Gavin Harrison & 05ric
Drop

Not all collaborations between sacred monsters of the rock scene turn out to be successful; just think of the recent, faded attempt by Trey Anastasio (guitar of Phish), Les Claypool (bass and vocals of Primus), and Stewart Copeland (drummer of the Police) to blend their respective musical backgrounds in the Oysterhead project, marked by the so far only album “The Grand Pecking Order” (2001). Often, the sterility of these luxurious unions, of these supergroups, is linked to the lack of a real and coherent project and the propensity for virtuosity at the expense of the alchemy between the elements; yet, there are memorable pages in the rock book written by celebrated talents in temporary union (the Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young just to name two realities of the golden era).

In the context of this necessary premise, “Drop” by the English duo composed of Gavin Harrison and 05ric represents both the exception and the rule. The first, a solid and versatile drummer, collaborator in Italy with Baglioni and Battiato and a session musician for Ramazzotti, has definitively entered the Olympus of great drummers with the three albums recorded together with Steve Wilson’s Porcupine Tree. The latest, “Fear Of A Blank Planet” (2007), earned him the title of best progressive drummer of the year awarded by Modern Drummer magazine.
The other, an unpredictable champion in the use of the Extended Range Bass, a prototype of a seven-string bass produced by Crimson Guitar, is a jazz musician with a strong propensity to experiment, also endowed with excellent vocal skills.

The story of their meeting is not framed by a dusty jazz club; in honor of modern times, the two confront each other on MySpace and give rise to the project. The result almost always escapes an aseptic show of skill and attempts, albeit with a few falls into the boredom of the “non-functional,” to rise to a heartfelt and very personal product, with a refined and constant rhythmic study and 05ric's lyrics acting as a binder and coloring of the 9 tracks of the album. The registers covered by the seven bass strings offer continuous variations in all aspects, not least the overall atmosphere of the piece, while Harrison contributes to enriching it all with licenses in tap guitar. The difficult intertwining of the vocal melodies (“Unsettled”), crimson-like in cadence and their “intellectualism,” and a falsely minimal groove lit by always undoubtedly classy preciousness (“Centered” and “Where Are You Going?”), make this “Drop” a sincere exercise in jazz-prog that also has, on its side, a sound matrix profoundly in tune with the times.

A five-star mandatory collaboration with Robert Fripp on guitars, for other contributions see Dave Stewart (Hatfield, Eurythmics) on keyboards, and Gary Sanctuary on piano. Cover artwork by Chloe Alper of Pure Reason Revolution, just to keep it all in the family (that of those who still believe in progressive rock)…