Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Levin Torn White
Label: Lazy Bones Recordings
Release: 2011
Running time: 55:42
Rating: 4.5/5
This write-up is seriously late, and I’ll own that, but consider it a warm-up for my review of the upcoming Levin Minnemann Rudess album. The central figure in both trios is bassist Tony Levin. An American who works best with Brits. Let’s say most successfully. It was working with the Brits that built his name: Peter Gabriel, Robert Fripp, the ABWH project, bass lines for the Pink Floyd album »A Momentry Lapse Of Reason« (!987), and so on…..
The Levin Torn White trio comes with a fascinating backstory that reaches deep into rock history. Who got Levin over to Britain in the late seventies? Was it the Peter Gabriel and Robert Fripp collaboration on Gabriel’s first two solo records? That could well have been the spark for Levin’s distinctive career. He’s considered one of the best bassists in the galaxy. Not just for his jaw-dropping technique, where he earned an intergalactic doctorate in mastering the Chapman Stick, but for the unique, authentic figure, richly carved out of just about every bass-guitar expression, that he built through his countless contributions to music.
In the late nineties Levin recorded a joint album with his former King Crimson companion Bill Bruford (ex-Yes) under the project name B.L.U.E. (Bruford Levin Upper Extremities). Besides trumpeter Chris Botti, guitarist David Torn played on it too. That very same David Torn played lead guitar on David Bowie’s new studio album »The Next Day« (2013). And what’s on the cover of that album? A reworked version of the classic Bowie album »Heores« from 1977. And who played guitar for Bowie on that one? Robert Fripp. Still with me?
So with Bill Bruford out, another Yes man, Alan White, jumped in. If Fripp and Torn had both worked with Bowie, and Torn had already shown off his cosmic guitar wizardry in the compatible company of Bruford and Levin, it’s only logical that Levin and White would invite him into a new creative triangle, because the result is wildly interesting. The album »Levin Torn White« sounds a lot like King Crimson. And that’s King Crimson from the era of »Discipline«, »Beat« and »Three of a Perfect Pair«. But that’s not a rule. Conceptually the album gets closest later on, when Chesse It, The Coirpse and The Eggman Cometh kick in, near later King Crimson creations like “Power To Believe” (2003).
So it follows from the paragraphs above that Torn, with his exceptional musical know-how and unique genius, always flexibly responsive to every challenge of free-spirited experimentation, is an extremely good approximation of Robert Fripp’s wondrous genius. In fact, often his outright equivalent. That’s exactly what the album »Levin Torn White« shows. And if you pair that wizardry with Tony Levin’s bass shenanigans, the resemblance to King Crimson’s eighties catalog makes even more sense. Only this time Bruford’s famous drumming is replaced by White’s »Tales from the Topographic Oceans« sorcery. Why that Yes album? Because it gave White the biggest solo sweep of free-spirited experimentation in his entire Yes career, the kind that his one-of-a-kind musical talent carries inside it. Tribal rhythmic inserts in the vein of a Yes classic like The Ritual are no accident on the »Levin Torn White« album. And much, much more.
