"Taking celestial cues from Medeski Martin & Wood and Rjd2, the
Chattanooga-based quartet makes music with texture. Like twisting a
kaleidoscope, it flowers and bleeds and collapses again. This is a band without
a singer, but you won't likely notice because the drums, keyboard, guitar and
bass conflate to implore and wail and scat like some mastermind lyricist.
Doubling as technical gurus, these four young men have tinkered with knobs and
switches, strings and keys, long enough to create a sound that's almost a
science." --- Metropulse, Knoxville , TN
The influence
of MMW can still be felt heavily, but they no longer sound like MMW. The
influence of turntablists like Rjd2 and Shadow is also evident throughout
Kinetic Transfer. Arrangements are well conceived and executed. Jamming
has been replaced with complex songwriting. They establish multiple ideas
early in a song, then abandon, tweak and integrate those ideas as the
song progresses. Infradig is moving in a very interesting direction. Kinetic
Transfer is definitely the best work yet from Chattanooga-based Infradig,
and will quite possibly be the album that results in a label deal for
band.
--Joshua Daniels NPR Music 88/WUTC-FM, July 2003
Could it be that
this is that rare good concept album?...all four of the musicians in
this band display themselves as technically wise and creative players.
The conglomerate is an eerie album with a coherent groove that runs
above, below, around, and through all 7 tracks.
--- Aaron Mendlesohn, Southeast Performer Magazine, September, 2003
Based in Chattanooga,
TN, Infradig taps into a sublime jazz mine
excavated by Medeski, Martin, and Wood. Honing their chops with constant
gigs, the band has kick-started their own evolution. Kinetic Transfer
boasts better production and a more mature collection of songs than
the first album. Deep and primal, Infradig's loose grooves provoke both
parts of your brain.
--Bryan Rodgers, Homegrown Music Network, July 2003
Kinetic Transfer
has the one thing missing from so much instrumental jam music these
days: feeling. Too often, these bands adhere so closely to pure turntablism
they end up sounding like machines, but Infradig add some passion to
the breakneck beats and cyclic melodies.
--Brian Gearing, Glide Magazine, October 2003
Infradig has maintained
a near-constant presence on the club scene for about five years. The
band?s sonic evolution, built from a bedrock pastiche of jazz, funk,
and world beat, is the happy result of a combination of melodic intuition
and a solid understanding of the power of the almighty groove. The Infradig
sound is a danceable, organic blend built on group improvisation. Infradig
Ensemble takes its rightful place alongside such kindred spirits as
Charlie Hunter, Ulu, and Medeski,
Martin, and Wood.
--Chris Zelk, Chattanooga Times Free Press
Infradig...it's
the promise of music that is unlike anything you?ve heard anywhere before,
and how many bands can you say that about? The Dig's music has the melodic
complexity of jazz with a compelling techno driven pulse and a raw (George,
not Bill Clinton-esque funkiness.
--Richard Winham, music director, NPRmusic 88.1, Chattanooga, TN
I need to say that
I was totally unfamiliar with this band before getting this disc in
the mail. To say now that I have a new favorite band is not straying
very far from the mark, these guys are fantastic...Experimental jazz/funk
is one thing, but to hear it done with such class and excellence is
a joy to this old DJ's ears. I can'y wait to turn people on to these
guys. So far I know at least one of my top ten albums for 2003.
--Chris MacIntosh, The Phantom Tollbooth and program director, 88.1fm
WCWP, Woodmere, NY, March , 2003
It's easy to get
lost in the mire that is modern improvisational music, just as Infradig
once did. Back in 1998, the Chattanooga, Tennessee quartet quickly took
to the populated course of jam-driven funk and jazz and lost their way,
or so they claim. But upon the release of their newest album, Kinetic
Transfer, the band acknowledged that they had found their way into their
own musical world; one that swirls with the true spirit of funk while
grabbing at the progressive approach of electronic music. What they
have truly done is taken those funk and jazz influences that they coveted
in the early days, and applied an electronic sensibility. In
that realm of music where DJs spin ambient textures of sound, musical
foundations are created, built upon, and torn apart. Random noises appear,
disappear, then reappear within the swirling musical structure where
popping breakbeats often control the ebb and flow of the music, propelling
even the simplest of melodies in both tempo and time. On Kinetic Transfer,
drummer Josh Green, guitarist Andrew Hobbs, bassist
Dave Kauffman, and keyboardist Carl Cadwell have concentrated on the
element of integration. Over the course of the album, they play across
a suspended tightwire of sound, walking over a flurry of atmospheres
from beatbox breaks to groove-laden glides. Their compositions are ultimately
controlled by Green, whose smooth transitions from double-time drumming
to sparse back beats bring the instrumental compositions to pinnacles,
before rooting them back to their base formations. The sonic textures
on Kinetic Transfer push forward with a sense of ease, yet the layers
of
sound are deep, risky, and propelled by cyclical reinvention with each
track. Kinetic Transfer flows with superior ease, yet each song differs
from the next, uncovering a sense of one-upmanship. "Maroon Mood"
opens up the disc with a thick bass thump that is layered with rippling
guitar and topped with an infectious organ melody. Once all of the pieces
are interlocked, the instrumentation quickly dives into a sonic maelstrom
before pulling back into the tune's glove-tight groove. "The Dare"
soars with an ambient pulse set above the Green's rapid-fire
drumming, and he powers through segments while the instrumentation builds
toward a climax, laying out a wiry guitar theme that appears, then disappears
into the shady back beat where a bass and drum thump slide below crying
guitar and a well-orchestrated keyboard theme. Before serving up the
final tune of the album, Infradig gives a nod to their funk roots with
"Groove vs. The Ill," a bouncing, bottom-dropping romp that
owes as much to a New Orleans juke joint as a 21st century dancehall.
But, despite its sound, the musicians convincingly utilize
their newfound tools and create a separate voice for each instrument
and player. They stack their fills on top of one other riff by riff,
sewing together a layered tapestry of sound that is capable of forging
into unknown territory with the slightest alteration of melody. Infradig
has definitely made a statement with Kinetic Transfer. While they haven't
strayed too far form their early funk/jazz course, they have opened
their minds to the methodology that electronic pioneers continue to
master. In doing so, their flow can leap and dip at a minute's notice,
and the atmospheres they produce - whether jazz influenced or filled
with
electronic dissonance - are many. Their thick sounds completely soak
through these seven tracks, taking the listener on a multifaceted, ride
in just over 35 minutes.---- 2003-10-29
--- from JAMBANDS.com