Member:
JLucky
Date:
6/19/2005
When it comes to the progressive rock sub genre called RIO I’ll be the first to admit I’m no expert. It is a musical sub genre with plenty of diverse exponents but it can be somewhat challenging to listen to, especially for the untrained or casual ear. None-the-less there are a couple bands in this field that I not only admire but do enjoy listening to. One of those bands is Forever Einstein who interestingly enough have a new release entitled Racket Science.
Forever Einstein, an instrumental trio consisting of Charles O’Meara (guitar), John Roulat (drums) and newcomer Kevin Gerety (bass) has been around since 1989. Home base for the band is Connecticut. This new release Racket Science is their fifth and as such is a culmination of all the sounds and styles they’ve worked in over the past fifteen years. There are two things you need to know about Forever Einstein: one is the source of their musical inspiration and the second is these guys are funny.
Let’s deal with the musical inspiration part. The first thing you notice listening to Racket Science is its clean sound. O’Meara’s guitar style sounds a lot like some of those Ventures LPs of the sixties, mixed with a little Dick Dale surf music. Add to this a clean crisp drumming style that keeps changing course every couple minutes making use of every thing Roulat has to hit and then finally mix in Gerety’s ECM-influenced fretless bas sliding all over the place and you might just get a sense of the enjoyable music contained on the 12 tracks of Racket Science. The actual inspiration for the notes comes more from non-rock sources such as cartoon music, western swing and movie soundtracks. It’s probably worth pointing out as well that virtually all of this inspiration comes from a distinctly American musical pool. Hard to describe accurately but when you listen you hear it all there.
The second point that is important to keep in mind about Forever Einstein is their sense of humor. A simple glance at the song titles such as ”I’m trying to contain an outbreak here and you’re driving the monkey to the Airport” or “It’s almost Impossible to concentrate in this café with all these leggy Belgian girls walking around in miniskirts” and you see what I mean. Each and every song has a long and from what I can gather a totally inexplicable title. Now I’m sure it means something to the band. But I just like the fact they seem to be having fun.
Racket Science has a nice mix of short (1:36) and long (8:06) songs with plenty of musical variety to sink your ears into, some of it light and airy and some of it a little more intense. Plus it’s never boring or same-y because in every song you can expect two or three musical shifts in time and tempo. Older fans will definitely enjoy Racket Science and this is probably the best place for new fans to start as the material is slightly more accessible and will be an excellent introduction to their earlier releases. Kudos to Forever Einstein for crafting such a unique musical style and sticking with it. Great job.
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