Motor Totemist Guild 'City Of Mirrors'

Cuneform Rune 116.

An intriguing item this. Motor Totemist Guild were formed 1980 by composer James Grigsby and poet Christine Clements. Now a 14 piece ensemble who describe their music as " the songs of the mockingbird mixed with the delicate ambience of a diesel exhaust pipe"

Easy listening this is not.

With very rare use of any electrical instrumentation the band sounds is provided by Jazz "Big Band" instrumentation and the use of sax / clarinet / trombone and trumpet as the leading voices. The group's sound varies, often within one track, from the freeform jazz sound of early Frank Zappa and the Mothers to the classical Atonality of Stockhausen. To this we can add touches of big band swing music and minimalist drone. Occasionally moments of melodic beauty do break out of the musical maelstrom and these can echo some of the ideas earlier explored by progressive bands such as Gryphon and Jade Warrior.

This is a very adventurous album with some wonderful playing. If you are a lover of free form jazz and avant-garde classical music I am sure it appeal to you. However, no matter what the bands publicity blurb advises, this should be filed under Avant -Garde Jazz and has little to do with Rock music, as I understand it.

Ian Oakley February 2000