Customer Reviews

Side One

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(8)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Adrian Belew - member of King Crimson, famed session musician and multi-instrumentalist extraordinaire - has reemerged with a brand new solo disc entitled "Side One"-the first in a series of three CDs to be released throughout 2005.
Although almost all the music was written and performed by Belew alone, he does have a little help from some friends on this disc most notably Primus's Les Claypool and Tool's Danny Carey who provide respective bass and drums to the albums opening three tracks.
"Side One" only runs for 33-minutes total but there is still plenty of great and varied music in spite of this. The opening track "Ampersand" sounds almost like a Beatles tune performed with an extremely odd time signature while other tracks such as "Writing On The Wall", "Matchless Man" and "Walk Around the World" resemble Belew's work with King Crimson (the latter track sounds like an outtake from "Three of a Perfect Pair"). Elsewhere on the disc, Adrian shows off his experimental side with the 7-minute instrumental "Madness" which features a thick distored bassline, heavy percussion and layers of sustained delayed guitar phrases. "Beat Box Guitar" is also experimental and also echoes King Crimson in their current phase.
The closing three pieces are short in nature and form sort-of a mini-suite. "Under The Radar" is an atmospheric ballad with a slight Pink Floyd vibe to it which leads directly into "Elephants" a minimalist piece in which Belew improvises some wildly outrageous guitar leads over a repeated riff. This leads into the short final track "Pause" which consists of ambient sound effects and a very brief phrase of guitar arpegggios.
This is a very well-put-together and entertaining CD and displays Adrian Belew's eccentric talents at their best. Fans of King Crimson will no doubt enjoy this disc as it does resemble the band quite heavily at times. With this disc containing music of this high intensity, I can hardly wait for Belew's next two "Sides" to be released.
Excellent CD!!

Adrian Belew is in hard Crimsonesque mode here (though occasionally pulling in his other musical incarnations as well). The talent bleeds out of every corner, from Belew's multi-instrumental attack, to the powerful support work of Les Claypool and Danny Carey, among the other contributors. While that should be assumed on a Belew project, there are no dead moments, no frustratingly short snippets (like on his Op Zop Too Wah or on King Crimson's Thrak, both very good & enjoyable, but imperfect albums), and no lyrical misfires.

The sound is tight, and the words are impressionistic & evocative. The music has a powerful and intricate rhythmic feel & consistency, going from hard crunching ("elephants", "madness", parts of "ampersand"), to bright sounding rock or pop ("writing on the wall" or "walk around the world"), to the sinister fluttering-cool air of "matchless man". The transitions happen quickly and organically, without any seeming out of place.

It is a quick tour at 33 minutes, but the length felt right for the material. I do not believe in throwing around five star ratings recklessly, but this release deserves it.

First: This is Adrian Belew. Don't buy this CD expecting to hear Adrian sing TOOL. With an active drummer such as Mr. Carey, Claypool's job is to solidify the rhythm. Between Msr's Claypool and Carey, they lay down a sonic canvas on which Mr. Belew paints with broad sonic strokes. "Madness" is pure genious. "Beat Box Guitar", "Under the Radar", and "Walk around the World" are really one masterpiece in 3 sections. This is the best work of Adrian Belew by far. Fantastic.

With a wildly impressive range of crededentials - sought-after session man, smart producer, skilled drummer, quirky singer/writer, insanely talented guitarist - and having worked with an enormous cast of eclectic musicians in his time, it shouldn't be surprising that Adrian Belew can pack a whole normal career's worth of prowess and variety into one album without breaking a sweat. So what we have here is a batch of nine tracks that sound nothing alike; I guess some mild schizophrenia is really the least we can expect from such a solo effort. Side One clocks in at only 33:08, Ade's view being that it's better to err on the side of brevity than length, but this is still among the most solid releases of his career. A shame it's priced as an album rather than an EP (especially since there's a Side Two *and* Side Three on the way this year).

