Review:

on 2007-08-16 dscanland Said:

Think Miles Davis and Teo Macero circa Bitches Brew and On The Corner, and in that same spirit, 30 years later arrives Floratone, an album by a four-member collective of the same name. Foratone features the instrumental teamwork of drummer Matt Chamberlain (Tori Amos, Critters Buggin) and guitarist Bill Frisell with producers Tucker Martine (The Decemberists, Laura Veirs) and Lee Townsend, serving as equally significant imaginative forces. The genesis of the project came when Frisell hooked up to jam with Chamberlain and let the tapes roll, laying down free improvisations of their musical conversations. They then turned the tapes over to Townsend and Martine, who took the raw material and sculpted them into songs.

The Floratone sound is, in the words of Townsend, "futuristic roots music." Jazz-vibed, swamp-funky, and intensely rocking, there's an aesthetic of euphoric journey as well as a nasty get-down-and-move sensibility on this 11-song collection of original soundscapes. The album also spotlights Frisell's multifarious guitar voice that ranges from straight jazz on "Swamped," to the spiky metallic rock of "The Future" and the sound-washed atmospherics on "The Wanderer." Open for musical interpretation, Floratone's debut flourishes this summer, bathing in brilliant grooves.