New Sonic Liberation Front CD — Jetway Confidential
Like an exposé of the past and a prediction of the future, Sonic Liberation Front melds together sounds and time periods in a manner like no other band around today. Picking up the mantle from the Sun Ra Arkestra as Philadelphia’s most dimensional band, the group explores material inspired in part by Sun Ra on its new album, Jetway Confidential.
On the band’s fifth album, Jetway Confidential, Sonic Liberation Front wields their highly honed brand of Lukumi (Afro-Cuban) meets post-avant garde-and-everything-else mojo. The percussion sounds are undeniably amazing.
The CD opens with a fierce electro groove with bata and whistling. There is sonic tone piece in homage to Morton Feldman; a traditional Lukumi piece, sung by Olufemi Michell; a straight up, avant-garde burner; a space-lore tribute to Sun Ra, and more.
Coming on the heels of 2011’s well-received document Sonic Liberation Front Meets Sunny Murray, Jetway Confidential reveals influences as far afield as Sun Ra, Morton Feldman, Tata Guines, Lasaro Ros, Jackie McLean, Miles Davis, and the David Lean film Bridge Over the River Kwai. Sometimes the revelations in sound are subtle and sometimes the magic is obvious. Sonic Liberation Front has created another fantastic record.
The title track, “Jetway Confidential No. 3 (for Sun Ra),” is a large-ensemble piece, originally commissioned by innovative Philadelphia presenter, Ars Nova Workshop, for performance at the Institute of Contemporary Art (Phila.), to coincide with the 2009 exhibit, Pathways to Unknown Worlds: Sun Ra, El Saturn & Chicago’s Afro-Futurist Underground.
Jetway Confidential features 23 musicians working in the ever-shifting Sonic Liberation Front collaborative. Under the leadership of drummer, percussionist Kevin Diehl, SLF has expanded its sound and concept even more than on their critically acclaimed prior records. In addition to a corps that includes nearly two dozen musicians, SLF has also expanded the number of instruments played on Jetway Confidential. Additional percussion instruments, more horns, and extra electronics weave into the sound of these new recordings.
Although Jetway Confidential marks the first complete studio album since 2006’s Change Over Time, the group has had a very prolific period. In cunjunction with the release of Jetway Confidential comes also three digital-only EPs with live, unreleased, and guest remixes from the era that SLF recorded Jetway Confidential. Title the Jetpack series – these EPs will be available free to fans and media (more details coming soon).