Within that short window, however, we get spun through a dizzying mix of equal parts brilliant songwriting and wacky instrumental weirdness that could have easily filled up an album twice its length. Les Claypool and Danny Carey add some power-trio punch to make a super tasty freakout out of the first two tracks, then turn "Matchless Man" into a beautiful semi-hypnotic drone with Indian overtones. (That's all they appear on here, but they'll be back on S3.) AB runs the gamut himself for the remainder. "Walk Around the World" is catchy in that twisted kind of way with some weaving Crimsonesque guitar lines. "Elephants" is all abstract meanderings with softly spoken words. Easy to miss is the abruptly snipped "Under the Radar," which is pure straightforward pop with some odd freaky sound effects. The only slight misstep is the squealing/chugging "Madness," which though interesting, wears out its welcome at seven minutes. But if your taste runs to the atonal, you should still like it for its child-frightening value.

I'd definitely recommend this for the already-converted and probably for those curious about the man's solo work, as it's a fairly small & painless taste of what he can do. I just wish it was priced more appropriately.. especially as one part of a whole with more delicious insanity to come.

From what I understand, Adrian Belew was interested in releasing a short album like back in the day when you got a 30-45 minute record 'LP' with a 'side one' and a 'side two'. Just enough music to hold your interest for at least a half hour. Problem was that he had enough material for more than one album, so he decided to release the album 'sides' as two separate cd's. But it didn't stop there. He still had enough for a third 'side'. Hence the titles 'Side One', 'Side Two', etc. That's the concept behind this. Like getting only half of Abbey Road on a cd and the other half on a whole other disc. Album sides on CD. Ingenious. Or you could just call them EP's.

Adrian Belew is a clever cat who has many 'sides' to his career: On one side he's an experimental guitarist who can make his guitar sound like anything from a hippopotomus being electocuted to a telephone ringing. On the other he can play the part of multi-instrumentalist one-man show or the hired sessionman or equal bandmate who adds his own input wherever it may compliment the music. He's a singer-songwriter with Beatles sensibilities and a Roy Orbison/David Byrne hybrid voice.


Anyway, Adrian Belew has been busy with King Crimson and The Bears(as well as producing other artists) since the mid 90's, and 'Side One' is his first new solo album studio material since 1996's underrated 'Op Zop Too Wah'. So this was a long time coming. What's it like? Well, it kicks. It jams. It's got a killer power trio on a few cuts(Tool's Danny Carey and Les Claypool of Primus), so it's a more rocking, crunching set of tunes. Lyrics are often minimal. This will irritate anyone more interested in his more melodic, 'Beatles-esque' solo material from albums like 'Mr. Music Head'(1989), 'Inner Revolution'(1992) or 'Here'(1994). Clearly he's after an abrasive, Crimson-type sonic assault here. Keep in mind that this is 'Side One', and the other two follow-up 'Sides' are supposed to be different. We shall see. Hopefully 'Side Two' is an experimental side ala 'Desire Caught By The Tail' and 'Side Three' is more song-based melodic pop. But with Mr. Belew anything is possible. The Trax:


AMPERSAND - distorted and crunchy with the drums very in your face. This and the next two are power trio cuts. Play loud.

WRITING ON THE WALL - this one is roughly a discarded King Crimson jam from one of those Collector's Club discs that Adrian reworked here. This one is funkier. This trio does compliment each other.

MATCHLESS MAN - Tool's Dany Carey supplies tabla here on this more quieter but brief track. Musically this one harks back to 'Op Zop Too Wah'. Very trippy, with Ade's trademark guitar skwawks that you may remember hearing from his Crim/Heads days.

MADNESS - A very Crimson type abrasive and nerve-wracking 7 minute instrumental which sounds like what a king Crimson line-up of Adrian, Fripp, John Wetton on bass, drummer Pat Mastellotto and David Cross(violin) would have sounded like. This is the closest thing to that. Play this at the end of a party where guests are slow in leaving. I guarentee an empty room soon.

WALK AROUND THE WORLD - interlocking guitar textures recall King Crimson's Discipline album. This is the only track that has enough lyrics to make it a traditional 'song'. Man, but listen to his fingers play those guitar patterns. His fingers should be tied in a knot after playing that!

BEAT BOX GUITAR - the sounds of scratchy vinyl introduces this slick and groovy instrumental, keeping with the 'record sides' concept. Actually one of his best instrumentals recalling some of his similar stuff from 'Coming Attractions'(2000).

UNDER THE RADAR - a brief 'song' with just voice, guitar and sound fx. Quite pretty, but doesn't go on long enough.

