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 BanyanAnytime At All CyberOctave There are great groups, and then there are supergroups. And then there are great groups whose members just happen to belong to other groups. The increasingly inbred world of rock and roll gets confusing sometimes, so it's refreshing when a convention breaks a convention. Usually when a bunch of rock luminaries gets together, you can expect a lot of drunken fun and wacky collaborations. The last thing you would expect would be a solid album of musical exploration. But that's exactly what you get with Banyan's "Anytime at All." Janes Addiction/Porno for Pyros drummer Stephen Perkins helms a rotating group of eclectics, including Mike Watt, Nels Cline, Rob Wasserman, Buckethead, Flea, John Frusciante, Bad Azz, and producer/trumpet player Willie Waldman, leading them through some complex and jazzy arrangements. Perkins also had a hand in writing ten of the thirteen tracks, which bear his trademark sound -- exotic, light on the snare, heavy on the toms at times. But the music around him is vastly different from anything he did with Janes or the Pyros. No one would ever accuse Janes of writing fusion tunes, for one. And no one would ever accuse the Pyros of making an album as good as this one. Of course, Banyan's first album wasn't exactly standard, either. It featured Watt, Cline, Perkins, and Freeway Keyboardist reinterpreting Igor Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring," each of them listening to the piece on headphones while recording together. The Dust Brothers don't often produce Stravinsky, but they made an exception in this case. On "Anytime at All," the most important thing seems to be that all of the musicians are on the same page, whether it's the smooth, jazzy hip-hop of "Steel Head," the atmospheric dabblings of "Keep the Change," swing-meets-latin groove of Watt's "Lovin' Them Pounds." No one sounds like a rock musician trying to play jazz -- no one sounds particularly out of their element. And with a few notable exceptions, the arrangements are surprisingly tight, the solos trimmed to the music. None of the dabbling and wankery usually associated fusion. Of course, with Watt around, there's always going to be something even weirder than you expect. "Lovin' Them Pounds" suddenly turns into a Zappa/Beefheart song halfway through before returning to the groove. In lesser hands, this song would have been a complete mess, but everyone manages to keep the thread. A few tracks spice up the album with more conceptual rock and funk, like "Sputnik" and "Grease the System." The latter is a slow burner, courtesy of Flea and John Frusciante, featuring Perkins's melodic steel drumming. The only drawback to this album would be that the new age influence gets a bit thick at times. "Early Bird" often sounds like a relaxation tape you'd buy at the Nature Store. And fans wanting to hear Perkins rumble down the mountain a la Janes will probably wind up scratching their heads in confusion. Still, Perkins is every bit as intense as ever. Just listen to him lay it down on "Justine" or the intro to "Steel Head" for proof of that. This is as close as the rock world gets to something like The Quintet -- the Massey Hall concert with Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Charles Mingus, and Bud Powell. And it's not just for one night. It's "Anytime at All." -Nick |
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