Having released their second album,
Nor'easter, on the classical label New Albion,
Slow Six return to Western Vinyl (which released their first,
Private Times in Public Places) for their third disc,
Tomorrow Becomes You, thus teetering back to the pop/rock side of their classical crossover style. There are passages in these seven tracks that rock, starting with the first one, "The Night You Left New York," and with composer
Christopher Tignor and Ben Lively's violins sawing away, the musical style sometimes recalls the jazz-rock fusion of
the Mahavishnu Orchestra or even the psychedelic rock of
It's a Beautiful Day. But
Tignor isn't interested in jazz improvisation or rock solos; he want to assemble his compositions out of slowly building rhythmic and melodic figures that are as often ambient as energetic. This is mood music and, potentially, could be used to accompany film, but it also executes ideas about music and sound, as
Tignor mixes in static and what sound like news reports. It's like he's trying to evoke what it's like to listen to music in an urban cityscape in which outside noise is unavoidable and simply has to be incorporated into the overall musical picture. ~ William Ruhlmann