There’s a scene in the classic movie The Great Escape, when Donald Pleasance and James Garner are drinking some home made moonshine. They imbibe a sip, and Garner, after gasping, asks “What is THAT?!?” to which understates, “I know what it’s NOT; it isn’t Napoleon Brandy.”
This six song release by the Seattle based band Chemical Clock (Cameron Sharif/key, Ray Larsen/tp, Evan Woodle/dr, Mark Hunter/b) plays music a lot like that movie moment. While there are some intriguing moments that evoke images of Zawinul Circuit and Weather Report (“Neurotic Bricklayer”) and Larsen’s trumpet is lovingly agonizing in “People In Particular,” much of the music is head scratching. Is the title track and “Blind Topographer” a bad dream by Carl Stalling? Or afterthoughts by Kraftwerk? Hard to tell.