Delay Tactics’ Elements of Surprise is an album that seeps into welcoming synapses with soft melodic water colors. But spectral harmonizing haunts this music.
There’s a bit of Robert Fripp’s woven tapestries; there’s a nod to the more tempered side of German prog like Popol Vuh and Ash Ra Tempel. There’s a bit of ECM here; and the music even touches the sonic beauty of an Island Records period Jade Warrior record. Delay Tactics simply drink from an eternal spring that bubbles away any residue of an “ambient” shirt tag. This is music with the weight of “20,000 leagues under the sea” that can still feel the heated beauty of an Earth-morning crimson sunrise.
The first instrumental, “Viola’s Ascent,” begins with synth strings, but quickly dives into a Jungian dream with hidden memories, secret urges and fluid archetypal colors. Michael Manring’s bass finds a soulful heartbeat, while Carl Weingarten, Walter Whitney, and David Udell all add acoustic, electric, and euphoric slide guitars with (to sort of quote Pink Floyd!) “a pillow of winds.” It’s just a lovely featherbed sound, with a turquoise dream memory of Yellowstone Park’s thermal Sapphire Pool.
But allow me to amend the Talking Heads’ famous quote: Indeed, “This ain’t no party, this ain’t no disco” – and “this ain’t no new-age music, either.”
There are more gorgeous sounds. “Kalimba Lounge” evokes the remembrance of an exotic memory. Truly, this tune captures the melting beauty of Jade Warrior’s first side of Kites. But in contrast, “Shadow of Berlin” is up-tempo and urgent, with a sinister electric wah-wah guitar solo that, with piano and all sorts of mystery, (sort of) evokes the tension of King Crimson’s “A Sailor’s Tale.” This is great prog rock!
“Don’t Wake the Pharaoh” delves into somewhat funky (and very joyous) jazz rock that simply gathers momentum, guitar guts, and a keyboard solo not unlike a nice Tony Banks Wind and Wuthering bit, while the entire tune engulfs the thought of its really great title.
In contrast (again!), “Fire Ceremony” is a languid impressionistic musical painting that features a sinewy electric guitar which is framed with a pallet of more “pillow winded” sounds. The same is true for “Ever Unwinding.” This is another sonic painting from Delay Tactics that captures the sand and sea on a soft windy beach day. And, I suppose, it’s yet another Jungian dream set to a slow-danced featherbed-thermal pulse.
“Idea3” gets even more cosmic as it gathers dissonant color and may even conjure the ethnic sound of Germany’s Can (of Tago Mago fame!) during their later recordings. By the way, thank you once again, Michael Manring for the Arthur Murray bass dance steps from another dimension. And the whole band (thank you, also, Walter, Carl and David!) joins into the inter-galactic vibe that manages to juggle the time-space continuum. Yeah, it’s that’s good.
“Acoustic Reprise” is a welcome piano-guitar interlude that oozes with classical patience. Then, finally, “Three Voices” quietly punctuates all the shaded colors of all of these Elements of Surprise. As the tune ebbs, a final lapping wave envelopes the very vivid journey into our sometimes nicely warped musical consciousness, concluding a Delay Tactics record which is filled, thankfully, with a very earthy groove.
- Coincidence – ‘Coincidence,’ ‘Clef de Ciel’ + ‘Archives 1973-1974’ (2024) - November 17, 2024
- Mile Marker Zero – ‘Coming of Age’ (2024) - October 14, 2024
- Burton Cummings – ‘A Few Good Moments’ (2024) - October 7, 2024
