Monday, March 26, 2012

OHMphrey - "Posthaste" new album (Umphrey's McGee & OHM)

OHMphrey, an instrumental, improvisational supergroup, which features three members of the veteran improg band Umphrey’s McGee (keyboardist Joel Cummins, guitarist Jake Cinninger and drummer Kris Myers), and OHM guitarist (former Megadeth guitarist), Chris Poland and bassist Robertino Pagliari (a.k.a. “Pag”).

OHMphrey - Posthaste

OHMphrey’s latest effort, the unforgettable, and soon-to-be-classic, Posthaste, finds these five extraordinary artists creating instrumental music with a unified voice – once again. The album’s seven original instrumental compositions, and two bonus live tracks (“Firestarter” and “20/20”) recorded at Winston’s in San Diego in 2009, never meander. Simply put, Posthaste contains some of the most thought-provoking, elastic and heavy jam band music this side of A Live One, Space Wrangler, and Under the Table and Dreaming


Tracks such as “The River Runs”, “Tom Bombadil"(named after a character in J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Lord of the Ringsfantasy trilogy), “The Sun also Rises”, and “The Devil’s in the Details” are as distinctive and enthralling as their titles might suggest. Each track has its own identity and the music never lets up. Even upon repeat listens, Posthastecontinues to inspire, surprise and even shock.


Dig the joyous and playful staccato rhythms, Cummins’ Wakeman-esque lead synth lines and Myers’ ability to play with time during a drum solo in “Ramona’s Car Wash.” Rifle through your memories as you listen to the intriguing arpeggios opening “The Shoemaker’s Back” (as if these riffs have been encoded with subliminal information). Free your mind (and your butt) to the totally chilled out trace/dance feel of “Reggaelic” (which fades with a glorious guitar solo).


“Composing these songs was something we all did together,” says Cummins. “One of the best analogies I can give is ‘Simon Says for Musicians’, where we’re trying to organize these musical ideas in the moment.”


“Everybody contributed to these songs,” says six-string fretless bassist Robertino Pagliari, or Pag. “Once an idea popped out, it was like, ‘Oh, I have a melody…’ Or, ‘Oh, I have a rhythm part that works with that …’ These ideas just molded together, as if we had been working together forever, you know?”


“We all have this kind of synchronicity,” says Poland. “It’s kind of an overused word, but we have it. Whatever we’re doing, it works.”


BUY OHMphrey - "Posthaste" Today:

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/posthaste/id500499373?uo=4