October 31, 2020

Rockafella has a fairly straightforward “rock-y” jam. Heh. Anyway, not great. The Boop jam is fast and not played badly but I also don’t think they ever get on any theme that’s interesting. They make a little New Deal tease here, which is fine. Morph is again, not awful, but not good either. They have a neat Goldeneye tease which is a neat throwback. The Feeling Twisted jam is fantastic. The band locks into a great theme almost from the start, and carries it throughout most of this segment. The jam out of Abraxas doesn’t do anything for me at all. They’re clearly locked in with one another, and I think there are probably some who will love this jam. To me, it just feels like auto-pilot.

First Robots jam is boring. The “middle” jam has a drawn out ambient jam which is wonderful. Great stuff, and I wish they would always extend this. Robots third jam is boring for me as well. Running Into the Night is growing on me, and this jam is very solid. This isn’t groundbreaking, but it’s a nice dance jam. The first Orch Theme jam has some really neat phrasing from Magner, though honestly this feels kinda like him just messing around. He’s so talented it’s unreal. Regardless, this lasts far too short for my liking. Just stretch it out, guys. The second jam is also very short, though I think the segue into Humu is well done. The Humu jam has a two-chord progression from nearly the beginning which is clearly headed for the end of Abyss, so much so that I would call this whole thing a type 1 jam. It’s well-played, but I couldn’t care less about this stuff. The Abyss jam doesn’t scratch my itches in any meaningful way. Again, this is not necessarily bad, it just doesn’t really make me interested. I’m sure there will be those who enjoy this jam, and the segue into Running Into the Night is very nice. Cars > Naeba > Cars feels a little forced, both going into and out of Naeba.

Highlights: Feeling Twisted**, Robots (2**), Running