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Combustication (1998, 68.37) ***½/T½ |
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| Sugarcraft Just Like I Pictured it Start/Stop Nocturne Hey-Hee-Hi-Ho Whatever Happened to Gus Latin Shuffle Everyday People |
Coconut Boogaloo Church of Logic No Ke Ano Ahiahi Hypnotized |
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The Dropper (2000, 51.13) ***½/TTT |
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| We Are Rolling Big Time Felic Partido Alto Illnization Bone Digger Note Bleu The Dropper |
Philly Cheese Blunt Sun Sleigh Tsukemono Shacklyn Knights Norah 6 |
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Uninvisible (2002, 50.25) ***½/T |
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| Uninvisible I Wanna Ride You Your Name is Snake Anthony Pappy Check Take Me Nowhere Retirement Song Ten Dollar High Where Have You Been? |
Reprise Nocturnal Transmission Smoke First Time Long Time The Edge of Night Off the Table |
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End of the World Party (Just in Case) (2004, 53.49) ****/TTT½ |
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| Anonymous Skulls End of the World Party Reflector Bloody Oil New Planet Mami Gato Shine it Curtis |
Ice Sasa Midnight Poppies/Crooked Birds Queen Bee |
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Let's Go Everywhere (2008, 39.13) ****/T |
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| Waking Up Let's Go Everywhere Cat Creeps The Train Song Where's the Music Pat a Cake Pirates Don't Take Baths Far East Sweets |
On an Airplane The Squalb Let's Go Old Paint Hickory Dickory Dock All Around the Kitchen We're All Connected |
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Radiolarians I (2008, 64.25) ***½/T½ |
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| First Light Cloud Wars Muchas Gracias Professor Nohair Reliquary Free Go Lily Rolling Son |
Sweet Pea Dreams God Fire Hidden Moon |
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Radiolarians II (2009, 51.15) ***½/TT |
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| Flat Tires Junkyard Padrecito Ijiji Riffin' Ed Amber Gris Chasen vs Suribachi |
Dollar Pants Amish Pinxtos Baby, Let Me Follow You Down |
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Radiolarians III (2009, 59.22) ***½/T |
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| Chantes des Femmes Satan Your Kingdom Must Come Down Kota Undone Wonton Walk Back Jean's Scene |
Broken Mirror Gwyra Mi |
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Current availability:
Mellotrons used:
Funnily enough, Medeski Martin & Wood are a trio, specialising in weird, Hammond-driven jazz-inflected material, influenced as much by hip-hop and funk as traditional jazz. Starting out as an acoustic act, they soon incorporated electric instrumentation into their sound, although John Medeski seems to prefer electro-mechanical keyboards to electronic ones (hurrah!). Combustication is their seventh album, shifting through styles like they were going out of fashion, with the more melodic (Sugar Craft, the self-explanatory Latin Shuffle) rubbing shoulders with the experimental (Whatever Happened To Gus, Church Of Logic), with turntablist DJ Logic appearing on three tracks. Definite Mellotron on two tracks, with strings on Just Like I Pictured It and Whatever Happened To Gus, particularly raucously on the latter, although I think the flutes on Nocturne are synth.
The Dropper is their ninth album, and the second to feature John Medeski's Mellotron work, which is as off-the-wall as just about everything else the band do. Resonant choirs on Partido Alto sound normal in comparison to the discordant strings on Bone Digger, along with (I think) 'Tron saxes, flutes etc. Tsukemono opens with what has to be the world's first attempt to make Mellotron strings sound like seagulls, followed by some seriously radical pitchbend work on flutes and strings, riding over a weird jazz trio backing. All in all, weird shit indeed. 2002's Uninvisible is probably slightly less weird, though there's not much in it; I'm actually at a bit of a loss to know how to describe most of this music, although they do 'normal out' occasionally. Far less 'Tron this time round, unless I'm not spotting some less common sounds; it finally kicks in with a string part on Where Have You Been? that sounds more like someone doing something explicit and probably highly illegal with a guitar, and some background church organ on Off The Table, but I couldn't spot anything else.
2004's End of the World Party (Just in Case) is, generally speaking, a funkier proposition than its predecessors, with fewer moments of balls-out weirdness and, er, more Clavinet. To my ears, it's a more accessible record all round which could be either good or bad, depending on your point of view. The first few tracks are extremely 'Tron-heavy, with mixed strings, cellos, choirs and flutes on Anonymous Skulls, with a skronky string part and choppy choirs on the title track. The string stabs on Reflector are 'Tron, with more mixed strings on Bloody Oil and a brief string part and an echoed flute melody on New Planet. The strings on Ice feature such a radical pitchbend that I suspect an external device, while the flutes on Midnight Poppies/Crooked Birds aren't dissimilar to the ones on New Planet.
Their first album of 2008, Let's Go Everywhere, marks new ground for the band by being a children's album, complete with vocals on several tracks. The title track sounds like it's from Sesame Street - it may actually be, as its composer is someone other than a band member - and the rest of the sensibly-lengthed album is full of clever, funny songs for kids that never talk down to them, often involving children in the recording. The Squalb is probably the best example, although Pirates Don't Take Baths runs it a close second. Medeski restricts his Mellotron use to a single track this time, with pitchbent strings all over Far East Sweets, although it would have worked well on two or three other songs.
The band's Radiolarians series are named for a type of amoeba that seems to grow in reverse, forming its skeleton outside its soft body. All three albums are played live before recording, in a process new to the band, though far from 'unique', as I've seen it referred to. Radiolarians I is where we remember that MMW are a jazz band, above all, all playing at the top of their game. Medeski's piano work on Professor Nohair (ho ho) is outstanding, ditto his Hammond on God Fire, while Chris Wood excels on (frequently upright) bass and Billy Martin's drumming rivals the genre's greats. Mellotronically, there's a relatively ordinary string part on Muchas Gracias, with more typical 'all over the keyboard' work on Reliquary, and while there are a couple of other 'is it/isn't it?' moments, they seem unlikely.
Radiolarians II is less fiery than its predecessor, although it certainly has its moments. I applaud the band's decision to take a fresh look at their creative process, although I have to say that, for the average listener, the end result is 'merely' another MMW album, its gestation an irrelevance. However, if their new approach keeps the band's creative juices flowing... Several 'Tron tracks, with distant strings on Padrecito, with more 'typically MMW' parts on Ijiji and Chasen Vs Suribachi, full of pitchbends, and is that their first use of 'Tron choirs on Amber Gris? Definitely cellos, anyway, although the solo cello on Dollar Pants is real. Radiolarians III is possibly the jazziest of the series, although the band incorporate a strong dub element into closer Gwyra Mi. Not much Medeski 'Tron this time round, with naught but a few string chords in both Broken Mirror and Gwyra Mi, making this one of their least essential albums on the tape-replay front.
So; several albums of radical jazz, with The Dropper and End of the World Party (Just in Case) being the best on the Mellotron front. Buy if you're feeling adventurous.
See: Herb Alpert's Tijuana Brass | Auktyon | Chocolate Genius | DJ Logic | Steve Earle | Scotty Hard with John Medeski & Matthew Shipp | Charlie Hunter & Bobby Previte as Groundtruther | The Legendary Marvin Pontiac | Marc Ribot y los Cubanos Postizos | John Scofield | Jim Weider
