Thanks For Flying With Us

Jazz/rock fusion, notable Zappa and, to a lesser extent, Canterbury influence. Metrical trickiness abounds. Some of this is fairly retrograde, to be honest (though that's not to say it's bad, just that it's not the most modern thing going). Many tracks feature two keyboardists (the Mats of the title, and someone else), one generally using a clavinet/harpsichord-like sound while the other is more ordinarily synth-like; makes for an interesting contrast (eg on 2). Last four tracks are live.
Best: 1, 7, 12, 14, 15

1. Upbeat, with some wordless vocals (not unlike Jaga Jazzist or Hatfield & the North) and a jaunty bass line & catchy melody. Bass starts to predominate in an almost zeuhlish manner towards the end.
2. Starts with a countdown, 5 to 0 (first 20 seconds), then a high-energy jam. Ends less with the keyboards playing repetitive odd-metered patterns a la Art Zoyd (though much less cold).
3. Keyboard and harmonica duet. Pretty.
4. Looped samples, fairly funky, but the most important thing to know is that at -1:04 some spoken vocals ("good afternoon, this is your captain speaking") come in, in which a notional airplane captain describes the guns he, the copilot, and flight attendant have, which runs to the end.
5. Cold, electronic timbre here. Some nice soloing on keys in the middle.
6. Funky bass, though the rest of it isn't.
7. Guests on violin and klaviharp (clavichord-like instrument) here; it's slower than many other tracks; very pretty. The violin has a bit of a near-east flavor.
8. Throbbing, funky bass throughout, middle sections fairly mellow and ends with the drums out in full force.
9. Begins with a brief drum solo. This is very much Zappa & Canterbury-derived. Upbeat.
10. Guest reedist here playing a Turkish double-reed. Fairly ordinary (with respect to the rest of the album), until he comes in (-3:07) with a really awesome solo.
11. Keys/drums duet. Nice, but not as good as the piano/drums later (track 14).
12. More of those wordless vocals. Long virtuosic, excellent drum solo (with the vocals; it's not *just* drums).
13. Really annoying vocoder lyrics. Probably worth skipping.
14. Piano/drums duet; all acoustic. High energy and compelling at first, gets more contemplative towards the end.
15. Begins just like the ending of Robert Wyatt's "Solar Flares Burn for You", I swear. Harmonica is back, and that weird clavinet/harpsichord-like keyboard plays swirly lines all over the second half. One of the best full-band efforts. The ending is the synthy keyboards providing sustained tones while the choppy keyboards play repeated, cut-up, techno-ish patterns above.
16. Demo for some MIDI drums? Not good.