Reviews

These compositions are dazzling and engaging. Their ability to immediately put the listener at ease is eminent. While steeped in Canterbury roots, this music is very straight-ahead jazz, merging old school traditions with modern delivery. The result is mesmerizing and rewarding, with wide appeal.

Sonic Curiosity

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A lot of heavy names have passed through the ranks of In Cahoots - Richard Sinclair, Elton Dean, Pip Pyle and Hugh Hopper, to name but a few. And that's not to neglect the man whose name prefaces In Cahoots these days, Phil Miller, who first came to prominence as part of the Canterbury scene waaay back, when he did a stint in Matching Mole, before heading off to Hatfield and the North and then National Health before the emergence of In Cahoots back in 1982.
I'll pause for breath to let you assimiliate your insignificance in the grand musical scheme of things.
Now with a fresh brass duo, this release also sees the return of some weel kent faces with Annie Whitehead, Didier Malherbe, Dave Stewart, Barbara Gaskin and one time Caravaneers Doug Boyle and Richard Sinclair all along for the ride alongside regulars Fred Baker, Pete Lemer and Mark Fletcher.
Seven of the nine compositions are Miller tracks, with Fred Baker and Pete Lemer getting a track apiece, but the overall feel is that of a band in unison, rather than an auteur leading his charges, with plenty of room left for the various brass combinations to blow their way through the music as well as some spiky keyboard work from Pete Lemer.
The best of the bunch is the punchy 'Flashpoint' which veers all over the place rhythmically but which remains manically compelling and Fred Bakers ballad, 'End Of The Line' which, over 11 minutes, heads off into a near ambient byway, augmented by Gong fella Didier Malherbe and some beautiful guitar lines from Miller.
An album that transmits more with each repeat play, this is a keeper.

The band is: Phil Miller (from Matching Mole, Hatfield & the North, and National Health) on guitar and synth guitar, Pete Lemer on keyboards, Fred Baker on bass, Mark Fletcher on drums, Simon Picard on saxophone, Simon Finch on trumpet and flugelhorn, Annie Whitehead on trombone, Didier Malherbe (from Gong) on saxophone, flute, doudouk and ocarina, Doug Boyle on guitar, Dave Stewart (from Egg, Hatfield & the North, and National Health) on tuned percussion, Barbara Gaskin on vocals, and Richard Sinclair (from Caravan) on bass.
With a line-up of seasoned pros like the above, one must expect the music is going to be excruciatingly tight and slippery slick. It is.
The horns waft and sway with amiable emotion. Maintaining a very jazzy disposition, the horn section delivers tasty riffs with delightful expertise. Comfortable melodies are imbued with molten passion. The saxophones wail with cheerful melancholy. The trumpet warbles with earnest fervor.
Enchanting riffs spill from the guitar with glorious agility. Each note is meticulously placed to elevate the entire instrumental gestalt. And when the guitar gets the chance to elbow its way into the spotlight, the glory becomes ecstatic and amazing.
The keyboards provide delicate embellishment to the melodies with often dramatic sweeps. Nimble-fingered chords slide into wondrous melodies that serve to connect the other instruments' riffs.
The percussion is skillful and knows exactly how to drive from a submerged vantage. Never too strong, never too elusive, the rhythms fit perfectly between the rest of the notes.
The basslines are intricate, fluid, and lend particular nectar to the tunes.
These compositions are dazzling and engaging. Their ability to immediately put the listener at ease is eminent. While steeped in Canterbury roots, this music is very straight-ahead jazz, merging old school traditions with modern delivery. The result is mesmerizing and rewarding, with wide appeal.

