This is Fun!

ADRIAN BELEW

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FLUX By Belew, Volume One (2016)A New Concept In Streaming Music…

Outrageously cool new release from Adrian Belew, the formidable guitarist, solo artist and former sideman to the stars (Zappa, Talking Heads, Bowie), prior to his 30-year run as lead vocalist for King Crimson. FLUX By Belew, Volume One is more than just an album, it’s a conceptual musical application. Belew’s FLUX:FX (HERE) is an iTunes and iPad app that allows for unique sound manipulation, while FLUX By Belew (HERE) is an Adrian-centric version of FLUX that shuffles an untold number of Belew’s sounds, effects, melodies, tunes, fragments and ideas into an evolving, ever-changing array of “music which is never the same twice.” I’m not an app type, though, I might be willing to drop the $9.99 for it based on this CD version of the concept. FLUX By Belew, Volume One offers 44 tracks that make up a fraction of the project’s overall database, anchored by algorithms that play the short segments in shuffle mode (which is how Belew suggests this CD should be played, to approximate the concept). But FLUX’s musical selling point is Belew’s diversity. He’s a popster at heart, but his experimental drive manifests itself across an array of 10 to 40 second instrumental outbursts interspersed with short, 2 to 3 minute mini-song segments that highlight not only Belew’s Beatle-esque pop obsessions (check out his excellent 80s pop outfit, The Bears, below), but also his Rhino/whammy bar guitar outbursts and Crimson-esque syncopation. The quick segues and anything goes format keeps the pacing brisk and ever-changing, with no quarter given to song structures or unnecessary frills. I love this approach to music and am investigating the app, if only to hear how many ideas Belew has accumulated for this project… which – given his career – must be massive. As a preview, however, this album provides a keyhole peek at Belew’s futuristic vision of streaming music, Belew-style. Adrian may also be way ahead of the cultural curve with this innovation, as rumor has it that the popularity of streaming music might even be pushing Apple itself out of the downloading business within the next five years. We’ll see.

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