Harmonizing in an almost divine fashion, the intertwining melodies that define “Gorilla” behind the physical part of the track are some of the most heavenly you’re going to hear on Project Grand Slam’s It’s Alive! LP, but make no mistakes about it – they’re hardly the only element that makes this disc worth taking a peek at this spring. Beautifully haunting and deeply emotional, tracks like this one, “The Queen’s Carnival,” and “Redemption Road” are retooled for a live performance in It’s Alive!, but even if you’re not particularly well-versed in their music, it’s obvious Project Grand Slam are breaking their mold on stage here.
There’s so much more to this LP than its charming verses alone – frankly, I found the instrumental components of “Fire,” “The One I’m Not Supposed to See,” “Lament,” and “I’m So Glad” to be far more sophisticated than a standard concert setup would call for, even when it comes to jazz music. Every track indeed feels experimental, but not to the extent of abandoning the basic concepts that make a melody familiar to those who have heard warm fusion before now. It might seem like a sketchy cocktail, but it’s one I haven’t been able to put down since first finding out about it.
“No No No” aside, everything in this record has a studio-level finish that I wasn’t counting on hearing in the new Project Grand Slam album this season. Based on their adherence to Robert Miller’s strict set of standards in past cuts, I assumed this live effort was going to be marred in anti-commercial experimentations without fail, and yet I wasn’t that disappointed to find this cosmetic layout instead. It’s another surprise in what’s felt like a career built on a bag full of tricks, and all things considered, it’s part of the reason why I’ve been so fascinated with going back through this act’s total discography lately.
The almost acrylic backdrop in “No No No,” “Aches and Pains,” and “Yeah Yeah” definitely feeds into the theme of catharsis that we find in almost every song on It’s Alive!, but it doesn’t overstate the moodiness of the music at all. There’s an exquisite attention to detail here that keeps us intrigued as much by the surface stuff in this album as we are by the subtleties in the aesthetical design, and it’s often in the more muted moments we’re able to appreciate just how much is going on around us.
I was somewhat familiar with the collective works of Project Grand Slam before getting my hands on It’s Alive!, but listening to its complete tracklist and then going back over some of this group’s more recent releases has turned me into a full-fledged fan. There aren’t many acts in or out of the North American underground circuit that have the kind of natural elegance and emotional reach that Project Grand Slam do, and whether this is because of their relationship as a unit or simply gifted musicians in general, it’s made It’s Alive! an instant classic.
Chadwick Easton