Artist: 7for4
Label: MGI Records (KDC)
Release: 2008
Rating: 4.5/5
The German music scene has always had a ton to offer in prog rock. Sadly (or luckily?), these days it’s being saved by experimentalists and seekers of new ways of musical expression, who have finally grasped that krautrock is outdated and that imitating those seventies and eighties bands is pointless (even they are now just shadows of themselves). And one of those saviors is definitely jazz fusion (with all due respect to their boundless genre-mixing) band 7for4. After four years of searching for undiscovered potential, in 2008 the Munich artists headed back into the studio and recorded their third album.
After the first two albums, it was a given for their listeners that Diffusion would land on their shelf the moment it came out; over the years 7for4 have built a big fan base that knows how to appreciate quality music, and even more the brilliant musicians standing behind it. With the announcement of the third album they also confirmed this isn’t a one-day fluke, and that they intend to plant themselves at the very top of their genre’s charts; the road they’re walking toward that goal is definitely the right one.
The fact alone that the guys spent two whole years recording the album tells us it’s going to be yet another masterpiece. Of course, it was once again produced, composed and generally sorted by Wolfgang Zenk. That naturally includes the track naming too – this time the opener, the album intro, shares its name with the record – “Diffusion”. Zenk opens it with calm acoustic guitar playing, but soon cuts in with his own thing, and the track develops into an emotionally charged piece with a menacing atmosphere from all the instruments. Engl on drums dictates a killer tempo, which Zenk, with his soloing chops, has no trouble keeping up with. Later the track settles into some funky playing around from the musicians as they slip back into the mood set earlier. You can hear the Germans staying true to their tried-and-tested recipe, and we guess right if we predict a calm Zenk finale on acoustic guitar.
A duet of ambient playing from Zenk and Froschmeier heralds the start of “Indigo Dunes”. This time Zenk’s creation offers a bit more than „bare” virtuoso guitar soloing and punchy lines from the other musicians in the background. A track aimed at creating atmosphere, with a few “ingredients” of classic 7for4 in it, it rests mostly on a major key, light keyboard playing, the gentle “grooving” of Grützner’s fretless bass, ambient touches from Engl’s cymbals and Zenk’s finesse on guitar. Still, the track ends the way a 7for4 track should: hard, punchy, fast.
The track “Emoctify” starts off surprisingly – and in a good way – with a sort of “spacy” sound created by Froschmeier with a simple keyboard arrangement and Engl with interesting drum fills. The song starts reaching its peak when Zenk joins in and the epic playing kicks off again. Halfway through, the track calms down for a moment, but Zenk’s soloing drags it back, after which the ears get another breather – but a moment is all they get, because the musical dance goes on. The track ends with a similar maneuver, unexpectedly and with a decisive “boom”.
“The Winding Path” is an exceptionally melancholic track and somehow shows another face of the German jazz metallers – quiet, slower (except at moments), calm, refined, yet emotional and expressive enough to win us over, maybe even more than Zenk’s classic “showing off”. With occasional hints of the familiar 7for4 sound and a newly discovered one, the melody dreamily makes its way across a landscape created free of genre constraints, hitting a peak toward the middle, not through the musicians’ classic move, of course, but with clear metal leanings. With this minor innovation in their work, a heap of untapped possibilities opens up for them. For me, this track is definitely one of the album’s “winners”.
Since the melancholy had obviously gotten under the guys’ skin at that point, “Silent Flow” was created under its influence too. They start building the kind of environment that they already pulled off on the previous album “Time” and its title track. Zenk morphs into Gilmour and seasons their boundless inventiveness with a Floyd-style melody. It’s somehow the most uncharacteristic 7for4 track on the album, and at the same time everything the musicians stand for, and definitely something we can pin on them without trouble. Definitely another favorite for best track on the “record”.
“Cyclotron” justifies the album’s long gestation, at least when it comes to sound quality and production in general – here the track is simply perfect, flawless. Not only that – “Cyclotron” is the track with the most variety and genre-hopping compared to the others, which is by no means a bad thing – jazz-metal playing on one side and a somewhat rock’n’roll, playful romping on the other definitely deliver yet another gem from the German band.
We’re used to the Munich virtuosos treating themselves to a good dose of Latin injection on earlier albums too, and “Spiral Dance” continues that tradition. Zenk turns into a proper Latin lover when it comes to the Spanish-inspired parts, while Froschmeier offers somewhat more progressive-rock keyboard tapping, which is definitely new. Surprisingly, this time the Latin inserts of acoustic or classical guitar aren’t at the start but interrupt the track at interesting spots, adding yet another dimension.
The penultimate creation, “Hidden Depths”, has a bit more in the way of jazz elements, led mainly by Grützner with his “fretless” bass. Mood-wise the track comes very close to “Silent Flow”, only it leans less on atmosphere and more on a lead melody, which Zenk eventually takes over with acoustic playing. A very pleasant track, and yet another breath of fresh air against the potential monotony of 7for4.
The role of closing track this time went to the mystic mouse “Mystic Mouse”, which is once again completely different from everything so far. The musos reach again for stronger, punchier moves, but not through that classic maneuver we know so well. It’s mostly a blend, a merger of the two kinds of tracks under which we can draw a line on the album – a mix of calm, ambient pieces and the fanatically epic ones. We couldn’t imagine a better ending.
7for4 have surprised once again, and these incredible surprises in their musical expression are becoming practically routine. Their most accomplished album to date offers more than the previous ones, both musically and production-wise. Flaws are hard to find; looking for them is downright pointless, since you’d have better luck finding a needle in a haystack. 7for4 keep ramping up their creativity, which, it seems, truly has no limits; the masses (myself included) can hardly wait for the next breathtaking surprise pressed onto a record.
Line-up
Wolfgang Zenk – guitar
Markus Grützner – bass guitar
Klaus Engl – drums
Markus Froschmeier – keyboards
Production
Wolfgang Zenk
Tracklist
1. Diffusion
2. Indigo Dunes
3. Emoctify
4. The Winding Path
5. Silent Flow
6. Cyclotron
7. Spiral Dance
8. Hidden Depths
9. Mystic Mouse
