Reviews
 Keep It Simple
Van Morrison
Roger McGuinn @ the Huntington IMAC, Long Island, NY - April 4, 2008
Emily Saxe @ the Allen Room/Jazz at Lincoln Center - April 5, 2008
Another Country
Tift Merritt
Be Your Own Pet
Get Awkward
Paul McCartney – The McCartney Years (DVD)
Juno – Music from the Motion Picture
Various Artists
Yes - Their Definitive Story
Day and Night Driving
Seven Mary Three
InterMedia Arts Center 2/2/08
Huntington, NY
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Attention, all boys who spend too much time locked up in their bedrooms; There is a new double CD (and accompanying DVD, sold separately) of live music by Particle – of course it’s a double disk, since the ‘song’ lengths often approach the half-hour mark. For fans of the band, this release marks a change of pace for the group, featuring two new guitarists who actually sing!!!!! The vocals put a whole new spin on the band’s presentation and helps to make them more accessible to those who aren’t familiar with the band, but in all honesty, I really doubt it will make much difference to anyone. I mean, the playing is technically great, but is anybody really astounded by this kind of thing anymore? Without seeing the crowd, I’d be willing to bet that the band’s fan base is 98.9 percent male. I bet that they played an awful lot of air keyboards, too. Well, I suppose the good news is that they can now add air guitar to their repertoire.
There is little about the music here that is emotionally stimulating, so the essence of its appeal lies in the technical prowess of the players. For the average listener, there’s not much else to draw you in, unless you want to hear their semi-carbon copy of the Doors’ “L.A. Woman” featuring Robby Krieger as the guest third guitarist, or the Neville Brothers “Fiyo on the Bayou” as it morphs into an extended jam entitled “W” that is completely unrelated to the original basic rhythm. “Blackalicious” brings along the funk and adds a few raps to the rhythms (“Particle, there ain’t no equal. Particle, they’re back for the sequel!”), which suit the band about as well as sardines suit sugar. All of this is marginally interesting, but it surely seems as though it’s much more interesting for the players than it ever could be for the audience. The twenty-five minute jam entitled “Triple Threat” rolls along like a drive through a Kansas cornfield – endless and redundant. When they do attempt a ‘real’ song with words and some emotional investment, like “Losing It,” the musical accompaniment is reduced to pedaling a single note on the bass guitar while the keyboards repeat an overtly simple riff – sort of the inverse of what this band is actually about.
The keyboard playing is usually wizardly, but often utilizes tones that remind me of what I’d hear over the p.a. at Disney’s Epcot Center in the mid-eighties. The best tip that I can provide for fans of Particle’s keyboard sounds is to check out the late seventies albums by Jean Michel Jarre (“Oxygene”, “Equinoxe”). Otherwise, I can’t really recommend much else here, because to my ears, “Transformations” is music with a lot of particles, but little substance.
Grade: 
 
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