Maybe it’s not fair to refer to guitarist Phil Miller's times as a member of British bands Delivery, Matching Mole and Hatfield & The North as that was all some decades ago. But the fact of the matter is that the often very straightforward nature of the music on this one loses out in comparison with those names. Whereas once the music was alive with quirks and all, the diffidence that could be mustered when playing in a time signature of say, 7/4, very little of that kind of thing seems to ruffle the surface of the polite fusion on offer here.
This is not however to suggest that the music doesn't have its moments. The line of Miller's “Press Find Enter” has a quality that embraces both light and shade, and trombonist Annie Whitehead's solo seems to tease that quality out with equal measures of both joy and trenchant wit.
The broken time of “5s & 7s” has a similar stamp to it and the enhancements of Barbara Gaskin's minimal wordless vocal contribution and alto sax played presumably by Didier Malherbe lift it out of the realm of the polite and make it memorable.
“Orinaca” also has an individual air about it, not least as a result of Malherbe's work on ocarina. Keyboard player Pete Lemer's deft touch colors the line nicely and the result would fit nicely particularly within the Hatfields context.
Miller has always been a guitarist of distinction, and it's thus sad to relate that there are times here when it's like he's absent from his own disc. On the Weather Report-like “Flashpoint,” bass player Fred Baker gets his turn in solo and underscores that comparison with a display of Pastorius-like dexterity. For all of Baker’s formidable technique the listener might just be left wondering what Miller would have made of the opportunity had he taken it himself.
On the lengthy “End Of The Line,” Miller does come out of the ensemble for one and it's like the sun coming out on an otherwise cloudy day. All the hallmarks of his work are still in place—his idiosyncratic phrasing, his sense of economy, before the demands of a fusion idiom in which technical precision and 'correct' virtuosity are of overriding importance seem to regain the upper hand.
Overall, the old one about those who like this sort of thing really liking this sort of thing applies here.

Phil's marvelous little ensemble In Cahoots, who have been kicking around in various incarnations since 1981, are joined here by a brass section consisting of Annie Whitehead (tb), Simon Picard (ts), Didier Malherbe (ss) and Simon Finch (tp). The extra calories make Phil's always-delightful compositions really shine, and the ensemble feels really cohesive and muscular.
I must make special mention of the drumming. Mark Fletcher is proving himself to be one of the most tasteful drummers on the planet, with ideal percussion here. He supports the ensemble tangibly, but never calls attention to himself. His restrained use of cymbals and paradiddles are a lesson in effective drumming all by themselves. Wow.
Freddie Baker is always astounding, here no exception.
Of Phil's more than a dozen albums this is definitely my new favorite!

Whatever you might make of the Canterbury scene these days, it's not the same anymore, there's not much progressiveness in it now, which is not to say it's worse than it was before - but Phil Miller's band were latecomers anyway. With a new album to mark the group's 25th year in the business, they bring on the top-notch fusion, the title track wrapping round the listener's ears like a cosy pillow to lay a head on and rest yet not sleep, only drift away. Save for brooding "Crackpot", the main man tends to keep behind his reeds-blowing cohorts - veterans such as Didier Malherbe and Annie Whitehead as well as Simons Finch and Picard - for most of the time, and when he sends a tune to wallow amidst the waves of Fred Baker's bass he also sends the shivers down the spine. Thus, the elegy that's "End Of The Line" descends as a delicately electrifying sensation where Pete Lemer's piano sings so poignant. It's clearly the effortless endeavour for the players, and all the better for it, so it's tempting to rush headlong into the breezy romp of "5s & 7s" and do the groovy African walk in "Orinaca". So whatever the conspiracy is the secret is not advised to be kept.

Miller first came to note in Robert Wyatt's post Soft-Machine band, Matching Mole. Since then he's built a great catalogue of tunes, particularly with his "In Cahoots" band, which has released eight albums since 1985. "Conspiracy Theories" is extremely melodic, gentle music without being muzak-y in the slightest way. The Canterbury sound always embraced melody, and this album is the result of decades of playing, listening and composing. No doubt this is a fusion release, but in the best sense, and if all fusion had followed such magnificent form the genre would be less panned by many a listener an critic. The pieces on this CD show some incredibly tasteful, lovely playing over thoughtful and unhurried music from musicians who know how to lay back and say what's on their mind at their own pace.

Guitarist Phil Miller’s In Cahoots have been recording in one form or another since their debut album in 1985. This latest offering features two versions of the London-based band, a quintet with Pete Lemer on piano, Fred Baker on bass and Pip Pyle on drums, augmented by special guest Doug Boyle on guitar, and a sextet with Elton Dean on alto sax and saxello and Jim Dvorak on trumpet added to the basic quartet. The project is built around a half-dozen recent compositions which Miller felt reflected a strong feeling or influence from the blues, plus a short piano piece by Pete Lemer entitled ‘Phrygian Intro’, which precedes Miller’s ‘Phrygian Blues’. The music has a flowing, energised jazz-rock feel, both in the inventive soloing and in the cohesive, often quite intricate ensemble playing, and goes well beyond a series of standard-issue blues workouts. Out of the Blue is available directly from the artist at Crescent Discs, 29a Colvestone Crescent, London E8 2LG (cost is £12, which includes postage).

