Customer Reviews

Time Control

5 star:		(10)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is a mixed bag of a concept album.

First off, this kind of music should not be viewed of in terms of modern songs. This is a continuation of her concept of orchestra, what she introduced on Spiral. The music is more like an improvised concerto, with solos less having to do with playing riffs on top of chords, but more to do with improvising freely in the style of the mood and the group concept.

This is NOT jazz music, but more like orchestral fusion. If you could imagine a classical orchestra of master players playing and improvising in modern grooves, this would be it.

Even concepts such as time signatures mean nothing, because with Hiromi's music, it could change at any point in time. This music is to be consumed as a whole: do not try to categorize this music into chunks with solos and choruses.

The most conventional song she sets up is on Time Out, with an outrageous classic solo taken by Dave Fiuczynski in the Scofield style.

However, give it some time, and like Spiral, Hiromi's genius will continue destroy categories and conventions. You will catch traces of all kinds types of music here: Bach, Jimi Hendrix, New Age stuff, smooth jazz, as well as Ornette Coleman, and even Miles Davis Bitches' Brew.

The best way to enjoy this is to quit thinking and just listen, and then you will understand what is going on here: Hiromi has become THE biggest force in instrumental music.

LIKE ALL OF HER MUSIC, NOTHING COMPARES TO THE LIVE PERFORMANCES OF THESE PIECES.

Hiromi's star continues to rise with this album. This is one sizzling quartet, with all the chops to make her compositions breathe fire, and yet all the passion to keep it genuinely human and warm. Let's run down the track list:

The opening of "Time Difference" seems at first to harken back to Rick Wakeman's prototypic "Six Wives of Henry VIII". But the pot is stirred very early on, with lots of slithering, microtonal dialogue between Hiromi and guitarist Fiuczynski. On balance, a wonderfully virtuoso opening for the album.

"Time Out" is a rollicking up-tempo shuffle with an infectious sense of fun, even as it revels in its dissonances. Some great solo work by Fiuczynski here.

"Time Travel" is a complex episodic work. The feeling of floating exhilaration at the beginning (nice solo work from Grey) gives way to a caffeinated drum riff whose challenge is soon taken up by the rest of the group with zeal. The highlights throughout this composition are too numerous to list, but my personal favorite is Hiromi's distortion-laced Rhodes solo (both a rarity and a delight).

The wistful "Deep Into the Night" brings us down to earth with what begins as a soulful ballad, but eventually slips into "power ballad" territory. There is drama here, but it is never overblown. Lovely work all around, though there was a moment or two I wish might have been mixed with as much care as the artists were pouring into it.

"Real Clock vs. Body Clock = Jet Lag" returns the sense of edgy fun to the proceedings. For some reason, this composition seems like the kindred spirit of Bela Fleck's "Couch Potato" to me, what with all the mercurial moods swings and broad humor.

"Time and Space" is a loping (and occasionally lurching) minimalist groove in search of a melody. Though it veers dangerously close to filler territory, there are some tasty solos that redeem the track's diffidence.

"Time Control, Or Controlled By Time" begins as a furious tarantella, but alternates moods several times during its eight-and-a-half minutes. The centerpiece is a remarkable solo from drummer Valihora, capped off with another excellent piano solo excursion.

"Time Flies" returns to the sense of the ethereal, introduced by a keening whistle-like solo that seems suspended in time alongside lush piano chords. Eventually the track reveals a ballad-rock mood whose chorus takes me back to, of all things, vintage early-80's Yellowjackets (my musical equivalent of comfort food, in other words). Even after eight minutes, I didn't want this track to end.

Finally, "Time's Up" closes the book on this gem of an album in a manner totally appropriate to the proceedings.

This was my very first Hiromi purchase... though I have also purchased "Brain" and "Spiral" since then, I keep coming back to "Time Control". I expect it to stay in my CD changer well beyond her next release (which is due pretty soon now).

I know no one's going to agree with my review but I've had six months to listen to this album now and I just can't get into it the way I enjoy the other Hiromi albums.

It's fun to listen to and I'm not questioning the tremendous talent of the artists on this album. But this album seems to lack the emotional intensity I've come to expect from them. I can't find on this album the sense of "purpose" you feel in such songs from previous albums as Green Tea Farm, Love and Laughter, Brain, Another Mind, Legend of the Purple Valley, Music for Three-Piece Orchestra.

The melodies just aren't memorable or meaningful, the harmonies get pretty repetitive in too many places. But the songs are of course very technically challenging and executed very well. I think on an artistic level it's not totally fair to compare previous work to new work, but the fact remains I own 4 Hiromi albums and only one of them I never listen to anymore.

No doubt about it, this quartet has some kind of mastery of time, as implied by the title. Weaving through complex time signatures and changes as facilely and easily as most people cross the street, this album is by turns stark, startling, and lush. It's full of hidden and pleasant surprises. Fuze's expansive array of effects pedals is used very tastefully in this effort and adds a great deal of timbral range to the album.

A must-have for anyone who enjoys music that takes you weird and compelling places.

