It’s all about the concept. Well, ok, concept and its execution. But ‘A Short Ride on the Arrow of Time’ is very much a concept album, divided into three parts: ‘First Ride on the Continuum’; ‘Second Ride on the Continuum’ and ‘Fourth Ride on the Continuum’. See what they’ve done there? The third ride is missing, and in its absence, they’ve altered the time / space continuum. Or perhaps it simply vanished in the 13 years since their last album. (The rather less exciting truth is that it was cut from the release due to the constraints of the media, and is only available on the vinyl edition, as each piece spans around 20 minutes of earth time).
It’s pretty far-out stuff: a duo consisting of drums and trumpet, their thing is improvisation, although beyond that it doesn’t easily fit within any obvious category. Space-jazz? Maybe.
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Within each part – made up in turn of short subsections – and the album as a whole, there’s a loose sense of trajectory, and each section evolves from the one before: trumpets layer up and echo around while additional swooshes and bleeps add further dimensions to the sound.
Lengthy abstract and semi-ambient passages bubble and flow before bursting into locked-in grooves that reward a little patience.
Spaceheads Online
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