Search - Alex Cline, Kaoru, Miya Masaoka :: Cloud Plate

Ambient world jazz of the highest order

Jan P. Dennis | Monument, CO USA | 06/12/2005

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Certainly not for everyone, this disc, featuring elay drum/percussion iconoclast Alex Cline, purveyed by bad-boy label Crytogramophone, and operating in aural phantasmagoria seldom if ever encountered before, manages to achieve a sonic signature that beguiles even as it bemuses.



What does it sound like? Ambient jazz mapped onto weird Orientalism filtered through improv electronica. Not a lot of prescedents for this kind of thing, and certainly not something the average jazzhead is going to glom onto.



But wait.



What if this were pulled off? Wouldn't it be kinda special?



Yes, it would.



And it certainly is pulled off.



With wickedly casual aplomb.



It took me several listens to catch the vibe, but once I did, I was totally on board. And I think you will be too.



Think Mike Patton meets Tucker Martine filtered through a wacked out SoCal/Pacific Rim sensibility. Throw in a demented Eyvind Kang-cum-Ikue Mori-vibe and you, perhaps, get at least a sense of what's going down here.



As I say, not for everyone, but adventurous types will want to check it out."