March 06, 2015

World is Spinning is standard. TVM 1 is a typical type 1 jam. The second jam is okay. It has some nice exploration, but ultimately there’s not much here that stands out to me. The jam out of Bombs is okay, although near the end of it, Barber’s tone is godawful. The jam out of Abyss is basically a Catalyst intro right from the very beginning. Catalyst has a fairly boring jam. The Shimmy jam is decent. They don’t get too far outside the box here, but good nonetheless.

The second set begins with a really solid Helix to open things up. They lock in immediately with a great groove. I think Barber is particularly solid, with some clever little licks that are interspersed with some nice chord playing that provides a great feel for the jam. First I-Man jam is short, but fine. Second jam is the same. Third jam is longer, but doesn’t do much for me. The fourth jam turns into a neat little downtempo dub jam. This is nice, even if it’s nothing too novel. The first Crix jam is okay. This isn’t bad, but nothing that would warrant a re-listen. The peak is slowed down in a way that I think is actually fairly effective. The second jam has Magner with some “funky” synth lead, essentially just soloing over the rest of the band. This isn’t a terribly interesting concept to me, and frankly it’s a good thing they ditch this in short order. They pick up the pace around the 16-minute mark, and at 16:40 they lock into a fantastic groove. This develops into a great dance jam, and has some awesome interplay between Magner and Barber. Both HDPF jams are pretty straightforward, insofar as HDPF jams go.

Highlights: Shimmy, Helix*, I-Man (4), Crickets (2)