The Mulberry’s opener gets weird very soon into the first jam. At about 3:30 Magner departs from the standard organ sound to more electronic synths. A couple minutes later Barber becomes a more dominant presence in the jam, and the two build on a full-band experimental trance theme. Magner returns to the organs shortly after the nine minute mark, and the jam appears to be heading to familiar territory (9:45 could convincingly be called a fakeout), before breaking down and heading into ambient, experimental territory. Sammy moves the jam from this unstructured space through a trance passage and finally into jungle as the band lands in a Spaga ending. The Waves jam begins extremely mellow; it’s definitely still trance, as opposed to the dub style of many late 99 Waves jams, but it’s considerably more relaxed than usual. The jam moves casually through its theme, building steadily to a crescendo around the 9-10 minute mark, but even this crescendo is nowhere near the intensity of a Waves peak. After this the theme breaks down. Sammy shifts from trance to what is basically a hip-hop style beat, and the jam stays in this mellow territory for a few minutes. Around the 12 minute mark, Sammy begins to play some syncopated fills, and shortly afterwards begins to increase the tempo noticeably. Magner gradually makes the shift from the trance synths to the organ, and he soon signals the return to Mulberry’s Dream. The second jam in Mulberry’s starts off standard but breaks down very quickly to the point where Sammy is the only real presence. Despite its length, this jam is basically just a longer version of a standard Mulberry’s jam, but there are some moments of greatness, especially from Barber towards the end. I don’t know if it’s because I’m burned out on the concept or if it was a weaker version, but the Svenghali with Mauricio did nothing for me. After Svenghali, the band brings up the guest bassist who would come the closest to replacing Brownstein: Jordan Crisman, who joins the band here for a powerful, if straightforward, rendition of Boop. The first jam is a perfunctory rager, but the second gets out there a little bit, with a cool trancey jam developing out of the funk section. An auspicious, if not particularly momentous, first performance from Crisman.
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| The man who almost replaced Marc Brownstein: Jordan Crisman (discobiscuits.net) |
Rhyme gets off to a shaky start, but after the intro the composition is solid. The jam is uplifting jungle that is very in the vein of a Svenghali, and almost makes up for the disappointing lack of drumming on the Svenghali. The Barber-led theme breaks down around the nine minute mark and Magner leads the band into the ending. Jordan comes back on stage to help the band tackle Magner’s jazz classic Smoothie King. Although it’s noted as split, my first thought hearing it was that it was played in full and outro’d. The jam out of Smoothie King is very mellow without much structure, especially from Sammy who does not hold the others to a regular beat. It sounds a lot like a Hope intro in the beginning stages, but by 7:30 or so it begins to develop some structure from Sammy, taking on a darker tone. It loses focus but regains it quickly, and around 8:30-9:30 it sounds like a demented march towards I-Man. However, the jam breaks down and kind of limps into I-Man (Jordan is still not fully comfortable playing with the other three, I suppose). The middle jam in I-Man is short and tense, leaving plenty of time for the main jam. The main jam is completely standard with the small exception that the ending isn’t played; instead, the band breaks down and builds up a short jazzy jam back into the “ending” of Smoothie King. Some excellent setlist construction, even though nothing in the segment really grabbed me. The Spaga jam features Barber on bass, which is one of my least favorite Triscuits configurations. It works okay here, about as well as we could hope, as the dark jungle style of a Spaga jam doesn’t sound nearly as sparse without guitar as, say, a Very Moon funk or Jigsaw dub jam. The jam never really does anything for me, and breaks down into a Floes intro. The Floes jam is very cool and uplifting, and features a jam on the Hope middle progression prior to the ending. Crisman returns (again) for Jigsaw Earth. The first jam in Jigsaw is short, as per usual, but gets unusually dark and brooding, especially immediately before the chase riff. The jam in between chase riffs is even shorter! As was usually the case in this era, the main jam is the final dub jam. It has some cool moments but doesn’t really get anywhere for my tastes. Jigsaw Earth had a long way to go before it would be the jam juggernaut that it was in the fall. Helicopters follows and, even though it is not annotated as such on Archive, features Crisman on bass and Mauricio on the 505. This is a rare jam, in that it features Mauricio on percussion while Sammy is also on the drums, which really gives us the best of both worlds: the energy of a typical Biscuits jam, with the experimental/atmospheric quality of a typical Mauricio jam. It’s easily the best jam of the set, with Magner in particular adapting to the unique atmosphere of the double percussionists. He utilizes the rabbit hole synths in the early part of the jam, and the cascading waves in the later part as it begins to break down around the nine minute mark. Here Mauricio presumably leaves the stage, and the rest of the band build up to an excellent Waves peak.
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| Magner and Crisman (discobiscuits.net) |
After the very solid 5/13, I was a little disappointed with this show. Only two more shows (both one setters) before we get to 6/27 and Jordan Crisman as the full-time bassist. Can’t say I’m gonna miss this haphazard format of guest bassists and Mauricio jams, but in the meantime, here are the highlights:
Highlights:
Mulberry’s Dream > Spaga
The second Mulberry’s Dream of the year. Like 4/22/00, it’s split-up and segued out of the first jam. Like 4/22/00, it’s jammed into Spaga. Like 4/22/00, it’s a monster. The jam moves through multiple distinct phases of trance before settling into jungle in the transition into Spaga.
Above the Waves > Mulberry’s Dream
A distinctly mellow Waves trance theme makes up the first half, and some spectacular work from Sammy characterizes the second half. After a crescendo and breakdown, Sammy lays the groundwork for some fun hip-hop jamming that breaks down into some jungle fills before returning to Mulberry’s.
Unspoken Rhyme
It’s not anything too out of the ordinary, but it’s a fun, uplifting jungle jam with Sammy on the kit—exactly what I’ve been missing, and craving, in the Mauricio Svenghalis.
Helicopters > Above the Waves
After a pretty ho-hum second set, the Helicopters > Above the Waves segment gives a much needed jolt of energy. Featuring the core three plus Mauricio on 505 and Crisman on bass, this jam is both thematic and energetic. Magner dominates the first theme, and then Barber builds the jam to an excellent peak.
Stray Observations:
After the Mulberry’s ending, Barber refers to the songs played earlier in the set, including Spaga. He refers to Magner as the bass player, and it seems to throw him off. It made me very sad.
Prior to Svenghali, Barber tells the crowd that the Mauricio jams are mellow and relaxing.
According to Barber, Smoothie King was a fan request.
This is the first and only Smoothie King to be either split up or jammed out of.
There are distinct Hope teases in the Floes jam, in addition to the vaguely Hope-esque I-man intro jam. Hope would not be debuted for another three months.
I believe this is the first Jigsaw with the chase riff played twice in a row, a feature that would eventually become commonplace in the song.
—Andy
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