The four adventurous souls known as Tribal Tech are on fire on their completely improvised release for the Tone Center label. Rocket Science features the band's jam-to-tape approach on ten excellent tunes written by the great guitarist Scott Henderson, bassist Gary Willis, and keyboardist Scott Kinsey. Henderson is on fire and Willis is walking all over the CD with his great bass walks and subliminal bottom that anchor the show. Along with the thunderous drumming of Kirk Covington, that, by the way, is totally fresh, and the great keyboard playing of Scott Kinsey, listeners can literally take a ride out to the stratosphere. With guitar solos that speak to you, Scott Henderson gives ho-hum thoughts an overdub and your imagination a new direction on "Saturn 5" with guitar work that will stun you with his brilliant technical command of sonic shrapnel. "Song Holy Hall" is an excellent piece that features a great Zen-like approach by bassist Gary Willis while the title track, "Rocket Science," is a ferocious rock jam based on a extraordinary collection of tones and scintillating grooves fused through Henderson's Mooger Fooger ring modulator. As with their previous effort Thick, the totally improvised music on Rocket Science continues to reveal their ability to convey their unspoken communications. Some bands may have that quality in their ability to improvise, but only Tribal Tech could pull off this kind of unrehearsed jam session with such great results.
© Paula Edelstein /TiVo