Member:
ffroyd
(Profile)
(All Album Reviews by ffroyd)
Date:
2/27/2004
Format:
CD (Album)
TAYLOR'S UNIVERSE
Karsten Vogel / soprano & alto saxophone
Robin Taylor / instruments
Rasmus Grosell / drums & percussion
Kim Menzer / flute, trombone, tenor saxophone
Henning Plannthin / guitar
Jan Marsfeldt / keyboards
Jytte Lindberg / voice
Robin Taylor is an incredibly gifted multi-instrumentalist from Copenhagen, Denmark. In recent years he's been considerably prolific, releasing solo albums and also working on projects under the Taylor's Universe name which he now calls Taylor's Free Universe. Robin has graciously sent me several of his releases and I must say they are all top-notch and I hope to be able to review them all eventually. Experimental Health was the first one to jump out at me, mostly because of the crazy picture on the cover but also due to the fact that it said Karsten Vogel is featured. For those who haven't heard of him before, Karsten is one of the legendary figures of Danish progressive rock playing a pivotal role in the excellent bands, Burning Red Ivanhoe and Secret Oyster.
When I played the CD for the first time on I thought I was in for some laidback fusion similar to Weather Report; I have that "whenever I hear a soprano sax I think of Wayne Shorter" syndrome, I guess. Quickly things got complicated though. Taylor pays a great deal of attention to production and just in the first track "Man On The Mountain" several key figures develop. Of course there's Vogel, a lot of this is similar to the kind of stuff Secret Oyster was doing in the 70s so he fits right in. Guitarist Henning Plannthin has an excellent solo spot and there are some really deranged vocals by Jytte Lindberg in one section. Towards the end of the track, things go a bit haywire when Taylor just plays around with the distortion in the mix but it's done so smoothly you never notice you're headed off into crazy territory. After a while, Vogel's soprano brings you back to the mellowness very nicely. What a wonderful way to open up the album!
On "Elephat Kiss" we get introduced to Kim Menzer who lays down some very cool flute and trombone later in the track. I shouldn't forget to mention drummer Rasmus Grosell who's all over the place on here as well. This is just an all-around tremendous group. Topping it all off is Robin, who's always multitasking several different instruments. His main axe is probabaly guitar but he's very adept at just about everything else, especially arrangement and production. The next one "Inner Space" sounds vaguely like Djam Karet in spots. Nice space rock-ish jam with some more beautiful solos from Vogel.
"Base Camp" is just weird. Two minutes of nonsense spoken word stuff with strange guitar synth noises and a snake charmer's flute. That gives way to another strange little shuffling ditty called "Noktal" with Taylor and Grossel interweaving rhythms for Karsten to solo over. "Milo's Dakdar" is short one with some more rippin' fusion stuff squarely in the mold of Secret Oyster.
"Kindergarten" starts out with lots of dissonant overlaid guitar textures and morphs into a nice smooth funky piece with the guitar textures continuing throughout. Karsten switches to alto for this one. "Therapy" is a firmly-rooted Crimson style composition. You can tell that Fripp is one of Taylor's big influences but he takes the inspiration a step further. The vocals get very out-of-control in one spot but it just adds to the creepiness of the tune. Very well done.
Pulling out all the stops on "Charly & Juliet", this track features both Menzer and Vogel on dueling tenor and alto saxes! All I can say is "Whoa!!!" That brings us to the centerpiece of the album, the title track "Experimental Health". Starting out with a radio conversation in a language I'm not familiar with, perhaps Danish..I don't know. This is followed by about 2 or 3 minutes of silence which actually isn't silence but a very low voice loop on repeat that very slowly builds up into a barrage of noise and looped sounds. The band doesn't come in until about the 6 1/2 minute mark but when they do, they are in total shred mode. After a couple minutes of wild angular aggressiveness the band stops and leaves us with just a lonely synth texture. Slowly fading, this is how the disc ends.
Experimental Health is just one amazing album. Robin's made lots more! I am very impressed with this stuff. I'll for sure be looking for more and maybe now some others will be interested too.
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