ELEPHANTS - maybe the only throwaway track, not a sequel to 'Elephant Talk' from Discipline. More ominous animal madness from Mr. Belew. Lyrically it's words with an 'E' this time.

PAUSE - just that. A short sound bit that isn't really a 'song'. More like the end of an album side telling you that time to flip the record over. Intermission.

Not his best but still some interesting work from Adrian Belew. I look forward to hearing the rest of the 'record'.

"Side One" is the first in a trilogy of albums (you can guess the names of the other two) by Adrian Belew, his first solo records since 1996's "Op Zop Too Wah". Each of them is presenting a different facet of Belew's music-- this record is an exploration of the power trio setting, although admittedly only the first three tracks feature other musicians in this trio, and at times.

One thing immediately noticable is that this album is largely an abandonment of the pop structures that Belew typically works within on his solo records (evidentally that will come back on "Side Three"). In fact, this music is closer to King Crimson than anything else Belew has ever done on a solo record-- layered, intertwining guitars (accomplished largely through looping according to the liner notes) sitting on top of odd rhythms. There's hints of this sound on "Op Zop Too Wah" and even "Here", but never is it expressed so overtly.

"Side One" was anticipated by a lot of folks because of the presence of bassist Les Claypool (Primus) and drummer Danny Carey (Tool). It is probably important to note the two of them are only on three tracks, and this IS an Adrian Belew album through and through. While their personalities come out in their playing, there's no doubt this is an Adrian Belew album. Having stated that, the three work well as a unit, with the first three tracks being among the best material on the record-- in particular "Writing on the Wall", which sounds like a funky version of what appears on Crimson's "The Power to Believe" complete with a downright Frippish disjoint guitar solo.

The remainder of the material doesn't quite live up to these three tracks, in part largely because you get quite spoiled by the superlative playing of Claypool and Carey. Belew is more than competent as a bassist and a drummer, but those two deliver standout performances, and the highlights is in the guitar playing-- the snakelike lines of "Madness" and the monster guitar in "Elephants" come immediately to mind. And while there are some misses ('80s Crimson styled "Walk Around the World", the somewhat dull "Beat Box Guitar"), all in all, its a pretty good record.

A final note, the album is only 33 minutes long-- Belew felt the album was a statement as it was, distinct from the other two sides. While I can respect his feeling in the integrity of the album, I'm not particularly enamored with having paid for a full length CD for one this short, although I'm inclined to blame the record label for this. Still, its a testament to the quality of the record that I don't particularly feel like I got ripped off with this.

Yes, I must agree this is a high point in Belew's long career. This is classic Belew in every sense of the word. Belew's guitar work is masterful and creative. He is in a league of his own and way ahead of his time.

I like every track from beginning to end on this album. My favorite tracks, though, are "Walk Around The World" and "Under The Radar", Belew provides an excellent lead vocal on these two songs. I also like "Elephants", which makes me think back to his work with Tom Tom Club, primarily the song "L'Elephant".

The album in it's entirety is a work of art and a great listen all the way through.

Thank you Adrian Belew for another wonderful work.

Great solo album by Adrian. I've been meaning to get this one for a long time and I finally got it. Les Claypool is the man on bass and the Tool drummer is great. But, it's Adrian that really shines on this one. There are songs that sound like, oddly enough, Red-era King Crimson and songs that would fit on King Crimson's last CD release.

You could think of Adrian Belew as Robert Fripp's Crimson alter ego. Fripp uses rope leads, Belew bent screws. Belew also embraces Beatle derived pop in a way his older Les Paul Buddha does not or tries to hide.

His solo albums, though, remind us that Belew is as much of a proger as Fripp, just with a broader base. This is one of three, and contains sound experiments threaded with Belew's more song oriented instincts. Neither has quite the elephant footprint of Crimson, but this is no radical departure either.

There are three of these, and as companion pieces, you should get all; though why half hour discs need separate issues is a little curious. Perhaps Adrian was reading his Beatle bios and remembered George Martin wanting to divide the White Album into two

Adrian belew creates,more cool sounds than is believable, from one man ( and band ) originally was attracted to "Matchless Man" but all songs give a nice sonic relief to the kaleidescope that is my ipod.

Enjoy

Gus