Floratone II

As with  its predecessor , "Floratone II" is a mix of cerebral Rock with curious infusions of Jazz, Americana and orchestral music. The mood is dark and intense. 'Snake, Rattle' showcases some of Jon Brion's keyboard work which mostly engages the periphery. Trumpeter Ron Miles turns up the brass on songs like 'More Pluck." Throughout the album, Matt Chamberlain makes one of the strongest contributions as his ambitious rhythms dazzle. The melancholy of 'Not Over Ever' seems to reference Gershwin's 'My Man's Gone Now.' 'Move' may be the album's cookin' highlight. The drums lay down a bed of anxious polyrhythms as Bill Frisell strums a menacing rift that moves into a release filled chorus. Playing the viola, Eyvind Kang sounds like a one man string section on the ever so funky, 'Do You Have It?' Chamberlain again sparkles when he plays what sounds like a tongue drum on 'Gimme Some.' It's a fun song and one of the album's strongest offerings. While the recording falls under the Floratone moniker, it feels like a Bill Frisell album. Indeed, the primary critique of "Floratone II" is that it's interesting but remarkably familiar and not just when compared to the initial release. The quirky brass and string arrangements ('The Time, The Place -Part 2,' 'Parade' 'No Turn Back') bear a striking resemblance to those found on Frisell albums like " Quartet ." Looking back, the freshman Floratone release worked but needed stronger song writing and a more spirited performance. In contrast, "Floratone II" is an improvement in both categories. It may never be considered essential, but "Floratone II" is the perfect soundtrack to those reflective moments around 1 AM.

The Floraton II is a great piece of music artistry. For those that feast on this kind of music, you will not be disappointed.

Floratone is a fastastic vehicule to demonstrate that, the production is part of the music. Like the first adventure of Folratone, in this second album the real music is play by Bill Frisell and Matt Chamberlain but I think that the real work are made by Lee Towsen and Tuker Martine. Is less experimental that the first one but beautiful . The sounds are more important that the instruments, in same way is a CD of sounds, interesant sounds with different meanigs. Mike Elizondo on bas, Joe Brion on keyboards, the great Ron Miles in trumpet and Eyving Kang on viola are also specials guest, but the essential is Frissell-Chamberlain and the production of Townsend-Martine. Is difficult to clasificate the tipe of music Floritone but is nice to hear and also very interesting. Is simply different.. Obviously is not world music, but uses same ritmn from asian music, in not new age music, but sometimes sound very near of this. New sounds for good ears. Bill Frisell exelent like always. his sound is incredible and also play all tipe of sound with his guitar. Try to get it, is a CD full of ideas and music, special music

Love

I loved the first volume by this band but I have to say that volume 2 is nowhere near as creative as the previous effort and fans of volume 1 are probably going to be disappointed. There are some tracks that are up to par - but needs some heavy editing

Gran bel disco, forse meglio del primo Floratone, forse ci si aspettava un disco più sperimentale, ma è indubbiamente di livello altissimo ed estremamente piacevole.

配役、Bill Frisell(G)、Matt Chamberlain(Drums)、その他共演者たち。演出、Lee Townsend、Tucker MartineによるFloratoneプロジェクトの２作目。Drumsがカッチリ決めているので、スローな曲でもBill Frisell特有のまったり感はありません。むしろ緊迫した局面もある。３８分ほどの作品ですが、プロデューサーの演出のよろしきを得て、バラエティに富んだ、手ごたえのある作品になっています。ブラスやヴァイオリンなど脇役の使われ方も効果的。強く自己主張する人がいない(というか、個性派をうまく全体の雰囲気の中に溶け込ませている)ので、映画やＴＶシリーズのサントラのようにも聴こえますし、これはひとつの組曲ではないかと思えるほど構成的にまとまっています。