MICHAL URBANIAK — Inactin' (review)

Album · 1973 · Fusion

3/5 · 2024-10-10
FunkFreak75

Recorded in 1972 for Germany's Spiegelei label, this is another album of 100% Micahl Urbaniak compositions as performed by his loyal band of virtuoso collaborators--though, in truth, it sounds and feels a lot like a collection of scraps and outtakes from the Paratyphus B sessions.

1. "Inactin" (6:58) a funky groove that feels like a slow summertime cruise through the 'hood in a convertible with lots of banter being engaged by sidewalk passers-by. At 3:30 the music cuts out, making way for some very idiosyncratic a cappella electronically-effected scatting (sounding to my imagination like the scurrying of mice around the house under the cover of darkness). The happy-go-lucky music returns at 5:45 and gradually re-establishes the neighborhood groove from the first half, only with Urszula still scatting above. (13.375/15)

2. "Alu" (3:58) with this gentle, spacious song we've re-entered the realm that will be explored more next year by HATFIELD AND THE NORTH. Roman Dylag is given quite a bit of time and room in the spotlight to solo his double bass. Ula's melliflous vocalese are gorgeous. (8.875/10)

3. "Ekim" (5:49) solo experimental electric violin opens this one before Roman's now-Barcus Berry-miked (and thus electronically treated and processed) bass enters and joins in. The combination of Michał's screeching and wining violin paired with Ula's equally feline vocalese and Adam Makowicz's obnoxious clavinet work is a bit disturbing--not unlike some of the work Herbie Hancock experiemented with in his electronic-dominated phase of operations. I understand and appreciate the skill involved to create this stuff, but using an historical perspective, it was kind of a waste of time and vinyl. (8.6667/10)

4. "Silence" (3:31) bowed violin and electrified bass perform a slowly-evolving space-atmospheric duet that is supported by some loosely--almost-randomly--played Fender Rhodes and percussion. Another song that is so predictive of some of the musics that are to come (including some of the great intros to Lenny White songs on Venusian Summer.) (8.75/10)

5. "Fall" (7:42) even more experimental sound production of the avant garde/free jazz sort. It gets even crazier when Ula's IRENE PAPPAS/GILLI SMYTH-like orgiastic scatting and Adam's frantic clavinet play double up in the fifth minute. Wild! (Yes, even wilder than anything published by GONG). Not even the somewhat-coalescent coming together of the band in the final minute can save it from future skips. (13/15)

6. "Groovy Desert" (5:01) faded in as if an excerpt from an extant jam, the groove devolves (while drummer retools or takes a little beer break) into an Adam Makowitz, Czesław Bartkowski, and Branislav Kovacev tuning and brief exploration of two separate themes joined together. Was this album just material grabbed from the cutting floor of the previous album--scraps and discards that the record label pasted together in order to try to make a few Marks from this band of now expats? (8.25/10)

7. "Lato" (8:06) the music of this song reminds me of the very first post-Bitches Brew recordings that Wayne Shorter, Joe Zawinul, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea did with their new bands (many members of whom were also in situ during Miles' seminal sessions). that they would eventually be calling WEATHER REPORT, "Mwandishi," and RETURN TO FOREVER, respectively. Nice stuff, a liitle rough in organization--feeling a lot like exploratory jam-like session play--but, unfortunately, not my favorite direction that J-R Fusion took. (13.25/15)

Total time: 41:04

An album filled with such renegade experimentation, so much so that it seems to beg the question from us 21st Centurians, "What was going on here?" It's not that it's not admirable and skillful, it's just that it offers very little audio pleasure. I stand by my deduction that this is probably an effort by Spiegelei Records to eke out some more money from their now lost (moved to New York City) commodity.

B-/3.5 stars; a very interesting (and perhaps historically significant) collection of "songs" from the end of Michał and Urszula's time in Europe. Recommended for all those curious about the roots and unusual experiments of infant Jazz-Rock Fusion.