Customer Reviews

Transformation Live: For the People

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

 

 

This cd is the first release that shows off the new line up and the addition of vocals. If you want to get down with the new sound of Particle - this cd is a must have. The special guest tracks are great little nuggets that showcase the potential of this new group of guys. If you want the whole live experience - grab the DVD - Robby Krieger rocking out in a Doors shirt is worth the price alone.

If you like Parliament, George Clinton, or Sly and the family stone than you like this band. The beats and lyrics are on par with other funk bands. It is great there are bands out there keeping funk music alive and well.

I grabbed this live album after watching the DVD version at a buddy's house and being completely blown away. I've never seen Particle live, but I've heard their stuff before and hadn't really got that into them. That changed with this album!! The jams are incredible! It's nice to hear a band that actually takes the time to let a jam build and grow before just going for the money notes. It may be just me, but I feel like this new stuff is worlds better than the old stuff. The music seems to have more spirituality and complexity than it did on other discs I've listened to. To back it up, there are some great performances by Blackalicious and Joe Satriani!! All in all, I'm completely impressed by this band and I'd highly recommend grabbing this disc along with the DVD version!

I loved Particle! Notice the past tense in love. Particle struck me as being one of the uprising electronica/jambands in the recent years. With the likes of the Disco Biscuits, STS9, and The New Deal around they had to keep working in order to keep up. The album Launchpad was a great album which combined funk, electronica, and some definite Pink Floyd roots. That, unfortunitly still wasnt enough to put them on the same tier as the afore mentioned jam supergroups. So, what was Particles solution? Fire their original guitarist, hire two more, take a break to "revamp" their sound by adding dissapointing lyrics and explode on to the scene with a live concert CD and DVD featuring musicians who have been prevelent in their fields for decades. ie. Joe Satriani, Blackalicous, etc. NOT a good idea! The lyrics spilling forth from this odd looking group mean nothing to anyone who is sober enough to pay attention. The music drags on and on with endless primative chordal vamps. The only time the music varies is when one of the two mediocre guitarist decides to take another gut wrenchingly cliche, five minute guitar solo. The only people on stage who look like they know what thier doing are the stage hands who are charged with setting up tons of different guitar and DJ rigs. The original members of Particle look like their having a blast judging from the bassists almost constant groovin smile but they really should be thinking about hiring either one new guitarist to replace the two new ones or just getting back their original guy. The concert gets most upsetting when guitar legend Joe Satriani gets up on stage and tries to jam with them without letting the other inadequite guitarists get too dirty from his dust tracks. Watching the guitarists trade solos with Satriani was more pitiful than watching a two year old try to climb a ten foot fence. The concert starts weak with random noises as each member is introduced and ends poorly making it a completley eventless concert. Way to loose all of my faith Particle! I'm just hoping Particle will take another serious break and rethink their whole plan before disgracing themselves by realeasing another album with this incompitent line up.

-Max

I went to this concert thinking it was going to be one of the coolest I'd ever been to. Special guests I love playing with a band that gets a lot of respect from the jam band community? How could I go wrong, right? EHHHHH WRONG. These guys are insanely boring. As a jazz musician, I'm not turned off by instrumental songs like most people are. But these songs have nothing going on! It's like they were writing songs and were just too lazy to write lyrics too. There is no need to have two guitarists and a bassist playing the same three chord progression over and over and over. I just don't get it. The thing is, I know these guys can sing too. The cover of LA Woman was really well done and the guy's voice fit well. But other than that song, the entire first set was nothing but BOOOOORing drawn out songs. Basically, If you want to hear blackalicious or dj logic, listen to good hip hop; If you want satriani, stick with extremist, surfing with the alien, and the like; if you want robby krieger, just listen to the doors. Now if you're looking at this because you want some great jam band music, Get some guys that can actually play like Greyboy allstars, addison groove project, galactic, or charlie hunter. Hell, go get christian mcbride's new album featuring soulive, charlie hunter, dj logic and more. Just dont waste your money on this boring crap.

Attention, all boys who spend too much time locked up in their bedrooms; There is a new double CD (and accompanying DVD, sold separately) of live music by Particle - of course it's a double disk, since the `song' lengths often approach the half-hour mark. For fans of the band, this release marks a change of pace for the group, featuring two new guitarists who actually sing!!!!! The vocals put a whole new spin on the band's presentation and helps to make them more accessible to those who aren't familiar with the band, but in all honesty, I really doubt it will make much difference to anyone. I mean, the playing is technically great, but is anybody really astounded by this kind of thing anymore? Without seeing the crowd, I'd be willing to bet that the band's fan base is 98.9 percent male. I bet that they played an awful lot of air keyboards, too. Well, I suppose the good news is that they can now add air guitar to their repertoire.
There is little about the music here that is emotionally stimulating, so the essence of its appeal lies in the technical prowess of the players. For the average listener, there's not much else to draw you in, unless you want to hear their semi-carbon copy of the Doors' "L.A. Woman" featuring Robby Krieger as the guest third guitarist, or the Neville Brothers "Fiyo on the Bayou" as it morphs into an extended jam entitled "W" that is completely unrelated to the original basic rhythm. Blackalicious brings along the funk and adds a few raps to the rhythms ("Particle, there ain't no equal. Particle, they're back for the sequel!"), which suit the band about as well as sardines suit sugar. All of this is marginally interesting, but it surely seems as though it's much more interesting for the players than it ever could be for the audience. The twenty-five minute jam entitled "Triple Threat" rolls along like a drive through a Kansas cornfield - endless and redundant. When they do attempt a `real' song with words and some emotional investment, like "Losing It," the musical accompaniment is reduced to pedaling a single note on the bass guitar while the keyboards repeat an overtly simple riff - sort of the inverse of what this band is actually about.
The keyboard playing is usually wizardly, but often utilizes tones that remind me of what I'd hear over the p.a. at Disney's Epcot Center in the mid-eighties. The best tip that I can provide for fans of Particle's keyboard sounds is to check out the late seventies albums by Jean Michel Jarre ("Oxygene", "Equinoxe"). Otherwise, I can't really recommend much else here, because to my ears, "Transformations" is music with a lot of particles, but little substance. C+ Tom Ryan