There's a scene in The Commitments (a 1991 movie about an Irish soul band) in which one of the characters describes jazz as "wanker music" -- in other words, he was saying that he found jazz to be overly self-indulgent. That's a sweeping and unfair generalization, of course; some types of jazz are every bit as populist, accessible, and groove-minded as rock, R&B, rap, salsa, reggae, or country. But it is true that some post-swing jazz -- especially atonal free jazz -- can be unapologetically self-indulgent. When you're dealing with matters of the avant-garde -- be it avant rock, avant jazz, or avant classical -- a certain amount of self-indulgence goes with the territory. Here's the thing: Musical self-indulgence can be mindless masturbation, or there can be a method to the madness. And
Analogue II's
Oh Perfect Masters definitely falls into the latter category; this largely instrumental avant-garde rock/progressive rock effort is self-indulgent, but it's self-indulgent in a good way. For all its weirdness and tripped-out eccentricity,
Analogue II is quite musical. To borrow a term used in The Commitments,
Oh Perfect Masters isn't "wanker music" --
Analogue II's left-of-center experimentalism makes sense, and the Southern combo brings a sense of purpose to spacy, neo-psychedelic offerings like "April Is Autastic!," "Dojo Casino. It's All in the Mind," and "Nails Don't Keep Him on the Cross; Love Do." Never let it be said that
Analogue II doesn't have a knack for bizarre song titles -- the titles are as strange as the music itself, but again,
Oh Perfect Masters is strange in a good way. The music makes sense, which is what separates
Oh Perfect Masters from less musical, less logical avant rock outings. Music this eccentric isn't for everyone, but those who are brave enough to go along for the ride will find
Oh Perfect Masters to be rewarding -- excesses and all. ~ Alex Henderson