Mind over Matter: review from Prog Archives
The following review for Mind over Matter appeared on progarchives.com
Five years have passed since the previous album “Conspiracy Theories” and finally comes a new album by guitarist Phil Miller and his band In Cahoots! Phil is a meticulous composer and it takes time to achieve the level found on this new album. We notice at first that a new horn section appears for the first time here, with saxophonist Paul Booth and trumpetist Mark Armstrong replacing respectively Picard and Finch. Then after listening to the album two three times, one general impression that struck me is the care taken to complex melodic voicings! Sometimes unisson lines form the theme, other times the melodic rose opens up in a harmonic contrapuntic motion, the chordal being the melody. A labour of love, impressive and emotionally working on the listener’s fibers. The album starts with a gigant 18-minutes long medley of epic proportions. From the very beginning, some of Hatfield & the North’s spirit caress your ear, the *theme* being here a long and complex chord progression opening the way to multiple harmonic modulations and a strong half-diminished feel. This is maybe the tune that is closer to progressive rock, with a massive heavy sounding guitar solo from Miller and a superb synth solo from Lemer; there are several sections where blow instruments take it away from prog and move it towards jazzier roads but we always come back to this massive harmonic sequence, the leit motiv of the piece. “Contrary Motion” offers what the title says: harmonized horn voicings against guitar movements and melodic bass walking, all in a kind of contrapuntal progression. After a guitar solo, the trumpet takes over at double time, followed by a bass solo, where we again can’t but appreciate the phenomenal fretless work of Fred Baker. Follows “Pent Up”, a piece in two parts, both in a 5/4 signature. Part 1 is marked by a rather slow tempo and some kind of bass ostinato while part 2 speeds it up in a Latin inflected style (the piano comping and piano/bass rhythmic line close to salsa / Latin jazz). The piece returns to the slow tempo at the end, ending with a great ethereal guitar solo. “Focus Pocus” is the only piece not composed by Phil, but instead by keyboardist Pete Lemer; based on a solid eighth note pulse, the tune has a middle section presenting you with a tough evil crossed rhyhtm of 24 eighth notes, divided by 6 by some players, by eight by other! And they keep it for the solos, not an easy task to accomplish! “E.D. or Ian” may be dedications to persons but who? This is anyway a charming ballad, at times sounding strangely like Oregon, maybe because of the meditative soprano sax and the wonderful horn voicings. Miller delivers here a superb plaintive guitar solo. The ending is wonderful, combining sustained guitar tones and a myriad of bass harmonics. “Call Sign” closes the album, starting with a rock-solid rhythm but moving in a boppish vein during both sax and trumpet solos. The bottom line: the writing of this album is superb, the music stunning! But – yes, there is a relatively important *but* – my biggest concern is about the production side of the album! There is nearly throughout a nasty disturbing use of reverberation that imo partly kills the music or at least amputates the pleasure! Too much of the music is drowning in this reverberation; the price? it takes some of the drums attack, the instruments when soloing seem at time to shift from a wet to a dry sound within no time, like if the engineer was randomly turning the knobs, every instrument seems placed dead center in the stereo field, bumping on each other, muffling the sound, masking small details. The most hearable place of this weird balance is attained during the piano solo in the ballad number; it seems like the keyboard’s aftertouch function triggers both the extra sound but also this damned reverb, suddenly invading everything. Honestly, I think this is a pity and could have easily been avoided. If you want to minimize this aspect, you’ll have to listen at lower volumes; if you like it loud, you can’t avoid being badly wet! Another production aspect is that Baker’s bass at times jumps way too much upfront in the mix, becoming too dominating and again altering the placing of the other instruments in the stereo field! I’d like to know what the conditions were when they tackled the production; I don’t remember having faced this kind of problem in previous releases!
Mind over matter: review from Jazzwise magazine
Review from the May 2012 issue (163) of Jazzwise magazine by Andy Robson
Phil Miller (g), Mark Armstrong (t, flhn), Paul Booth (ts, as, ss, fl), Peter Lemer (kys), Fred Baker (b), Mark Fletcher (d). Rec. 13 and 29 November 2009, and 25 January 2010
Things may come and things may go but like the Art School Dance, Phil Miller goes on forever.In Cahoots may have said sad farewells to the late lamented like of Pip Pyle and Elton Dean, but Miller’s signature sound continues, as recognisable now as in Matching Mole days. Mind Over Matter features, as you might imagine, plenty of free flowing rock jazz. There’s also a funky undertow as on the opening joyful groove of ‘Medley’. It’s big, it’s epic and it may sound like 1975 all over again, dripping as it is with Lemer’s splendidly old school synths, but that’s no criticism. This is music to be enjoyed rather than questioned, and with stellar contributions from Paul Booth and the fiery trumpet of Armstrong, notably on ‘Pent Up Part II’, there’s plenty to remind you that a dash of blaring brass and a fuzz bass break can still make the hairs stand up on the back of your neck.
