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Raffaella Berry's progressive music journey

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Moraine – Groundswell (2014)

November 10, 2014 by progmistress

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TRACKLISTING:
1. Mustardseed (3:11)
2. Skein (3:52)
3. Fountain of Euthanasia (3:25)
4. Gnashville (4:12)
5. In That Distant Place (6:20)
6. Synecdoche (3:52)
7. The Earth Is an Atom (5:12)
8. Waylaid (7:20)
9. Spiritual Gatecrasher (7:18)
10. The Okanogan Lobe (7:41)

LINEUP:
AliciaDeJoie – electric violin
James DeJoie – baritone saxophone, flute
Kevin Millard – NS stick bass
Dennis Rea – guitar, electronic interventions, Mellotron
Tom Zgonc – drums

Four years after their recording debut, Manifest Density – followed by a career-defining appearance at NEARfest 2010, captured on their second album, Metamorphic Rock – Seattle quintet Moraine are back with Groundswell, their long-awaited third release. In the past couple of years, there have been some remarkable events for the band – namely the entry of drummer Tom Zgonc (a longtime associate of guitarist and mainman Dennis Rea) to replace Stephen Cavit, and appearances at West Coast festivals SeaProg and NorCalProg.

Introduced by a striking aerial photograph of the Atlantic island of Tristan da Cunha – one of the loneliest places on Earth – Groundswell shows a band firing on all cylinders. While the backing of Leonardo Pavkovic’s Moonjune Records label remains a reliable constant in the band’s career, Moraine are clearly not the kind of outfit that thrives on playing it safe, and this third chapter in their recording history clearly points forward rather than backward. With renowned sound engineer Steve Fisk (of Nirvana and Soundgarden fame) at the helm, the album sounds powerful yet clear, gritty in all the right places, yet almost ethereal when needed. Though some of the tracks had already appeared on Metamorphic Rock, they are not mere duplicates of already available material, but are integrated into the fabric of an album that stands out for its compositional tightness.

Clocking in around a very sensible 52 minutes, Groundswell bears all the hallmarks of classic Moraine, in particular their signature device of using a main theme in their compositions that brings them full circle. The music is powered by the tireless engine of Tom Zgonc’s drums and Kevin Millard’s stick bass, but also clustered around the shifting, intersecting lines of James DeJoie’s sax, Alicia DeJoie’s violin, and of course Dennis Rea’s guitar. This core trio is also responsible for the majority of the writing, with two of the 10 tracks written by other Seattle-based musicians. Indeed, the opening track, “Mustardseed”, a composition by composer and conductor Daniel Barry, is redolent of the warmth of faraway countries with its lazy, sauntering violin and sax duet, into which Rea’s sharp, meandering guitar interjects. On the other hand, the muted, rarefied elegance of “In a Distant Place” (written by Jon Davis of Zhongyu, whose members also include Rea and the DeJoies) owes a lot to Chinese music, though a burst of distinctly Western energy enlivens its texture towards the end.

The jaunty-paced “Skein” blends Moraine’s trademark sound with the almost big-band swagger of the main sax line, until an almost tempestuous climax of crashing drums and echoing guitar riffs. “Synecdoche” emphasizes adrenaline-drenched energy rather than melody, allowing Rea’s guitar free rein; whereas “Gnashville” does suggest country music (albeit in a very skewed fashion) in the starring role accorded to Alicia DeJoie’s violin, which engages in some Paganini-like acrobatics complemented by the distinctly hard rock vibe of Rea’s low-toned, growling guitar. “Fountain of Euthanasia” strikes a middle ground, its briskly upbeat opening shading into a pensive violin study offset by gently chiming guitar; similarly, “The Earth Is an Atom” juxtaposes an overall meditative mood with the sax’s more assertive exertions.

