(08-22-06)

Indieworkshop

Instrumental Quarter - Traffic Jam

Beautiful instrumental (huh, imagine instrumental music from a group called Instrumental Quarter, kind of mind blowing) music from this Italian four-piece, the pieces on Traffic Jam were designed to take the listener away from the prison of the modern world and into what they term "visceral daydreams". Works for me, I'm sitting at work right now listening to this disc and not thinking a lick about going back to the grind.

Somewhere between the Album Leaf's Rhodes-heavy loops and Tortoise's jazz-head bass lines and guitar strums, Instrumental Quarter's spread-out cycles on Traffic Jam take their sweet time to unload, even in the three-minute tracks. What is a relief is that they aren't simply the same riff over and over again, as some of the younger crescendo rock bands might try to pull off. These tracks are both slow and graceful, like the work of Roots of Orchis, Six Parts Seven, or the abovementioned Album Leaf, but also heavy enough to satisfy those who loved Maserati and Tristeza. But they also obviously required a great deal of songwriting, dedication and practice, and demand equally as much from the listener, to unravel these sonic masterpieces.

Also included on this simple but lavish CD release are four videos from friend Francesco Calabrese that evidently serve as visuals behind the band when they play live. Simple but effective use of graphic images make up two of the videos, providing us with an almost instant connection with the modern world, while the other two pieces show men trapped in their worlds, either locked in a hallway of closed doors, or under surveillance in the middle of the night. While none of these take me to the mountains of Italy, as promised by the band's press kit, I feel transported by the lush strings on "The New Year", all violins and acoustic guitars in soaring flight.

A cure for the five-day workweek grind, Traffic Jam is a must-have for the lover of instrumental music, no matter where or if you work.

Source Indieworkshop