Indaba Something Serious

Incredible unison work la Al DiMeola's Race With Devil on Spanish Highway from Brisbane-based Indaba who are Clyde Schipke (guitar), Brad Wenham (bass) and Scott Dean (drums). Each is clearly an excellent musician in their own right, but put them together and something serious does happen. Intense, earnest explorations into jazz rock's rawer side with superb rhythmic punctuation and a bluesman's sense of "taking it home". That's not to say Indaba don't stretch out - they do - they just don't noodle. Basically, Rush (for the song choruses) and latter day Scott Henderson fans are going to love this album. I'm thinking more of VTT2 with Victor Wooten and Steve Smith, than say Tribel Tech's Rocket Science. The guitar has that later Henderson blues earnestness without being shrill. The lows are the weak balladic compositions, but they're outnumbered by the excellent, raunchy gut-crunchers. Scott Bosley gets an acknowlegement in the liner notes, and having heard how much Scott likes progressive rock/jazz fusion, he's going to like this a lot. He has impeccable taste.