Featuring Craig Blundell, Adam Holzman and Nick Beggs, Trifecta is a special project that draws on the talents of these three musicians to deliver an impressive mix of jazz rock fusion and progressive flights of fancy or, as Nick puts it: “Fission! It’s like Fusion but less efficient and more dangerous… with fall out.” Mostly instrumental (with the exception of Pavlov’s Dog Killed Schrodinger’s Cat), the album was recorded in the three members’ home studios, allowing them to bring their individual production quirks to the table before Adam Holzman took responsibility for the final mix. The band then passed the album off to veteran mastering engineer Andy VanDette (David Bowie, Porcupine Tree, Beastie Boys) for the final sonic flourish.
The album opens on a whimsical note with Clean Up on Aisle Five. A gloriously over-the-top sonic stew of throbbing bass, nimble percussion, and fleet-fingered keyboard, one can only wonder if the titular clean up was not rendered necessary by the calisthenics in which the band engage. Having wisely kept the opening number short, the band adopt a similarly light-hearted approach (albeit rather less technical than its forebear) on Check Engine Light. What is remarkable about the track is the cohesion the band have achieved, despite being separated by various lockdowns. Listen without foreknowledge of how the record was made and you’d swear it was the work of the musicians feeding off of each other’s energy. The short Proto Molecule, with its dizzying percussion, nods in the direction of the seventies, with its funky underpinning and dated synth patches. It gives way, with barely a breath, to the harder-edged jazz-funk of Auntie, a stabbing, wilful beast built around a visceral bassline that tenderly pulverises the audience. The first act concludes with the gorgeously spacey Venn Diagram, all twisty percussion and sci-fi sound effects.
Namechecking King Crimson (still proud owners of one of the scariest back catalogues in rock), The Enigma of Mr Fripp is a stair-stepping piece that seems to tap dance around the listener. It is thoroughly immense, and it is a relief when the band offer up the more sedate Sally-Doo-Dally, a calmer piece with an addictive beat. The salacious curtain twitching of Have You Seen What the Neighbours Are Doing? Is the sound of Hitchcock-esque paranoia filtered through Bitches Brew, while The Mute Gospel is rather more relaxed, although the awkward timing of the piece means that it lurches forward, despite the smooth tones employed on the instrumentation. A philosophical battle rages on the next track. Pavlov’s Dog Killed Schrodinger’s Cat (feat. Russell Holzman), which sees Trifecta offer up the album’s sole vocal piece. Gently psychedelic, it casts a nod towards the likes of Caravan, and it sits perfectly at the heart of the record, making you wish they’d offer a few more numbers in this vein.
The Album’s third act opens with Voyage of Discovery, a wonderfully open piece that draws the listener along with it. The slithery Nightmare in Shining Armor is a mercifully brief melange of squelchy synth and hyperactive bass. A personal favourite, Dry Martini makes fantastic use of subtly evolving synths, evoking an atmosphere not dissimilar to Porcupine Tree’s instrumental works. With the album approaching its end, a surprisingly rocky Lie 2 Me and Take My Money maintains the Porcupine Tree vibe, with its distorted bassline and taut beat. While more straightforward than much of the album, it still offers a variety of interesting digressions, not least in the call and response between guitar and synth, which sounds like thew inside of Joe Satriani’s head finally spilled out onto the sidewalk. The album concludes with the smooth Hold It Like That, a track that harks back to the soundtrack work of Mancini, perfectly capping off the album and leaving you very much wanting more.
An original and enticing release, the strength of Fragments lies in the way that the band have sequenced the record to flow like a live set. It gives the record real dynamic, and it makes for fantastic experience. Equally impressive is the interplay between musicians who, for all the world, sound like they were standing next to one another when the album was recorded – no mean feat, no matter how much technology can mitigate the impact of distance, and the clearest evidence of the remarkable talent that lies at the heart of this release. Consistently surprising and thoroughly enjoyable, Fragments is well worth exploring. 9/10
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