Before Hatfield and the North and his stint with Matching Mole, Phil Miller played guitar with Delivery, who started as a blues outfit. Other members included Miller’s brother Steve on keyboards, drummer Pyle and saxophonist Lol Coxhill, a mixture guaranteed to burst the banks of any format. On out of the blue, the guitarist returns to his blues roots with quartet and sextet versions of In Cahoots. Pyle whose résumé includes Stan Webb’s Chicken Shack and Daevid Allen’s Gong, is again on drums, with Fred Baker on bass, Pete Lemer on keyboards and, on most tracks, trumpeter Jim Dvorak and saxophonist Elton Dean. Of course , the intervening years of navigating the labyrinthine contours of rock at its most complex act as a filter for Miller’s early enthusiasm, yet this refined, blues based music offers a concentrated view of his considerable strengths. His playing is melodic without a hint of banality, never histrionic or unnecessarily fussy. Whether surging or teetering forwards, his solos are always heading somewhere specific. New listeners can start their voyage of discovery here. Long-term fellow travelers will have their expectations amply met.

"In certain areas fairly intricate and complex, but at the same time having an overall simplicity," writes guitarist extraordinaire Phil Miller in the sleeve notes to this latest In Cahoots release. Phil also traces the roots of this album to the 'Parallel' sextet release 4 years before and to the re-issue of the blues based Delivery album 'A Fool’s Meeting' originally recorded in 1968. Hence the title 'Out of the Blue' so that "people can hear what the passage of time has brought to my music." That’s enough talk of the writing though - what of the music? Well, it's dazzling from the opening bars of the superb bluesy 9 minute opener 'Early Days' to the jazzy 1 3 minute closer 'Slime Divas, both per-formed by the sextet version of In Ca-hoots. That is Miller accompanied by Pete Lemer on keyboards, Elton Dean on sax, Jim Dvorak on trumpet and a rhythm section of Fred Baker and Pip Pyle (More restrained than I remember him playing live but always one of the best drummers!) On ‘Early Days’ Miller indulges him-self alongside apposite brass interventions with some excellent soloing - and why not? - but still leaves time for some telepathic piano from Lemer. ‘No More Mr Nice Guy’ features great solos by Baker on fretless bass, Dean and Lemer on piano and some memorable-able guitar phrases by Miller, showing that he has lost none of his dexterity and invention over the years. Next we come to ‘Delta Borderline’ performed by the quartet (No brass) this is a number more rooted in the rock side of blues, strangely saturnine and vivacious at the same time with a killer bass line and some great pyrotechnics from the guitar synth of Miller and additional guitar by Doug Boyle. A felicitous and adroit piano solo from Lemer is the icing on the cake. This is one of the finest pieces of music I have heard for a long time and Pip Pyle is at his very best adding some stunning percussion as the music nears its climax. Phew - it's time for a breather and the 2 minute solo acoustic piano intro to 'Phrygian Blues' is very necessary at this stage while I cool down. The substantive piece 1-9 led by Elton Dean's sax with a soul-stirring brass duet and solos from Dvorak and Dean that are positively daedalian! (A great duet and trumpet solo can also he heard on 'Slime Divas') It's back to the quartet with guest guitarist Boyle for ‘Open Seat’, another sparkling fluid lead line from Miller and a brilliant bass solo (Are those harmonics I hear in there?) For those unfamiliar with Miller's history he was in Delivery, Matching Mole, Hatfield and the North and National Health. I was once privileged enough to see Miller and Pyle play live in the Hatfield’s, an experience I will never forget. This brilliant recording even proves Einstein's theory of relativity. How can In Cahoots make an hour of music go so fast?! A wonderfully absorbing release, this exhilarating music is positively addictive! (It's never been far away from my CD player.) An essential purchase for all lovers of progressive jazz and blues based music.