Mats Morgan Band / Thanks For Flying With Us
Album: Thanks For Flying With Us   Collection:General
Artist:Mats Morgan Band   Added:Jan 2006
Label:Cuneiform Records  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2006-01-22 Pull Date: 2006-03-26
Week Ending: Mar 26 Mar 5 Feb 19 Jan 29
Airplays: 1 1 1 4

Recent Airplay
1. Aug 28, 2009: Connecting Dots
Sinus
4. Mar 02, 2006: Rock in a Position
Sinus
2. Jun 23, 2006: Memory Select
Alive In Enskede
5. Feb 16, 2006: Rock in a Position
Live Neff
3. Mar 22, 2006: Brownian Bloodstains Motion Across Atherton
Thanks For Flying With Us
6. Jan 28, 2006: Biff Bang Pow
Propeller Hast

Album Review
Ben Wolfson
Reviewed 2006-01-21
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.

Track Listing
1. Sinus   9. Propeller Hast
2. Thanks For Flying With Us   10. Allan In The Rain
3. Adat Dropouts I Love You   11. Wenjie
4. Not Us   12. Please Remain Seated
5. Jf's Tati-Car   13. Coco
6. La Baratte   14. Live Neff
7. Softma   15. Alive In Enskede
8. Wounder Bird   16. Ivan