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High Bias
11/10/2002
When guitarist Scott McGill, bassist Michael Manring and drummer Vic Stevens last convened, it was for the aggressive blow-a-thon Addition By Subtraction. For the double-disk Controlled By Radar, the emphasis is more on mood and composition than mind-blowing chops. McGill in particular keeps his more frenzied instincts in check on the electric first disk, letting fly only on "Have Sex Get Paid, Part II" and "Cash From Chaos." Otherwise he contents himself with haunted volume swells, smoky atmospherics and the occasional gnarled burst, letting Manring's ambient funk bass do most of the heavy lifting. The trend continues in the acoustic second disk, as the interplay between McGill's quirky 12-string licks, Manring's busy basslines and Stevens' percolating percussion calls up dreams and diversions of all types—check out the rumbling "Madinat Ash Sha'b" or the cloudy "A Darkness Falls Upon Us." McGill does break out the speed-demon soloing for "He is Invisible;" backed by Stevens' tablas and Manring's low-end drone, it's practically a tribute to John McLaughlin's Shakti. Amazingly, at nearly two hours of improvisational composition, the album rarely becomes boring. The musicians' delight in exploring their tonal boundaries and experimental interplay comes through quite nicely, and the avoidance of simply burning up and down the fretboards keeps the band away from listener fatigue. Fusion is rarely as creative or compelling as it is on Controlled By Radar.
Review by Michael Toland
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