So that’s roughly what you can expect on the album »Levin Torn White«. It all reads logically, it feels almost self-evident. Levin is hair-splittingly precise, extremely fast and uncompromising in dictating an exceptional performance on bass. Aces like Les Claypool of Primus or Flea of Red Hot Chilli Peppers learned from him. You don’t mess with Levin. The generous use of the Chapman Stick is an added bonus on the album »Liven Torn White«, bringing its sentiment right up close to the sentiment of King Crimson’s adventurous wizardry«. As for Alan White, no need to waste words. At last we get to enjoy his full-bodied flexibility, which, especially on the post-»Tormato« Yes albums, got more and more muted, a casualty of the band’s stylistic overhaul.. The chemistry between Levin and White is perfect. As if they’d known each other for an eternity and sensed each other in a trance. These are simply musical aces who tower far above the average. So the deciding factor that brings in the melody and really creates the bulk of the flowing moods and surging dynamics is David Torn. That challenge is Torn’s biggest draw, since it gives him the most room to stretch out creatively. Torn has that rare virtue and streak of wizardry, hunting for the melody among melodies. Hunting for the most off-kilter sequences of notes between the notes. There’s no apparent rule here. Torn’s moves only start to stick in your ears after many spins of this album, if at all. So this time the happiest campers will be the »most durable and thick-skinned« music gourmets. Torn looks for complete detours around the usual listenability of forms in tonalities. His are conceived in waters of avant-garde-twisted note sequences that stir up an element of daftness and craziness, which was always the trademark and driving force of King Crimson’s unique musical character. Torn also takes plenty of room for creating »soundscapes«. A soundscape element floating above the rhythm section’s spontaneous polyrhythm of avant-garde moves. Wildly scribbled, yet endlessly compatible. After the »creepy« opener No Warning Lights comes Ultra Mullet, which gives away the whole point of »Levin Torn White« right from the start.
This album is basically a fully loosened-up jam session concert in the studio. That means Levin and White essentially played a complete concert in the studio as they combed through these tracks. Only Torn occasionally »prepared himself rationally«, laying down a few motifs here and there and so marking the form of the songs, which stayed maximally loose anyway. So all the songs are hugely loosened up, or fragmented if you like. They develop completely spontaneously and unpredictably. They demand total relaxation from the listener, an unburdened mind and an open willingness to enjoy musical experiment. And that’s exactly the record’s biggest charm. Its biggest appeal. This very beauty of original wizardry and of putting the principle »the impossible is possible« into practice. Also the »soundscaping« (in the tracks Convergence or Sleeping Horse), which is so close to the solo work of Robert Fripp, Brian Eno and so on…. It’s all here. There’s room for everything. And Torn knows no hide-and-seek, no restraint. In all the deliberate dissonance of his guitar playing he’s arrogantly unmanageable and frankly vainly cheeky. Downright ruthless. And boundlessly bizarre (From Night of the Centipedes – a fitting term for a centipede). And that’s precisely where his greatest artistic, creative value sparkles! In the very core of unattractiveness, which becomes irresistibly attractive precisely because of its extremity. The arsenal of guitar playing on this album is exceptional!
So the trio delivers a record that’s totally unfaked, thoroughly genuine, spontaneous, endlessly fun in a boundless dose of bizarre experiment and teasing off-the-wall madness that can’t be foreseen or predicted in advance. Even the track titles radiate the daftness of the trio’s avant-garde musical creation, modeled on King Crimson (Primus are just a stone’s throw away), which couldn’t care less about trends and follows only its inspiration of the moment. And that generates an extraordinary energetic payoff that never stops, never stops delighting in its unique musical circus act. An artist can’t deliver more to the consumer. That’s why »Levin Torn White« is an album that’s practically perfect. It’s meant first and foremost for those of us who can’t come to terms with the absence of new-era King Crimson albums, since the legendary lineup hasn’t released a single new studio record since 2003. Fans of Primus will also find a kindred spirit in it, as will fans of Tony Levin’s past solo studio work. So »Levin Torn White« is a welcome »remedy« for the shortage of new King Crimson creations, one that will take you for an hour straight into the bosom of messing around with the comedy of the famous »Crimson-esque« and conjure up a convincing illusion for you. Let’s hope the story doesn’t end here and that the trio delivers another album like this in the future. Once you’ve listened to this record, smooth jazz can become irreversibly nauseating.
Line-up
Tony Levin – bass guitar, upright bass, Chapman Stick
David Torn – guitar
Alan White – drums, percussion
Production
Tony Levin, David Torn, Alan White
Track list
1. No Warning Lights
2. Ultra Mullett
3. White Noise
4. The Hood Fell
5. Monkey Mind
6. Cheese It, The Corpse
7. Convergence
8. Pillowfull of Dark
9. The Eggman Cometh
10. Sleeping Horse
11. Prom Night of the Centipedes
12. Crunch Time
13. Brain Tattoo
14. Lights Out
