Independent Music – May 2002

Independent Music – May 2002
Review by John Scalzi

Bassist Joseph Patrick Moore has put together a contemporary music album of all bass – not just bass as the highlighted instrument, but all bass all the time. However, he mixes up the bass sounds by using upright acoustic bass, picked and bowed, eletric bass, and electronically processed bass to create a whole spectrum of noise, in several genres of music, from ambient-like to jazzy. At its best (album opener WATERFALL) it creates a sonically-arresting space. At its least effective, it’s elevator music (note to JPM: Nice of you to cover Bobby McFerrin‘s DRIVE, but while you are a fine bassist, you’re really not a singer). Fortunately, there are  rather more good moments than bad ones.  Bassists in particular should enjoy this album as example of what their uderappreciated instrument can do, the rest of us can simply enjoy Moore’s ability to turn a single instrument into an entire band’s worth of sound