Customer Reviews

Show 'Em Where You Live

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Fusion artists have been in a constant and desperate search for a brew that had just the right ingredients for generations. Vital Information, with this album, have reached an area upon their journey in which they are free, compatable and yet locked when it comes to orchestration. Technically, dynamically, keenly and wisely, the Vital Information have come to be more and more advanced over time. This album is a true culmination of all that time they've spent absorbing the energy that's generated every single time they play together. If you don't hear this album, you are missing out on something that, indirectly, has taken about 16 years to formulate. Similar to a diamond that formed over time, this album has equivilent glow, and should not be passed up. Please check this one out.

This album and the previous from the band (Where we come from) redifine the world fusion givin' it a new interpretation, a new dignity and a new uptodateness. What the guys in the band did in the last few years was startin' a new exploration of their musical languages in order to rediscover their roots and to be able to find new ways of modern expressions through music. In the end this process paid. Here we have a strong album but more than anything else a strong new interpretation of fusion music. The recipe is: old instruments, new ideas. Hammond b3, Fender Rhodes, accordion, clean guitars, small drumset, .. used to play new musical visions. Not bad. The music: there's a lot of Jazz, but there's a lot of fusion too that's for sure but in the meantime here we are very far from the elevator music known a s fusion during the eighties. It's hard fusion, really near Jazz, there's a lot of improvisation and there are ideas. Wow! That's the best thing in the end! This is a strong album more than anything else because of its musical ideas. And of course because of the musicianship displayed by all the guys involved. Gambale, Coster, Smith and Browne they are perfectionists and here they prove their abilities. But I repeat, this album has contents: I didn't believe at first. This album is a Kickass. This music is a lot far from the kind of cheesy fusion played by the band in "Ray of hope" (which was not bad but maybe a little bit commercial). Here we have a heavy hammond jazz with a Kick. But this is only the dress. The substance is a new vocabulay strongly rooted in Jazz but with a modern fusion spice! It is a sort of Weather Report meet Tribal Tech meet Jimmy Smith kind of music. There is a true artistic approach. No commercial hooks here. And the more you go inside the album, the more you go on with the tracks 5, 6, ... 8, ... 10 the more experimental (but in the right way) the music goes!! I want to make my compiments to the band for this music and for their will to play fusion music in the new millenium against all music actual trends. This is surely fusion at his best.

I bought this CD at the club where I saw the band perform a show to promote this, their new album. It was a great show, and it's a wonderful electric jazz CD. There is an unexpected pleasing little bite to it that comes in the form of these short little tunes that seem kind of spontaneous and chaotic. They pop up here and there between an enticing set of more melodic, straight-ahead instrumental jazz tunes that capture and hold your interest throughout the CD. Those short blasts into the "slightly more bizarre" break up the album and make it more interesting. It worked out well. The concert was a bit more rockin' than the album would lead you to expect, but I highly recommend this work. Founding member Steve Smith is superlative on drums. Guitarist Frank Gambale is as "at home" with this more straight-ahead jazz as he is with his notable solo fusion work. Tom Coster has made a great transition into this group after his days playing keyboards for Santana. And bassist Baron Browne has more room to stretch out and strut his stuff than he was given when he worked for Jean-Luc Ponty. (Although his work for Ponty was incredible...and I have always been a huge Ponty fan. Browne has more freedom of expression in this group.) All in all, this is a notable album from a wonderful group. Do yourself a favor...give this disc a spin!

WOW, I literally just popped this cd into my CD player, and I am completely blown away. So blown away that my grahamr is absolutly terrrible....Steve Smith really opened me up to Vital Informaiton through his DVD set "History of the Drum Beat". As soon as I first heard this band, I knew I had to buy this CD. Definatly one of my best purchases in a long time. I would say since LIQUID TENSION EXPERIMENT or DREAM THEATER (check them out). Again, words can't express how much I love this band now. All the tracks are instrumental, which I absolutly love, and the acordian is definatly something that I am not used to, but it rocks none the less. I love the combination of jazz/funk and rock, and it goes together so well.

A MUST HAVE FOR FUSION/PROGRESSIVE HEADS EVERYWHERE!!!

While being a relatively new listener to VI, "Come On In" being my first purchase, "Show 'Em Where You Live" is right there in a similar vein. Eclectic drum patterns, Gambale being Gambale, Mr. Costner, thanks to you I have an appreciation for the accordion and Mr. Brown.....wow. Great recording, great tracks and I'm looking forward to the next album. This album is "Cranial" crazy, man! Oh yeah, Steve, other than money, what the hell were you doing in Journey??!!

I own every Vital Information album released ( including the first four that are out of print, which I've managed to burn to CD ). This one, while interesting, is simply a bit stale for me...musicianship, as always, remains stunning, but Steve Smith & Co haven't changed the current format for the past three albums. I miss the jazz voices of their earlier efforts: acoustic piano, tenor/alto saxophone, etc...Steve, if by some chance you're reading this, PLEASE get Tom to dust off that acoustic piano and incorporate it back into V.I.'s music! Again, the chops are awe-inspiring, but I for one could do without the ongoing "Cranial Jam" ( whose continuity during the last three albums seems almost like a private joke among the band members that we're apparently supposed to try to figure out ). Guys, you don't necessarily need to rotate musicians to keep Vital Information's sound fresh...just use some more of those enticingly seductive jazz voices ( even a flute player 'guesting' on one or two numbers would liven things up! ).