Artist: District 97
Title: Hybrid Child
Type: Album
Label: Eulogy Recordings
“I don’t wanna wait. I don’t wanna wait. I don’t wanna wait. Wanna wait another day”. Those are the opening lyrics of the 7 minute-long first track (no prizes for guessing this one): “I Don’t Wanna Wait Another Day”. When I first heard it, I realised that some mental adjustment was necessary. The Chicago-based band make the extremely plausible claim that they are “the only Progressive band in the world to feature an American Idol finalist and a Chicago Symphony Orchestra virtuoso cellist”. With this information in tow, it is logical that “I Don’t Wanna Wait Another Day” is sung in a jazz style by the sweet-voiced female singer, and features a keyboard style which wouldn’t be out of place on a non-commercial 70s Manfred Mann Chapter 3 or other Progressive Rock album, and the harsh tones of a cello. “Hybrid Child” is certainly imaginative jazz fusion, different, to a great extent experimental and certainly Progressive. A further three tracks follow in a similar style to “I Don’t Wanna Wait Another Day”, each with its own quirky identity. It’s like harking back to a golden age of Prog. While the keyboard sound is somewhat passé, the vocals are pleasant and interesting as well as being pure, clean and original. The guitar and drum set a definite tone for each track. In particular “The Man Who Knows Your Name” has enough time at 8 minutes 49 seconds to allow us to absorb the developing musical drama. At times it’s breathless but mostly it’s fresh and enquiring. I also liked the emotional urgency of “Termites”.
In the old days, you’d have turned over the LP and listened to the 27 minute, 10 part “Mindscan” on the B side. Essentially this is a Prog journey. Starting off classically, we head through a keyboard bash through cheery vocals and of course a Prog structure into part V, an electronic interlude mixed with an interesting and nightmarish sequence of sounds and voices. What follows is slow, moody and very 70s. Avant-garde jazzy Prog leads to a dramatic rhythm, a (I presume) deliberately obtuse singing style, then “It’s time to go home now” and we somehow finish up in a capsule of dark otherworldliness. It’s fair to say that like the album as a whole, “Mindscan” paves its own path. There’s nothing mainstream about this work at all.
I suspect anyone who likes mostly light Prog with a jazz flavouring would like “Hybrid Child”. I’d not really heard anything like this before, and could not compare it meaningfully to the work of any contemporary musicians. That’s not important, and indeed adds to its interest. What I can say is that all the disparate elements work well together to create a fascinating Progressive whole.
http://www.myspace.com/district97
http://www.district97.net
http://www.laseredgegroup.com
