Or, to give it its full title:
The Art Of Ed Unitsky And The Music Of Jay Tausig
A Cosmic Journey Through The Zodiac
The Trip Around The Sun
One of the reasons I got into this reviewing lark was to
satisfy an addiction for the new, the unheard. Well, this guy has made me
realise that there are never going to be enough hours in the day, days in year,
or years in a lifetime to do much more than scratch at the surface of the music
that is out there. OK, I kind of realised that the hours and hours of music released every year, even within a genre, far surpasses the time available to any one individual to experience even a modest percentage of it. However, Jay Tausig alone alone
has a discography that makes me go “woah!” A casual glance at his website
reveals he has made 7 albums since 2004, as well as numerous appearances on
various tribute albums, the first being 1995’s VdGG tribute Eyewitness, to which Jay contributed three
songs. I bought this album when it came out, but in those pre-internet days it
was difficult to find out who these mostly obscure artists were; Jay included.
The fact that this appears to be the first generally released music by Jay is
ironic in that until now he had disappeared under my radar. There may well be
serendipity involved.
Anyway, rambling aside you may wonder why releasing 7 albums
in 7 years is such a daunting prospect, and it is because added to that is his
2012 magnum opus (and if ever that phrase was justified it is now) The Trip Around The Sun, which as you can
see from the listing above so far comprises 6 full-length albums, each
dedicated to a sign of the Zodiac, and obviously there are 6 more to come! On
top of that there is Jay’s third solo album Delirium
scheduled for release this year. So much for the slacker new-age generation,
then, eh? I’ll let Jay explain the writing processes involved:
The writing process
for this project could be described as "Record as I Write". Getting
the initial energy of a performance is very important to the way it ultimately flows,
and sounds. Much of this music is built up from complete performances on any
one given instrument...usually improvised and intuitive. A great deal of this
is First Take.
Also, about 50 % of it is written "on the spot" this year, as we go.
Whenever delving into other material from the last few years, the
"timestamps" on the file allow me know when a particular song was
recorded...because capturing the essence and feeling of any particular sign has
turned out to be the ultimate focus and goal. The Guests are usually doing
their work during their "Birth Sign" as well...Synchronicity is one
of the things that makes so much of this project unique and special.
It's a journey, not so much a collection of songs, but an intuitive, highly
focused, music and art road map to the myths and properties of the 12
Astrological signs.....
So there you have it; the music on these albums is
ever-expanding in a way akin to our universe, and you can leap in anywhere you
want and trip off to your heart’s content, which is just as well, as I doubt
anyone is going to sit through all 12 instalments in one sitting. Recorded in
the gorgeously named Studio Lemuria in Nevada City, northern California, Jay
has composed and played nearly everything and is a more than capable drummer as
well as a guitarist and keyboard player. He probably made the tea too.
Assisting him throughout the series are various vocalists, such as “Rhi-Jenerate”
and “Thom World Poet” to name but two who contribute singing and spoken word
interludes linking the star signs to the cosmic wonderment, all in a suitably
otherworldly fashion. Thom writes some of the lyrics, as does Keith Waye, but
if I were to list all the movers’n’shakers we would be here all night! Contributing
his trademark visually intense artwork throughout is
Ed Unitsky, and
this alone is a trip in itself.
The first thought that makes itself known to me, as I sit
here typing away with part 6 Cancer -
Shell of Silver and the Beehive Heart blasting away is how on Earth…or
indeed in Space… can anyone write so much music in what appears to be a relatively
short time and not run out of ideas? Well, I’m just going to have to immerse
myself in the far-out world of Mr Tausig to find out, am I not?
Let’s rewind to the beginning, Aquarius. After the sultry-voiced intro from Ms Rhi-Jenerate,
written by Remy Kiehn-Lindsey, as are all the cosmic astrological
pronouncements, Uranus starts things
off with a gentle space rock vibe that hots up into a percussion led charge
through the dark matter. Jay plays all the instruments on this first album,
from the bass-led thundering The Eleventh
Hour to vibraphones (?) on Water
Bearer he shows a fine ear for melody and subtlety as well as psych wig-out,
the latter writ large on Amethyst. Then
there’s the complex math-rock extrapolations of the title track The Revolutionist, and we’re only
half-way through the first album!
Other names you might recognise helping Jay out are Billy
Sherwood & Bridget Wishart (Pisces),
who contributed to the writing of and play on the 8 minute space-prog mini-epic
Twisting The Tail which has touches
of Yes swimming with Gong, like a couple of playful
dolphins. Lovely! Now, Let’s Focus On The
Fish that follows is a fully-formed song of deft subtlety that gently
scatters off in all directions in the middle in the manner of a disturbed
shoal, before reforming, led by a simple organ-riff. Although not at all
stylistically similar, and Jay’s voice is not at all related, I can somehow
imagine Arthur Brown singing this.
