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Dave Douglas is usually known for his very complex and demanding music that tests his fellow musician’s skills to their limit, but on “Freak In”, Douglas takes a bit of a vacation and re-visit’s the 70s and the sound of psychedelic fusion, particularly Miles Davis albums such as “Big Fun” and “In a Silent Way”. While a little more casual than Douglas’ difficult acoustic post bop sets, “Freak In” still presents some excellent tracks, plus a few that are less than excellent. Dave gets a lot of help on here from an all-star cast of modern electronic jazz musicians, particularly Jamie Saft on keyboards and Marc Ribot on guitar. Meanwhile, Karsh Kale on tabla and Ikue Mori on electronic percussion provide the exotic tone colors that are necessary to make this style of fusion interesting.
“Freak In” opens strong with the blazing title track, which is probably one of the more intense fusion tracks recorded n this new century. Unfortunately, opening a CD with your best track means it’s a bit downhill from there. Only “The Great Schism” and “Traveler There is No Road” come close to capturing the fire of the opener. Of the more atmospheric tracks, “November”, “Porto Alegre” and “Maya” are all very nice. The rest of the tracks include a couple of plodding rockers and some incidental music that is not particularly memorable. With a little editing this could have been a very good 40 minute album, but stretching it into an 80 minute CD means some of the additional music is not on a par with the best tracks. Usually Douglas’s compositional skills are very high, but that doesn’t show much on this CD until you get to the bizarre closer, “The Mystic Lamb”, which is a short closing theme stretched into infinity with all manner of variations. Possibly this cut is a tongue-in-cheek humorous salute to Miles’ time stretching classic, “Great Expectations”.
As is the case with this sort of psychedelic music, the sounds and tone colors are almost more important than the notes, and in this respect, Douglas and his crew do not disappoint as they provide plenty of pretty electronic ear candy. Overall “Freak In” is not one of Douglas’ better albums, but it is an enjoyable departure from his usual, and with a little editing, you can put together a very good modern/retro fusion joint.