Trucker is advertised as an amalgam of punk, new wave, metal, funk, and free-form jazz improv. There is a renegade attitude in the music, but no real meeting between these styles. The avant-garde sax/bass/drums trio does cover a wide palette of genres, they only do so on a track-by-track basis. Each tune has its left-field passages, but once "2991" displays its disco vamp sound, it sticks to it. The same thing applies to the trashy "Trucker," the funky "Burn It Down," and the jazzy "Gypsy." The first three pieces of this disc strongly recall Seth Misterka's trio projects from the same year (2002), like The Demon and Dynasty, with their punkish funk, riff-heavy distorted electric bass, and screaming alto sax. While The Hub seem to want Trucker to be a mean, dirty ride, they quickly loose their impetus after the truck takes a trip to the car wash. Dan Magay plays a good saxophone, but he often sounds too clean-cut, when the music clearly requires something harder-edged. The rhythm section of drummer Sean Noonan and bassist Tim Dahl are the heart and lungs of the group. They have developed a good level of interplay, and Dahl's compositions feature some neat messing-with-the-downbeat-tricks. If the trio stuck to the avant-trash/punk/funk mixture, Trucker would be a howler, but the "chameleon band" shtick works to its disadvantage.
© François Couture /TiVo