Andy Robson
Mind over matter: review from Musica Jazz
The following review for Mind over Matter appeared in Musica Jazz magazine, vol. LXVIII n. 6, June 2012.
Un chitarrista troppo jazz per essere rock e troppo rock per essere jazz: forse è anche questo paradosso a rendere Miller un musicista unico e per certi versi inimitabile ma,probabilmente è pure il motivo della sua ingiusta marginalizzazione dal panorama che conta. In effetti un talento del genere non poteva che dare il meglio di sé in gruppi borderline come Matching Mole, Hatfield & The North e National Health. Ma Miller non si è mai dato per vinto e con questa nuova frizzante uscita prosegue imperterrito il cammino dei
suoi longevi In Cahoots, con i quali continua ad architettare un godibilissimo jazzrock dove gli assoli dei vari Armstrong, Booth e Baker (senza ovviamente dimenticare i suoi, al solito molto variopinti) si inseriscono in un solido telaio compositivo in cui l’elemento virtuosistico ben s’accorda con la scrittura davvero creativa del leader.
Giorgio
Here is my rough translation into English:
Too jazz for rock and too rock for jazz, a paradox that makes Phil Miller unique as a guitarist and probably the reason for his unjust marginalisation. A talent that provided borderline groups such as Matching Mole, Hatfield and the North and National Health their best moments. Miller continues his journey, unperturbed, with this sparkling new output from the long-lived In Cahoots, where he continues to engineer enjoyable jazz-rock, with solos from Armstrong, Booth, Baker, and of course himself, embedded in a brilliantly written, virtuousic composition. A truly creative leader.
Listen to samples of each track on Mind over Matter HERE
Mind over matter: review from IO magazine
Issue 108 of the authoritative IO Pages contained the following review of Mind over Matter.
Beneath is an attempt at translation:
In the first fifteen years of his career, Phil Miller wrote history, as one of the architects of the Canterbury scene, within the relatively short lifespan of bands such as Delivery, Matching Mole, Hatfield and the North, National Health and Gilgamesh. With his own band In Cahoots, the overlaps with the Canterbury sound, can be clearly heard, and particularly in Mind Over Matter which appeared at the end of 2011.
The long-held, symphonic sounding keyboard chords of Peter Lemer are reminicent of the jazzy horns of National Health’s D. S. Al coda. The first part of the more than eighteen-minute Medley is exemplary in this regard. The second part contains a wonderful swinging, moog-like solo, along with the brilliant, often fretless bass work of Fred Baker, the broad drumming of Mark Fletcher and, obviously, Miller’s own inimitable guitar solos and should have the hearts of many Hatfield fan beating faster. Saxophonist-flutist Paul Booth and trumpeter Mark Armstrong are two fresh recruits to the band, of which the former has the thankless task of following in the footsteps of the late Elton Dean.
Nearly five years since Conspiracy Theories Phil Miller brings us another great chapter in the jazz side of the rocking Canterbury scene.
Rene Yedema
Listen to samples of each track on Mind over Matter HERE
Over an hour of music samples
We now have over an hour of music samples, covering four albums:
Click on any of these links to listen now.
Samples added to ‘Out of the Blue’
We have now added music samples of the tracks on Out of the Blue. Listen to them here.
More samples added
We are pleased to say that we have added more music samples and will be adding many more in the coming days.
You will now find samples of every track on Conspiracy Theories.
Music samples are now available
We now have samples of all the tracks on Mind Over Matter available on its page. Have a listen and please, tell us what you think.
Soon we will have samples from all the albums.
Mind Over Matter Released
We are excited to announce that Phil and Inca’s latest album, Mind over Matter, has been released and will be available to buy from here on Saturday (14th Jan).
Not only that, but samples of all the tracks will be available too on Saturday, and one or two will be available before then.
The album consists of seven tracks, with over seventy minutes of music.
The full line up includes Phil, Fred Baker, Pete Lemer, Mark Fletcher, Paul Booth and Mark Armstrong.
