I went into this solo album from Jeff Tobias (Modern Nature, Sunwatchers) thinking I sort of knew what to expect. And while astonishingly different from his work in other bands, this release finds the sax player singing, and playing a clutch of instruments while rooting around with confidence in new genres. Those genres are momentarily removed at times from those of his other projects, but there's a familiar adventurous throughout Recurring Dream which makes this album a complex, interesting cousin to releases from those bands.
Opener "Our Very Recent Past" and other cuts here suggest time spent listening to Eighties Pere Ubu albums, perhaps, while lots more strikes out for its own territory. The bright "The Hanging Man" faintly recalls recent numbers from Beauty Pill in tone, while the Mick Karn-meets-O.M.D.-pop of "Transparency" wins in inventive and fresh ways. When Tobias takes time out from playing nearly everything here to add in some of his saxophone sounds, there's a energy running through this that links it up with that of Sunwatchers.
However, it's worth noting that Jeff is clearly trying to make a sort of pop record on Recurring Dream. For those of us who liked Adrian Belew's solo records in the Bush years, or, a bit later, cranked sides by The Mommyheads, there's stuff here that will be welcomed. Thankfully, Jeff Tobias brings his smarts to this, with a cut like "Venezuela" being informative and sharply rendered. It's like Zappa without the smartassedness of it all. There's prowess in this pop, with a curiosity of how genres can be deconstructed and re-assembled that makes all of this lively and consistently engaging. It's not as free jazz as Sunwatchers, nor as elegantly pastoral as Modern Nature, but it's pretty darn special on its own terms.
Recurring Dream is out Friday. More deteails via the link below.
More details on Jeff Tobias via JeffTobias.net.
[Photo: Peter Kerlin]