33 rebellions per minute
"A list of things that make me scream out loud"
1999
Profusion, S/T
Statement of bias: Angela Frangipane, lead singer/ lead songwriter/ keyboardist/ artwork person/ secretary for the self-desribed "abstract rock" band Profusion, has been a friend of mine since she sat behind me in 11th-grade physics class. She's never been a close friend, but we keep in touch. I admire her quite a bit (not the ogling sense of "admire") (well, not primarily), and probably wouldn't break the habit even if her band played some kind of music that I found unexpectedly repulsive. I want Profusion to extend their popularity beyond their well-tended Davenport/ Rock Island/ Moline area. At least I want them out of debt, and I want this review to help. If you're willing to contribute $10 to the cause (ask me where to send it), I would applaud, and regard your actually getting your money's worth from the music as a bonus. A large bonus, to be sure.
That said, I wouldn't lie for the cause. PROFUSION may well be the best album ever to come out of Davenport, Iowa, which is a real compliment (runner-ups, to my limited knowledge, are Tripmaster Monkey's swirling indie guitar-a-thon GOODBYE RACE and Einstein's Sister's likeably gentle Kinks/XTC third-derivative OCEANUS). My Mom likes it, my friends Kristian and Tom like it enough to have bought copies, and I haven't played it for anyone else yet. It's not the sort of music I generally seek out: very much based on the interplay of four highly talented instrumentalists, it emphasizes groove and solo over the song. But it's unique, and within two songs of my first listen, I was hooked.
Comparisons in this review would by necessity be unusually loose, so instead of song-by-song, I'll say that to me the band sounds like some integrated combination of the following:
- Deep Purple, in its "Burn"/"Stormbringer" peak where Jon Lord's swirling keyboards interacted with the metal riffs, if they'd had strong jazz fusion leanings. (45%)
- Joe Satriani's guitar-technique albums, which for some reason I like far better than anyone else's guitar-technique albums, probably because he's a genuine composer, with a gleaming band sound. (16%)
- Derek and the Dominoes interpreting XTC's cockeyed new-wave helium-keyboard manifesto WHITE MUSIC. (14%)
- Yes in concert with everyone doing jaw-dropping solos (sometimes until you desperately wish they'd quit it). (10%)
- 7th-inning stretch organ music. (6%)
- Siouxsie and the Banshees in their early goth days. (4%)
- Classical piano. (3%)
- Other. (2%)
The vocal contributions are, as I said, far less important, but Angie's melodies unwind like No Doubt's theatre/ska fusion (albeit at least an octave lower; Angi's voice is cool and dignified and, on the chanted "DNA", positively spooky). PROFUSION's implicit argument is that the band have spent most of their lives practicing their instruments, the last three years together, and that that should be more than enough time to develop an exciting sound without resort to arrays of pedals, switches, and sequencer programs. It's not a fashionable argument, and because I associate it with jazz, a musical tradition I've tried and failed to understand, it's not an argument I'm accustomed to buying.
But you know… when I dragged Kristian to their concert at Rock Island Brewing Company the other Saturday ("dragged" because he didn't know he'd come out wanting their album), the Loud-fans music discussion list was bogged down in a discussion of the greatest guitar solos of all time. I read the posts in increasing confusion, realizing how terribly few solos had made enough of an impact on me that I could even call them to mind. Four minutes into Profusion's live performance of "20 Ears", Chad Ramsay started an intensely concentrated communion with his guitar, and a few minutes after that, as the last sparks of extreme treble singed the front rows, I released my breath and nodded: "okay. That solo. I nominate that one". The disc version isn't quite so amazing, nor is the solo on "Who Are They" or "Couch Monsters", but I listen to them, and that's impressive testimony. And when the band interplay comes back, racing tightly through a series of riffs and one-shot ideas, I start forgetting to breathe again. It may not be the healthiest sensation in the world, but it doesn't take even a shred of bias for me to endorse it.
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