This is my first Hiromi experience. I kept getting her confused with Hideki, er, Keiko Matsui. I figured anything with John McLaughlin's nephew Tony Grey on bass and Dave Fuicynski involved has got to be worth checking out. One pat on the back for me. Hiromi proves herself quite nimble on the keyboards and at times, threatens to blow your doors off. It's not "smooth" jazz, it's not traditional jazz. It's kind of fusion pop rocks. Hiromi forcefully states her case for being considered in the upper echelon of today's jazz pianists. I'd expect nothing less from an alum from the mighty Berlee School of Music in Beantown. Highly recommended!Time Control

What an unusual CD this is. If this were an LP and you randomly dropped the needle on it, you might well think you had a smooth jazz piano trio (the nadir of music), a funk-fusion blowout, a progressive rock complexity fest, or a free jazz exploration. To make matters more interesting, these things all might happen within one song. I could wish for more deep feeling in the soloing, rather than intellectual gymnastics, but the spin-the-radio-dial stylistic approach makes its own kind of entertainment. And the complexity and technical challenge of the playing on several songs is astonishing--the sort of thing that can keep you coming back again and again just to try and figure out how they're doing it without tangling their fingers into knots.

My one real complaint is the recording, which sucks every ounce of life out of the music. Being a Telarc disc, they make much of the equipment used to record it, and that might lead you to think this is a purist recording. But there is no natural resonance to any instrument or any sense of the space they recorded in. The acoustics are more dead than anything I've heard in years, and the instruments all sound like miniatures stuffed with cotton. I know there's a bass in this band because it says so in the CD booklet, but you'd never know from listening to the recording. The bass and bass drum are completely missing in action (though, oddly, the synthesizer bass is plenty full), the drums sound like toys, the cymbals have been compressed into oblivion, and the guitar sounds like a kazoo. The piano fares better, but the whole thing would be much more exciting and meaningful if the instruments were allowed to breath and interact--and interaction is the heart of music, particularly jazz. Listen to some of the YouTube videos of Hiromi and her band, and you'll see what I mean. The sound on those is in some ways technically less clean and accurate than this, but there is real excitement to the sound, real power in the playing, and that's choked off here.

Just got myself a copy of Hiromi Uetara's Time Control. Got turned on to her by a muso friend of mine. Saw a few clips on Youtube and went mad about her. Specially 'Place to be' ... [...]. Amazing discipline combined with wonderful expressive ability. All too often, people who have undergone such rigorous training have the expressive stuffing knocked out of them. So many such musos end up drowning in technique and become deeply boring as a result. And of course the cliche of Japanese life is that it so conformist that it shrivels the creative impulse like a dried prune. All the more enticing then to see someone like Hiromi cutting up the keyboards and playing her heart out. Beautiful to watch. Having said that, however, I found I couldn't wade my way through Time Control in a single sitting. That's why I only gave it 3 stars. I don't retract anything I said about her - she is a wonderful musician and a great musical personality - but I think she is still young as a composer. In the end I found the pieces tiring to listen to. It's always risky getting a bunch of crack journeymen in a room and letting them rip. They've just got too much to prove. Unless you can rein it in, things can rapidly end up disappearing up the old fundamental. As they all too often did with the early jazz rockers such as Mahavishnu. So many notes, so little time. But Hiromi is a sweetheart. Perhaps best listened to solo. For now, I prefer the simplicity and elegance of her fellow countryman, Ryuichi Sakamoto ... [...].

"Time Control" showcases Hiromi's eclectic love - Dream Theater and King Crimson - the love of polyrhythm and powerful motifs. Her virtuosity has no boundaries - her left brain - right brain balance is perfect. She openly expresses her sensuality with incredibly "controlled" power. Some say she's too frenetic, I say she's fully alive.

..how beautiful this is then eye would bother writing an extensive review.
Me think eye likes this one the most out of all her others. Fuze Rocks your socks...amazing drumming(as usual)by Martin Valihora...Tony Grey is always awesome...and Hiromi..eye don't have to say anything more.

If you are a musician(or you are musically inclined)then trust me, this will drop your jaw.

Buy it now!

A true fusion album in the best sense of the word, even more - it's almost an instrumental progressive rock album, containing extremely complex, tight group interplay, over some real killer meters and progressions. Reminds me of the best moments of Return To Forever, Mahavishnu, King Crimson and Yes. Like those guys, Hiromi has the chops of steel and then some. The compositions have a tendency to move along in weird, unpredictable directions, making this an exciting listen - you just never know what's around the bend, something might just drop on your head. On the other hand, there is enough thematic material to latch onto, and make the pieces memorable.

Hiromi is equally at home on the piano or the synths, which she uses with taste and humor (think Chick Corea, but a lot more tongue-in-cheek), without over-indulging in solos, which are usually short, intense and quirky. Her jazz solos are breathtaking in precision, expansiveness and expressiveness. It's definitely a composition-driven, group record.

The backing band is amazing, especially the explosive rhythm section. The guitarist does some interesting things on fretless guitar, which sometimes sounds like an Indian instrument, and other times doing some hot, key-transcending shredding. This may be one the best fusion records of the decade. 10 star effort!