The album culminates with a trio of 7-minute-plus tracks that showcase the development of Moraine’s musical identity through the past few years. The deceptively lively beginning of “Waylaid” fades into a middle section that brings to mind Pink Floyd circa A Saucerful of Secrets – a sparse, hauntingly beautiful electronic storm infused with the violin’s ethereal touch. “Spiritual Gatecrasher” brings back that heady Oriental flavour, mixed with a witty, Canterbury-like bounce, the dreamy softness of James DeJoie’s flute spiced up by a sprinkling of guitar effects. Then, Rea’s love for geology emerges once again in the album’s closing track, “The Okanogan Lobe” (a reference to an ancient glacier of the Columbia River Valley) – Moraine’s own version of a symphonic poem, whose majestic pace seems to mimic the movement of the ice throughout the eras. Rea’s guitar is at its most lyrical in the intense, slo-mo climax that follows a lively jazz-rock workout.

Groundswell marks Moraine’s triumphant return to the progressive rock fray. The band successfully weave their diverse influences together in a seamless whole that highlights their uniqueness with every twist and turn of the music. Moraine are among the foremost standard-bearers of a modern form of jazz-rock that yearns to break free from the ponderous heritage of the Seventies. A near-perfect blend of lyricism, atmosphere and raw energy, Groundswell embodies, in many ways, the modern progressive ethos. Highly recommended to all open-minded prog listeners, this is essential listening for lovers of instrumental progressive rock.

Links:
http://www.moraineband.com/

http://moonjunerecords.bandcamp.com/album/groundswell
http://www.moonjune.com

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Posted in Instrumental, Jazz-Rock, Progressive Rock, Review | Tagged Alicia DeJoie, Dennis Rea, James DeJoie, Kevin Millard, Leonardo Pavkovic, MoonJune Records, NorCalProg, Seaprog, Steve Fisk, Tom Zgonc | 7 Comments

7 Responses

  1. on November 10, 2014 at 8:01 pm Keith Moon's Liver

    hell yeah. My album of the year! Great review!


  2. on November 11, 2014 at 7:46 am Dan Burke

    Love this album!! Great review, Raff!


    • on November 11, 2014 at 8:17 am progmistress

      Thank you so much, Dan! Thinking of you here!


  3. on November 13, 2014 at 8:01 pm kerrykompost

    Played with Moraine last year, fantastic band and great people. Nice summary, Raffaella.


    • on November 13, 2014 at 8:38 pm progmistress

      Thank you, Kerry! Congrats for the ROSfest slot. I fully intend to write a review of the Heliopolis album before long!


  4. on November 20, 2014 at 2:21 pm Drew Fisher

    Love the Groundswell! Your likes are definitely in line with mine!

    Ms. Berry, with your attraction to the avant/jazzier side of prog, I’d HIGHLY recommend that you give a listen (or two … or a hundred!) to *Antoine Fafard’s Ad Perpetuum*. It’s streaming in its entirety on *progstreaming.com *. With a line-up of *Vinnie Colaiuta and Jerry De Villiers, Jr.* *on every track* this is truly one of the most jaw-dropping and accessible jazz fusion albums *of all-time!* I’m not sure if you have ever explored and/or liked Weather Report, Jaco Pastorius, the jazzy side of Joni Mitchell, Pat Metheny, Bill Bruford, Allan Holdsworth or Hiromi’s Sonicbloom, but Antoine’s compositions & flawless performances remind me of these other groups–except, of course, better. *Ad Perpetuum* may, in fact, end up my #1 album of 2014!

    Enjoy! Best wishes for a *better* 2015! And thanks for your Fire!

    Sincerely, Drew Fisher

    Drew Fisher Second Cloud on the Left Farm http://www.secondcloudfarm.com

    *”Small farming is the best revenge for big banking.” — Michigan mystic and all-around mysterious person, Sam Sharp*


    • on November 20, 2014 at 6:17 pm progmistress

      Thank you so much for your comment and for the recommendation! I will definitely check Fafard’s album out. I just wish I had more time to write reviews!



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