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TRIOSCAPES
“Separate Realities”

Metal Blade (2012)
Rating: 7.5/10

Metalheads beware! First things first, this is not a heavy metal album in any shape or form. This is a jazz fusion record and one bereft of vocals.

Trioscopes are an American trio (hence the word “trio” in the band name, geddit?!) of instrumentalists, namely Dan Briggs (Between The Buried And Me) on bass, Matt Lynch on drums, and Walter Fancourt on tenor sax and flute. They play what can only be described, to the naked ear, as mesmerising, intricate, lounge-style jazz fusion that rarely owes itself to consistent melody; instead at times it jars, flips, twists, and jerks.

To some, this album will exist as an inhospitable environment. “Separate Realities” is an intriguing yet complex web of disorientation and progression, fusing Frank Zappa-style quirkiness with John Zorn surrealism, especially in that wayward sax which slithers through the cosmos of sound like some epileptic serpent. I find this album engaging yet alienating, an extra-terrestrial smorgasbord of sensual and yet confusing rhythms which melt together the multi-coloured layers of King Crimson, and to a lesser extent, the cartoon capers of Mr. Bungle.

I really don’t know how to describe this to your average metalhead, except to say it is a jazz record. For the most part the bubbly bass and spiralling sax take over, with not a guitar in sight, the band effortlessly shifting between styles; one moment funky, the next avant-garde, never once settling in a place of comfort.

Even as a background music this is jarring and at times so complex that one finds themselves lost within it, trying to latch on to one particular instrument, but it’s nigh on impossible. You never know what you’re going to get from one minute to the next. While there’s no doubting the talent of these guys, to some it may come across as a self-indulgent jazz mess. But having been aurally raped by the nightmarish soundtracks of Naked City, Painkiller and Mr. Bungle, I actually find “Separate Realities” rather relaxing; it’s certainly not the sort of thing I’d imagine in a smoky jazz club.

For the most part, the jerking drum stabs at the ears while the sax is a constant menace, but the occasional injection of fuzz, particularly on the title track and bizarrely titled ‘Wazzlejazzlebof’, comes as a nice surprise. Six tracks in all, each as seemingly disfigured as the last.

Goodness knows what would happen if Trioscapes teamed up with Cynic… I’d never sleep again! Be warned, this is not for the easily pleased!

Neil Arnold

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