When I was asked to join the Crossover Team on PA I had many email conversations with the team leader, Marty, who asked me if I knew that it was possible to search for band by country and provided a link. I wasn’t aware, so immediately went off to have a look at NZ as we aren’t exactly a prog hotbed down here. I commented that some bands were probably missing from the list, but was surprised and pleased to see that there were some active bands around, which is how I got in touch with Matt Deacon. In 2004 he released an album under his own name, which was more ambient but with some prog leanings, and he felt that if he was going to release something that was very different then perhaps he should use a pseudonym, so due to his interest in UFO’s he chose the name Bob Lazar (a controversial figure in the scene who claims to have worked with extra-terrestrial technology). The first time I played this I was just blown away, as here is another artist unknown to me (and many others), who is bringing together elements of Zappa with Seventies progressive music in a guitar-driven album that is impressive to say the least. Matt is a wonderful guitarist with great feel, and is happy to use acoustic or electric, whatever the requirement is for the piece, and will bring in heavier elements or jazz as the mood strikes. Most of the drums on this album are a machine, but actually isn’t as intrusive as it could be, and Matt brought in some mates to act as session musicians so that it has more of a band feel. There are times when it blasts into something avant-garde that could have come straight from the Art Zoyd playbook and I love it.
There is a real melange of styles throughout this album, with the only constant being Matt’s guitar, which is often, although not always, driving the proceedings forward. He has an incredible fluidity to all that he does and I am sure that if he was based in the UK or America as opposed to down here in NZ then he would be really well known within the scene. He provided me his own views on the songs and they are worth repeating.
“Levers Of Doom” – Acoustic intro over feedback fades in to main section of eastern tinged melody, back to acoustic, then heavy outro.
“ThreeFourFaster” - Reworking of tune from first album. Heavier, faster. With theremin. This one has been # 1 in the all time guitar charts on garageband.com(Experimental Rock) for the last year.
“Double Turn Double Safe” – Heavy, heavier, then country.
“Heavy Sandwich” – Groovy first section, then acoustic solo, then outro section with monster sax solo.
“Greengold” – My ode to Spirulina. Percussive intro, grinding odd time riff, keyboard feature, space out then key solo and guitar solo outro.
“Son of Six” – Another old tune reworked into a more acoustic feel. I really like this one.
“The Progressive Adventures Of Foodstool” – Weird and wacky, several different directions explored in one song.
“I Didn’t Get Anything Off That” – Epic outro, building from humble beginning featuring Tanya Didham on spoken word stream of consciousness.
All in all this is a wonderful album that those into Zappa style inventive guitar driven prog seriously need to investigate.
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