Transmissions from Satellites Vol. I

Once upon a time there was a heavy rock Tucson, Ariz.,power trio called Sun Zoom Spark. Christened in a fit of Beefheart-induced psychosis and specializing in full-bore guitaradelica that'd singe the nose hairs of a Hawkwind acolyte at 100 paces, SZS gradually assimilated it's position on the somewhat timid late '90s Old Pueblo music scene, even going so far as to pull double-duty as ¾ of the revived Black Sun Ensemble. With personnel shifts ultimately taking their toll, guitarist Eric Johnson finally put the beast to rest in 2001, but later, when a local rock opera production required a band to provide live accompaniment, he reformed the group, and SZS remains extant to this day. Key recordings fully representative of the group's prowess include 1999's Electricity and 2002's In Stereo, although this new one, while wildly experimental, will disappoint neither longtime SZS supporters nor trad psych fans. In a nutshell, Johnson and bassist Steve Goetz went into the studio and laid down several hours' worth of jam sessions, then each man took home a copy of the recorded results in order to individually create two different works of art from the same raw materials. Volume 1, then, is a mostly instrumental set assembled by Johnson by editing down hours of bass and percussion tracks then overdubbing his guitar (much of it employing E-bow), flute and Moog synth parts. (Goetz's Volume 2 is due soon). Each of the 16 cuts has it's own discrete character - quot;Downtown,quot; for example, has a bluesy, Hendrixian vibe, while the more wobbly, woozy quot;Soul Patchquot; seems to bubble up from a pit of primordial gunk, and the Zappaesque quot;Hey Steve, Can You Run Fast?quot; features one of the album's very few vocal passages, a kind of streetwise hipster rap atop lumbering bass and shards of guitar fractals - but the album works best as a kind of psychedelic suite, an extemporaneous blowout well suited to preliminary - and concurrent - chemical stimulation. To paraphrase Pink Floyd from 1972, wot's, uh, the deal, gents? - Fred Mills, Magnet Magazine.