Medeski Martin & Wood - Uninvisible

It's possible to admire Medeski Martin and Wood's craft and guile in pushing against stylistic restraints while recognizing that their music isn't quite as much fun as it once was--or that this hugely popular trio may think it is. Full of shaggy cross-textures, plummy grooves, and spooky electronic underpinnings, Uninvisible is a lively sonic stew. Once a universe unto themselves, keyboardist John Medeski, drummer Billy Martin, and bassist Chris Wood continue to smartly expand their jam-band base, here featuring a brash five-piece horn section from the Brooklyn-based Antibalas Afrobeat Orchestra, turntablists DJ Olive and DJ P Love, and, for a spoken-word number, craggy-voiced Southern rock eccentric Col. Bruce Hampton. When Medeski is riding that Hammond organ and the group is taking its patented soulful detours, as on "Pappy Check" and the Booker T-ish "Smoke," all is right with the world. But even with Medeski dabbling on a roomful of other instruments, including the Mellotron, mini-Moog, and Arp, the songs don't have a lot of variety. And crowded with effects, the music can bog down in its own abstract logic--though there's no resisting the ping-pong game being played on "Off the Table." The chief rewards of Uninvisible are in the details. Until further notice, a headphone advisory is in effect. --Lloyd Sachs Amazon.com

Killer album!

I love this album. I really can't get enough of their beats. Not as experimental as their past albums, it gets back to the sounds that made the trio famous. They constantly keep it fresh. November 28, 2007

Another classic

MMW is destined to be one of the best unknown classic bands of the 90's and 2000's.......great stuff thru and thru and not missing a beat along the way....new listeners should explore their larger catalog...truly an education. January 3, 2007

Far Out MMW, (the cover says it all)

The thing that attracted me to this album was the cover. I said to myself, thats MMW for you. I didn't think the cover would say how different this album was going to be, from their other previous releases. Well it did.

This is far, tricked out music! It really isn't jazz. More borderline hip-hop, drenched in their usual instrumental funk fasion. I definately wasn't expecting what I heard when I bought this MMW album. At times, I had to stumble to the next track, because there were clusters of songs that all seemed to be sounding alike with no direction. I would fast foward to the next track finding it the next one to be more of a continuation of the previous one, rather then a new composition.

There are a few shining moments on this disk, and any MMW is not bad. I still wouldn't mind listening to any MMW album. Pappy Check was the first MMW song I ever heard, and I loved it. Obviously, for me, that's one of the high points of this album.

MMW has grown, and it's almost inevitable that they will grow even further, so I'm not about to let a few dissapointing tracks ruin my love afair with Medeski Martin and Wood. July 3, 2005

pump up the jams

this album deserves to have a track taken from it and put on the next bootybass compilation which i think is volume seventeen if i remember correctly because the dusty brothers' production is on point and very in need of a good subwoof to be thorougly enjoyed&deafened. March 17, 2005

Good, but not stellar

MMW's most eclectic album thus far; read: sampling gets hot. For those unaware, this trio (keys, drums, bass) of musicians is known for producing high velocity funk. These guys can play, and at moments I think of comparisons involving the likes of Thelonius Monk, Charles Mingus, Art Blakey, Jimmy Smith, etc... And then at other times, I begin wondering if I am hearing another of those albums with a couple of good songs, and royal moments within some songs, but overall disappointing.

This album is not disappointing overall. It comes out hard charging, incorporating acoustic brass for the first time and serving up a healthy sampling of hip/trip-hop. It keeps up momentum with very catchy rythyms and sampling during the first four tracks, but seems to hit a lull, ironically, a little after track five and six titled respectively "Take Me Nowhere" and "Retirement Song". The albums complexity and enthusiasm seems to retire heading into track seven "Ten Dollar High." The album then enters the atmospheric ambient realm; thumping hip-hop beats that gradually become slippery funk. Unlike the live album "Tonic" the latter works on Uninvisible do not approach the chaotic compilings of "Thaw" and "Your Lady". However, I must admit that it is very difficult for me to tolerate the nitrous-oxide-voice bits that are used sparingly on this album as well as some other MMW releases. Yet, with patience, the remaining tracks show mellow promise. However, the funk-hop ambient tracks just don't reach the level of irrestible, soul-scorching transcendence such as that produced by the Eno brothers.

I struggled momentarily when considering a three or four rating for this album. My pleasure rating falls somewhere between two other MMW albums. Shackman, which I rated three, does not have the same punch and sparkle as Uninvisible, but Combustication, which I rated four, seems to delve into greater sonic depth. September 16, 2004

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