Album Reviews

The late Rick Griffin's mischievous rodent cover art isn't the only retro aspect of this prog-rock/jazz fusion recording debut by a group that's been together for more than a decade. (Griffin is best known for his Grateful Dead work including the Aoxomoxoa cover).

The trio of Tool drummer Danny Carey, guitarist John Ziegler and bassist Lance Morrison augmented by keyboardist Jeff Babko recorded this "high T" album at The Loft, Carey's home studio live to analog tape using a limited (to 95) edition Studer A827 Gold Edition 2 inch 24 track analog tape recorder.

The notes don't stop there. The board was an API 2448 with Neve Flying Faders. While some analog enthusiasts wuss-out and mix to digital, not these guys! They mixed to a Studer A800 at Joe's House of Compression through an SSL 4000B board ("why"? "why"? "why"? say the SSL haters). Trust me: the board didn't harm the recording quality nor did Joe over compress it on the way to two tracks.

You get the complete list of Carey's drum kit and the microphones used (a lot of kit, a lot of microphones), ditto Ziegler's guitars and effects boxes, Morrison's bass gear and Babko's keyboards. Gear heads will enjoy the left side of the gatefold, that's for sure.

Musically, I don't think the band would be insulted by having it capsulized as Jeff Beck's "Freeway Jam" off of Blow By Blow but injected with a lower dose of funk and a much heavier dose of testosterone without losing any of Beck's artistic subtlety. These guys can really play with feeling and while they show you what they can do (which is plenty) they avoid the kind of grandstanding that can turn these kinds of things into major league turn-offs.

The playing joy translates to listening joy encouraged by an insanely great recording guaranteed to rock your system, particularly if you've got big, full range speakers. The drum miking sounds pretty close, with lots of ear-dazzling panning. Drum textures and timbres are full-bodied and realistic—something that will be immediately obvious on the opening track's softly sprung tom-toms. Don't be a fool and crank it up based on that because within a few seconds the thing explodes and away you go!

Bob Ludwig mastered from the 1/4" master tape and Chris Bellman at Bernie Grundman's cut lacquers from a hi-res file. Okay, I know, why not go AAA all the way? Believe me once you spin this on your turntable you will not give a shit about the one "D" in there. I recall Bellman telling me that Carey was there for the mastering to get it just the way he wanted it. Between Ludwig and Bellman, what more could you want?

I can't think of a better way to get one's adrenaline pumping then to put this 3 sided album on and rock out! Every time I've played it, which is a lot, I think a side will do but I end up playing all three at SPLs that someone my age (or any age!) should avoid. Too much fun! (Tool guitarist Adam Jones adds a "shocked rat" inside jacket illustration).