Turbula
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Music

Infectious, Big Easy grooves

Reviewed September 2005

Outre Mer
Outre Mer
By Garage a Trois

Telarc Records: 2005

To hear sound clips or learn more about this release, Turbula recommends viewing its Amazon.com entry.

Garage a Trois' sound delves deeply into funk, with bass lines often wrapped in a "Satisfaction" (by the Rolling Stones) fuzz, the percussion big and declarative. The group, a quartet – vibes/percussion, drums, saxophone and eight-string guitar – formed in New Orleans in 1999, right after Mardi Gras, and they bring an always infectious Big Easy groove to the proceedings on "Outre Mer," with a juiced-up and densely polyrhythmic attack. It a muscular – almost steroidally so at times – sound that sets up shivers vibrations in the marrow in your bones and begs you to get up and dance.

The music is, ostensibly, a soundtrack to an as-yet-unfilmed movie about a forty-five inch tall Frenchman who sires a normal-sized son who hooks up with P.T. Barnum's circus as "The World's Tallest Dwarf." An interesting concept, perhaps; though its execution as a movie sounds unlikely. But no matter, the "soundtrack" is marvelous, entrancing, with a get-under-your-skin quality to it. The combination of percussion/vibes with the beefy bass, funky guitar and wailing saxophone has an infectious quality. The opener/title track pounds to life on a full forward momentum, with muscular drumming and vibes. Intense, and that's a big part of the appeal, with "Circus" featuring the sax screaming like an elephant's call, over romping percussion, while "The Dream" has a lilting, trance-like quality.

A good-time, straight-through captivating sound.

Review by Dan McClenaghan. Dan is a writer living in Oceanside, Calif. Read his biography on his AllAboutJazz.com page.



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