Ric Tutlo's "Transgressions" is a unique recording which showcases many styles of the bass guitar - several of which are rarely, if ever, attempted - and manages to wrap them all into a succinct, highly musical album.
The record begins with "Reality in Real Time," an intelligent, danceable track that features tribal rhythms, but interestingly, no backbeat. It pulsates like a Trance tune, hooking in the listener with its hypnotic rhythm, but offering a much more nuanced, subtle experience than conventional Trance music. "Transgressions" progresses into spaced-out, cinematic ambient on "Man Down," which features an echoing vocal sample that sounds as if it's getting more and more distant from the earth.
"Divine Post" features Tutlo's bass in yet another context as he demonstrates his proficiency at the instrument in a jangling, classically influenced solo piece before moving on to "CCSO," a spooky vocal interlude in which the bass provides backdrop atmospherics.
"Above a Whisper" is another virtuosic piece in an airy, jazz-inflected style that builds unexpectedly into a climax of hypnotic riffing. Tutlo introduces percussion effects and the fuzz bass on the funky "Not Now," a highly effective, catchy piece that again demonstrates Tutlo's leanings toward electronic dance music.
"Mir" - presumably about the Russian space station, though the word can mean both "Peace" and "World" - is the most ambient piece on the record - a moody conglomerate of otherworldly sound effects and bell tones which builds gradually into a dark ambient soundscape.
"Transgressions" quickly switches gears for the last time and glides into "Bipolar Eclipse," a contemplative, reverb-soaked solo bass recording which foreshadows the gloom and apocalypse of "End of Everything," an appropriately-titled cacophony of vocals and bass sounds which climaxes in a swell of noisy distortion that halts all of the other sounds to a silent stillness. After this blazing apocalypse, Tutlo reintroduces the opening bass line as if to say to the listener that his instrument and the music it creates will survive long after everything else is gone.
A true musician's album, "Transgressions" depicts the possibilities inherent in a single instrument when one man's creative vision takes force.
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Reviewer:maxiii - - June 14, 2009 Subject: yep This is exactly why lunarflower is probably the best netlabel I have found online. The recording quality is superb, musicianship fantastic, and creativity the bomb.
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