The name of the three men on this album will at once astonish, excite, and confuse. An instrumental progrock masterpiece that will take it's place alongside Larks' Tongues In Aspic as an indispensable example of how music can open up parts of your head you didn't know you had, Black Light Syndrome takes it's name from Terry Bozzio, Tony Levin, and Steve Stevens.
Terry Bozzio, as you know, played drums for the almighty Frank Zappa, and was also responsible for other acclaimed projects, such as the pop band Missing Persons. Tony Levin? If you don't know who Tony Levin is, chances are you've been asleep for twenty-or-so years, or else you're one of those poor folks who only listens to music that gets played on the radio. Best known for stints with King Crimson and Peter Gabriel, as well as a prolific career as a studio musician lending his talents to literally hundreds of artists, Levin is also the man chiefly responsible for forwarding the progress of a very unusual instrument, the Chapman Stick. (A cousin of the electric bass, the Stick is a wickedly complex beast that is capable of a dizzying array of sounds...at least, in the hands of someone such as Levin.)
But Steve Stevens? You may not know much about him. Aside from being the guitarist for Billy Idol, Stevens also led Steve Stevens Atomic Playboys, a band that, in addition to being very well liked by guitarists at the time, was single-handedly responsible for the Great Hair Spray Famine of the eighties. But how would he hold his own alongside two of the progressive greats?
Fabulously. In the most natural match since beer and hot food, these three men weave some amazingly creative instrumental movements that might just make this the headphone album of the year.
First of all, a little needs to be said about how the songs on this disc came about: spontaneously. The three men met in the studio for a grand total of four days, and in those days the whole thing was written and recorded. I can close my eyes and imagine the incredible energy in that room: three magnificent musicians, connecting on a level where words aren't needed, and thank God the meeting was being recorded.
Spontaneous music has been done before, and often, it's painfully obvious that the stuff was written on the spot. Not here, though; Black Light Syndrome is filled with the kinds of melodies that U2 or Alanis Morrissette couldn't write if they sat down for weeks with pen in hand. Take, for instance, "Dark Corners", a very Crimson-esque stomp that Fripp himself would be proud of.
"Duende" is Stevens' paean to flamenco music, a style that is dear to his heart, and once again he shines. His tremolo picking is as crisp and flawless as one could ask for, and his teammates fill in the blanks with appropriately restrained drums and bass.
Sometimes, I find instrumental albums a little hard to get fully into; it's a personal thing, because lyrics are so important to me in painting a picture. But the picture gets painted magnificently here, leaving me wanting for nothing. Black Light Syndrome is one of the few indispensable albums so far this year.
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