Phil Dirt - Reverb Central - PO Box 1609, Felton, CA 95018-1609 USA Saturnalia - The Tao Of Saturnalia
 | The is a 5 song cassette from Saturnalia. There are some nice moments here, some envelope edge pushing and some inventive rethinking. The recording is ambient, so the drums are hollow sounding. |
Picks: Science?... the Savage Frowned, Reverberation Bomb, Blammo!, Across The Deserts of Salt and Sand, Sailor Uranus
Track by Track Review
Science?... the Savage Frowned Surf (Instrumental)
This tune carries off the surf ethic well, with a more stretched out format and chunky surf tones. It's mean and lean, and sports some very nice guitar work. Influenced slightly by "Secret Agent Man," it moves in a less pop vein than that does.
Surf (Instrumental)
This tune is pretty mean. Not very melodic, but darn nasty. The lead line is near-melodic, a riff that pleases the ear. The guitar work is quite nice as well, especially in the break. Powerful tune that would benefit greatly from a really good recording.
Surf (Instrumental)
More jam like than the earlier tracks, but it sports a mean double picked main melody line. Powerful and inventive.
Across The Deserts of Salt and Sand Surf (Instrumental)
Shimmering guitar via vibrato, and a shiny melody of sad distances and limited hope. It is slow and moody, and quite compelling. The double picked break fires speedy licks off before dropping back into the main melody over a more edgie backup.
Surf (Instrumental)
Funky dockside fun, moody and shimmering with excellent vibrato and richness of guitar tone. This is a temporary state of affairs, because the second verse doubles the pace and assaults the quiet. Too much high hat use, but otherwise it's a fine tune full of energy and power.