his tribute to Wayne Shorter had some nice echoes of Weather Report. The compostions and playing are all on a very high level. I have always enjoyed the complexity of his music. It is very stimulating to the mind.

John McLaughlin has been my favorite guitarist since the first Mahavishnu album. I realize why some people don't fathom much of his music as is the case with my number two favorite, Allan Holdsworth. Holdsworth's compositions have been described as mathematical progressions but if you listen carefully his compositions are a unique music that can't be pigeonholed. It's the same with JM. You have to listen to a lot of his music but the reward is realizing he has created his own unique music that can be labeled as fusion but the more correct label would be John McLaughlin. When you listen to the tribute albums, it reinforces what superb compositional skills JM has. Zen Industrial is another great album by JM of which there are many. If you don't like the sax and some other aspects of the album, concentrate on the compositions which are one of a kind. A strong four star effort.

I have quite enjoyed John's "acoustic" albums as of lately, but decided that I would give this new release a try. It's a bit of a return to John's previous experiments with electronic jazz, and not a bad one at that, but I prefer his more acoustic side. If you like Industrial John, then give it a whirl!

For longtime fans of McLaughlin's many incarnations, this is a welcome return to the electric guitar. Along with Miles Davis, McLaughlin more or less invented so-called fusion jazz, and he remains the most accomplished player in this misnamed form of music. "Fusion" implies a hybrid form, which by definition is unnatural. Those of us who heard and loved McLaughlin's playing in his own bands, including Shakti, and with Miles understand this jazz as a development and a natural evolution of jazz out of the pleasant but antiquated bebop format. Of course, jazz has continued to develop since Miles Davis's "Bitch's Brew" pretty much introduced electric jazz during the late 1960s, but just as one likes to hear the bebop masters now and then, it is especially pleasing to these ears to hear John McLaughlin take up his ax and do what he does best.

I've been an avid fan since the early 70's when Mahavishnu Orchestra and then Shakti concerts blew my mind, but find this album very disappointing. Of course there's some virtuosic playing here, but mostly on the part of bass players and drummers, while Eric Johnson gets in the best guitar solo. But the compositions are uniformly unmemorable. Uninteresting charts, blaring sax, a few fast solos that go nowhere - it sounds like out-takes from a Mike Stern session, only Stern does this kind of fusion far better. Listening to this after the superb new "Saudades" CD featuring John Scofield covering some of McLaughlin's back pages makes me wonder what happened here.

Hmm... I consider John McLaughlin one of the great musicians of our times. I was all set for "Industrial Zen" - an intense, all-out ensemble fusion blowing session. Not disappointed on that front. What bothered me is J Mc spoke in interview about his desire to do something radical - incorporating live & electronic percussion more than before in his music. Like his mentor, Miles Davis, the drum was the heart of the music.

But J Mc jumbled things together here. Yes, there's a lot of drumming, but what's missing is the crisp, soulful arrangements presented on both live and studio version of "Heart of Things" band performances.

On HOT sessions - both live and studio versions - as well as the live show I caught at House of Blues, Chicago; J Mc incorporated the power of Mahavishnu, the blueblood of electric Miles' band with the sophisticated interactive jazz charts of the Duke Ellington band circa 1938 - to form a wonderful, kaliedoscopic jazz romp of elegance and verve.

Unfortunately, "Industrial Zen" is missing most of the above. Not least, the deluded "gum commercial" synth voice that intrudes most noxiously in several tunes. I can only think J Mc was held at gun-point to include something so noisome and toxic in his long standing ouevre. However, he made a bold attempt at something new, in itself, a terrific thing for an established artist. I eagerly await his next turn of thought.

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.