BIG BEAR THEORY
Lake Street (Big Bear Theory)
Reviewed by DJ Johnson

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There was a time in my life when I was literally unable to sleep without the cassette of Brand X's Livestock album auto-reversing all night long through the headphones. That ethereal concoction of jazz, rock and funk made for technicolor dreaming the likes of which I haven't experienced since the poor, overworked transport motor in the tape deck wore out sometime around 1985. At least not until the past few nights. Thanks to Big Bear Theory (and the much less mechanically demanding feat of MP3 auto-repeat), I'm ta-rippin' again. While I'm not prepared to say guitarist/producer Barry Bernhardt is necessarily in John Goodsall's league (because who is, really), I'm happily touting his creativity and versatility. The guy has a bucket of tones, which is absolutely necessary in keeping an all-instrumental album interesting, in my opinion. The only time Lake Street approaches a drop off point is when the drum pattern in "Telefinale" becomes so simplistic it feels out of place within the song. Had it been moved back in the mix a bit it probably would have melted into the other sounds perfectly, but unfortunately it's way up front. On the other tunes the drums are right on, though, as is everything else. With the able help of Adam Sieverson and Darren Scorza (drums), Nick Tountas (bass), Dan Grazutis (bass, keyboards & electronics) and Brandon Rizzo (trumpet), Bernhardt has put down nine original tracks of jazz/rock fusion, acid-jazz funk and near-psychedelia for meditation, contemplation, emulation and posterity.


[Buy this CD Online at Trinity Mansion.]

© 2005 - DJ Johnson