Longtime readers of the Daily Vault know that I am very fond of the unclassifiable musician Phideaux Xavier. Occupying a space bounded by space rock, progressive rock and other oddities, his incisive lyrics and delightful music have resulted in two very good CDs, Fiendish<\/i> and Ghost Story<\/i>. <\/p>\n
I have a rare privilege of presenting y\u2019all with Phideaux\u2019s first unquestioningly great CD, The Great Leap<\/i>. In a truly just world, this would be the kind of music that scholars would dissect and analyze fifty years from now. The Great Leap<\/i>, is, quite simply, the best CD I have heard this year, a brilliant, bitter, biting and breathtaking look at alienation, ecological collapse and the herd mentality. This is The Wall for the twenty-first century, and it\u2019s only the first installment in a planned musical trilogy. <\/p>\n
As always, the core musicianship is sold; Xavier, Gabriel Moffat and Rich Hutchins have worked together for a long time, and it shows. The presence of the various members of the Bloodfish Collective, the loose collection of musicians, vocalists, family members and hangers-on that appear on Phideaux recordings, is as always solid. Touches like the horns on \u201cYou And Me Against A World Of Pain\u201d and the snare drum on \u201cLast\u201d add layers to the sound, making this a rich, full but not bloated CD. <\/p>\n
The songs are, in a word, magnificent. The Great Leap<\/i> hits you like a blast wave with \u201cWake Up\u201d and never lets up the emotional pressure until \u201cLast\u201d fades out. Along the way, pay special attention to the almost jaunty \u201cThe Waiting\u201d with its barrelhouse piano, the apocalyptic images, weird pipes and harmony vocals of \u201cRainboy,\u201d the funky Hammond organ on \u201cLong and Lonely Way\u201d and the sparse ominous vocals of \u201cTannis Root.\u201d There is not a single bad moment on The Great Leap<\/i>; it\u2019s solid all the way through, and leaves one feeling exhausted, thrilled and yet vaguely unsettled \u2013 which makes perfect sense given the topic. <\/p>\n
As Phideaux sings on \u201cTannis Root,\u201d \u201cGive us your best and your bold \/ We\u2019ll give them back when they\u2019re cold\u201d \u2013 The Great Leap<\/i> takes an unblinking and harsh look at the world, and it\u2019s not pretty. But the music is brilliant; this is the CD of the year, as far as I\u2019m concerned.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":28609,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"artist":[6958],"rating":[5646],"class_list":["post-40084","review","type-review","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","artist-phideaux","rating-rating-a"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/review"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/review\/40084\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28609"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"artist","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/artist?post=40084"},{"taxonomy":"rating","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dailyvault.adishjain.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rating?post=40084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}