Customer Reviews

Unmistakable Evidence

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Right away the supermarket tabloid looking album cover told me this was not to be a normal prog outing. Indeed, with their references on the cover to alien babies, miniature Amish trailer parks, and crop circles, I was looking forward to something like the wacky musical humor of French TV or even some Firesign Theater-type theatrics.
Not exactly. Coyote Poets of the Universe use beats and acoustic rhythms behind either soulful wailing or poetry narration. Andy O'Leary wrote the poems and he pours his paranoid poetry and spouts secrets over light beats and sound effects on "Sandanista Arcane" . Purgatory Avenue uses street noise to underscore the O'Leary's urban hip hop type poem. Some tracks are instrumental only, using interesting instruments like hardanger fiddle, koto, dumbek, and what sounds like a balafon to hold up extended workouts on fuzz guitar, flute or piano. "Sitting in the Dark" is about a front line soldier imagining his foes, and examining his options, with Arabic moans and acoustic trance.
But their strength is in the combination of trance, beats, ambient soundscapes with the cadence of the poems. Bill Nelson occasionally does this sort of thing. "Requiem (for Ed Martinez)" uses a loveable salsa. Toward the later parts of the album, the songs get ever more enjoyable, until culminating in "The Wild Trees", a building up of African acoustic percussion, then paino, then guitar, then the poetry tells about the trees growing wild, then the music follows the idea, evoking a wild dance at the end. Really great, once you are in the mood for this kind of thing. (from ww w.progressiveears.c om)

If you've heard this band before you'll not be surprised by the fact that they continue to taste the dust of many different musical roads on a splendid journey to the story of these times. Sometimes comical, other times melodic and reflective, to jazzy to transformational, this disc bears listening to a number of times. They recall some of the moods of their past works and move beyond in a variety of directions... In other words... I like it!