GOLDBUG

Goldbug has released one album thus far...The Seven Dreams.

The Seven Dreams is an immersive autobiographical musical journey into the psyche of dreams featuring Theo Travis on tenor sax, flute, and ambitronics, Motzer on baritone guitar, prepared guitar, piano, loops, and electronics along with bassist Barry Meehan and wunderkind drummer Eric Slick (Adrian Belew Power Trio , Dr Dog).

The Seven Dreams began initially as a study of particular exotic modes by Motzer and Meehan. Later the two had a “chance” improvisation with Slick, who was between tours with Adrian Belew.  A“scheduled” second session provided another layer of thematic improvising with a variety of instruments over the original recording yielding complex colours, world rhythms, melodies, dark textures and orchestrations. While the majority of the album is live in-studio playing, two tracks are reconstructions by Motzer from the original source material. “Unraveling” uses analog synths, and Slicks’ cut-up and mis-aligned percussion taking the listener deep into a dream world. “Elevation,” with Meehans’s Tesla-like looped fuzz bass and  Travis’s electrifying tenor sax solo, travels through turbulence into an ascending backwards piano, resolving into the sounds of a calm river. Travis blasts another terrifying tenor solo on “The Past is Still Present”, and conjures ghostly varispeed flutes on the albums closer ”Persistence of a Memory.”

Goldbug’s avant rock dreamscape is an amazingly satisfying, surprising, and even psychedelic ride through the seven dreams and is best experienced non-stop, from start to finish – a ride that you are not soon to forget.

PURCHASE
GOLDBUG - THE SEVEN DREAMS  

Get it here! 1k RECORDINGS ONLINE STORE

 

(Goldbug pictured from top down: Tim Motzer,
 Theo Travis, Barry Meehan, Eric Slick) 

 

reviews:

"Highly cinematic, sounding like a soundtrack to an artsy underground film (and being perfect for it), Gold Bug find themselves in the vein of Trey Gunn, The ProjeKCts, & Quodia; it's music that reinvents the whole way that experimental-minded artistic music is executed, modernizing the approach that Ornette Coleman brought to the table years ago." Tommy Hash Yetsjam.com

*****

"The Departure" is a taut, tough blast of fusion funk, with Motzer inhabiting the ethereal realm staked out by the early John Abercrombie; his notes and tones float, rather than hit. The 11-minute "Scratching the Third Eye" opens with burbling electronics before settling into a groove reminiscent of Miles circa Live-Evil. The equally leisurely "The Past Is Still Present" explores an Arabian mode -- imagine mid-period Pink Floyd with better musicianship.
Stash Dauber

*****

Anyone familiar with Motzer's 1 K Recordings label may have some idea of what to expect here. These exceptionally talented individuals create music that is somewhat of a cross between jazz, modern classical, progressive rock, and ambient experimentation. Rather than specific melody driven pieces, these compositions tend to pass by like ocean waves...with the ideas and intent behind the music being more important than exact notes or melodies. Five of these seven tracks were recorded live in the studio...while the remaining two were "reconstructed" by Motzer. Peculiar and dreamy...this disc comes from a decidedly distant universe. Compelling cuts include "Shadow Memory," "Unraveling," and "Persistence of a Memory." Top pick  Baby Sue