April 22, 2001

While not a top contender in the year of excellence, it's definitely worth a couple 3 listens.

'01 HDPFs are insane and this House Dawg is no exception. It's a tale of two moods and plans of attack. The 1st jam is butta, silky and herbal. The 2nd is more psychedelic, manic and very interesting as it was molding the future HDPF for later this year through 2002. A terrific (in context) House Dawg and another important one for the skeletal parts which would slightly change in the next year or so.

Lastly, am I the only freak who really likes this "Dublights"? Playing without a net does not always equate to transformative work. I believe the great bands of our world always find time to incorporate the corny, the strikeout and the face-plant. Salutations for all the shakeups, song juggling, genre twisting and goofy covers.

B4L

"Love is that condition in which the happiness of another person is essential to your own."

A strong Stone > Waltz opens the show. Waltz is mostly standard, but with some cool atmospheric synths from Magner. Triumph stays pretty thoroughly type one, developing a noodling bliss theme going into House Dog. The first jam is solidly drawn out, standard fare. The second jam likewise doesn’t do much for me. There are some cool Barber riffs towards the end but nothing in the way of meaningful theme building. Shem-Rah is the first moment in this show that really grabbed me. Magner’s ambient synths at the beginning of the jam work to create a melancholy atmosphere. The theme lingers in this mood for the duration, returning to Shem territory only in the final minutes for a strong ending. The jam, already solid, gets some bonus points for the stronger than average MOTH MOTY section. The Grass is Green is a very strong version. The theme is largely type two the entire time, dark and ominous, with Barber’s 01 style muted distortion complementing things nicely.

I-Man is a strong version. The first jam, while not experimental by any means, has a strong enough Barber theme that I have to give it points. The second jam has a passage of broken down and weird jamming before building up to a solid peak. After a short News break, the band launches into the first iteration of Dub Floodlights (Dublights), a controversial perfume version that I would rank comfortably lower than Dub Dribble (but comfortably higher than the ill-advised Dub I-Man). The jam is pretty boring in the first half, but after a crescendo it reaches an interesting passage beginning around the 9-10 minute mark. Barber shifts toward the muted distortion for a cool effect, and the band covers a wide territory for the relatively short length: the jam hints at a segue into Aceetobee, then Pat & Dex, then the Peter Gunn theme, within a span of a few seconds. The ultimate transition into Helicopters is pretty cool, although very sudden. Helicopters and Morph are both short, straightforward, and very energetic iterations.

2/5. It starts off very slow, but things improve beginning with Shem-Rah (which would be my highlight along with the GIG).

Stray Observations: This is the first Dub Floodlights, which contains a tease of the Peter Gunn theme.