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SUPER NUMERI, "GREAT AVIARIES"

Ninja Tune
Hailing from Liverpool (the city best known for it's ship yards andother musical exports), Super Numeri are a communal musical collectivethat re-create the spacey and organic sounds of mid-70s fusion andupdate it with instrumentation that doesn't seem to be too far of astretch by today's standards. Based around a core of three members, anextra ten musicians augment their compositions with a plethora ofsounds throughout the eight earthy tracks that make up their Great Aviariesdisc. Opening with what is easily an homage to the man known to be theinventor of fusion, Miles Davis, "The Electric Horse Garden" ebbs andflows with sitar drones and organ swells while the presence of relaxedbass and drums support the pretty and expressive jazzy guitar layeringswithout getting totally psychedelic. "Otter's Poll" adds live harppluckings to the free form mix of low-end synth drones, loose drummingand glockenspiel topped off with a lush string section. The odd-timesignature and choppy syncopation of "Beaks" meshes with singled-noteddirty guitar and bass playing off the beat while noise guitar andelectronic whirls ensue. The reggae-styled groove of "Classic BritishPonds" is touched up with some subtle Brazilian tambourine playing fora vibraphone-padded track peppered with treated guitar sounds.Unfortunately, the gradual building of this track takes away from itshypnotic effect and points out out that there's only been one groovegoing all along. For the most part, Super Numeri cohesively stretch outtheir musical ideas around some simple yet interesting motifs, ratherthan taking the more self-indulgent jam-band approach. The disc's titleisn't very far off the mark as there is a lot of vibrant beauty to befound throughout each individual track. 

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