West Coast vibes with some nice clarinet from Bridget and acoustic guitar
inform Vast Ocean Dream (Reprise) and
this album has already taken a turn off the highway of space-rock. Strangely,
the Reprise appears before the first
version on the album but both are fine examples of blissed-out acid-folk. On Fins And Scales we change tack to
feature some rather fine soaring guitar reminiscent of Be-Bop Deluxe era Bill Nelson. It’s the melding of styles to the themes of each star sign that
works so well, and stops the project from being repetitive, as the aquatic
nature of Pisces washing over the
listener testifies.
Kerry Chicoine (aka Kerry Kompost) ex of Mars Hollow crops
up on his song Vernal Equinox playing
sax, guitar and bass on Aries – The Fire Within which is a
varied album, moving from the hard riffage of opener Aries Ignited to the whimsical space-rock instrumental Focus And Flame, which has a Green era Hillage feel to it, to the fluid and
funky guitar of Bill Berends on Aries
Fire Horse. Some nice violin on this album is contributed by Cyndee Lee
Rule, a classically trained violinist who has played with everyone from Dave
Kerman to Nik Turner and most points in between, along with being a member of
Spirits Burning, as is Bridget Wishart.
Taurus – Roots Of The
Earth is full of some great dub reggae melded into space rock, with a guest
appearances by the suitably named Natty Congo, who lends his throaty
proclamations to Glorious Dub, and
sundry others on this fine album. Space rock goes Rasta on Ode To Venus amongst swirls of ‘erb an’ t’ing…sorry I and
I are getting a bit carried away. For someone who says this is his first skank
with de reggae, Jay has got the sinuous bass riffs and the reverb guitar chord-chopping
on the off-beat down like a seasoned pro. So far, this is my favourite album of
the series; I’m almost dancing, which for me is pretty radical. Contributing
drum programming to Glorious Dub is
Steffe Sharpstrings, a name no doubt familiar to fans of free festival
stalwarts Here & Now. I haven’t listened to much dub since the days of The
Clash, and it sure brings back some memories; now, where’s that Blackbeard LP?
Stoned reggae rhythms permeate this album like a warm embrace, and boy, is it
smoky in here! Yeah, mon indeed.
Gemini - The
Chaos And The Calm promises
some good contrast but doesn’t quite deliver, and maybe misses an opportunity
for a dose of schizoid aural delights. There are only 6 tracks on this 80
minute album, and the closer Two Sides To
Every Coin part 2 is 43 minutes long! Kicking the album off, Two Sides To Every Coin part 1 at a mere
12 minutes fades in from some far-off galactic outpost, meditational chanting
over more strung-out guitar hints that we have latched on to a trip that has
been going on for aeons, A Mass In ∞ if you will, and this is how the album
continues. Mirabel, while still
strung-out gets more dissonant with some good sax squawking leading the way. Chaos And Calm tends more towards
the latter than the former, but features some really good ivory-tinkling for
all that. Two Sides To Every Coin part 2 is a gigantic Om Riff, Jay’s spoken and Kimberley Bass’s
sung lyrics flitting in and out of the mix as synths swirl and occasional saxes
blow looooonnnng notes. This is the kind of thing that would make perfect
listening on a train journey across a hot foreign landscape, blissful as it is,
yet eerie at the same time.
On Cancer, the
first instalment of the two-part song Shell
of Silver and the Beehive Heart mixes a distinctly angular Hammill vibe with solid riffing and
melodic keys in a manner that gets me headbangin’ like the old days…well it
would if I wasn’t afraid of putting my neck out; a really good and unusual take
on the given space-rock template. Jay’s admits that Hammill was a big influence
on him in his website notes to the aforementioned Eyewitness compilation, and that is no bad thing at all. The second
part is more conventional slow-paced space-rock with some nice guitar work by
Jay, whose acid-tinged and rough-edged style contrasts nicely with the highly
melodic nature of the synth-led backing. This is probably the most “prog” of
the albums so far, and on Shelter a
quirky bass line takes the languid astral guitar along a different path from
the one you might be expecting. That song is one of many on the project where Jay
plays everything, and while “one-man-band” pieces can sometimes be a bit flat, that
certainly is not the case on The Trip Around The Sun, a project of consistently high production values. A soulful vibe permeates everything, and The Trip has a
lot of heart too.
There are many moods and styles covered in the first 6
albums that have so far been released and enough good ideas and imagination to
hold ones interest which is a feat in itself for such a long piece of work.
Hopefully my “pick’n’mix” review has whetted your appetite,
and you may be wondering how much what will in all probability end up being
around 14 hours of music is going to cost? Well, during 2012 for a mere $30 you can subscribe to the whole lot as downloads, which
sounds like a bargain to me. There are a load of goodies thrown in too, follow
the link to
Subscription
details for more info.
Album list:
Pisces – Vast Ocean
Dream (1:12:08)
Aries – The Fire Within
(1:11:09)
Taurus – Roots Of The
Earth (1:12:14)
Gemini – The Chaos And
The Calm (1:19:08)
Cancer – Shell Of
Silver And The Beehive Heart (1:15:24)
