From: gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz (Nathan Torkington)
Subject: Re: Ufo Tofu -- Bela Fleck & The Flecktones
Organization: Contract to CSC, Victoria Uni, Wellington, New Zealand
Date: Fri, 4 Sep 1992 07:23:48 GMT
Distribution: rec.music.bluenote

Here's a quick review I made of the CD (I just bought it from a small
shop which seems to specialise in imported country and bluegrass
music).

--begin
I'm an unashamed Bela Fleck fan, although his later stuff has proved
harder for me to get into than I'd have liked.  This is a review of
his latest CD, with the Flecktones, called "Ufo Tofu".

For those who don't know, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones play jazz.
They have percussion (dr*ms :-) and harmonica, keyboards ... all the
non-trad stuff that most bgrass-lers are allergic to.  For all that,
though, they are enormously talented musicians, and produce some
mind-boggling music.

This CD is definitely more "commercial" than the other two (eponymous
and "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo").  The music seems overall more
melody-oriented than most of the tracks on FOTCH, and contains less of
a variety of emotions in the music.  The titles are still as crazy as
ever, though ("UFO Tofu", "Sex in a Pan", "Life without Elvis",
"The Yee-Haw Factor").

I'll run through the tracks in order, giving comments about each.  The
first on the CD is "The West County".  This didn't grab me very much,
but the next cuts make up for it!

Next is "Sex in a Pan", a James-Brown style tune which is absolutely
wonderful.  The bass really carries this track (which is written by
the bassist, incidentally) and is a lot of fun to listen to.  I can
imagine this track being very popular (possibly because of the
relative absence of the banjo, which would be sad).

Third on the album is "Nemo's Dream", which has a catchy keyboard
"tinkle" underneath the other instruments.  It is quite like some of
the tunes on the FOTCH CD ("Star of the County Down", "Flying Saucer
Dudes" and "Hole in the Wall" probably are closest) and is pleasant
to listen to.

Fourth is "Bonnie and Slyde", written by Bela for a slide that Bonnie
Raitt gave him.  It is very nice, with a slow country beat underneath.
It is quite close to the slower tracks in the previous albums ("Sunset
Road" and "Flight of the Cosmic Hippo") but isn't as slow.  I liked
this a lot (partly because of the music, and partly 'cause I know how
hard it is to play slide banjo :-).

"Scuttlebutt" is an electric banjo track.  Not my favourite, because
the banjo starts sounding like a country guitar in the middle ("bring
back distortion, Bela, we want distortion!" :-).

"UFO TOFU", the palindromic title piece, is amazing.  This is a
distinctive Flecktones piece because it is so unlike anything that
anyone else produces.  It is very fast, very very melodic, and almost
fugal in parts.  Without doubt, an absolutely amazing tune.

"Magic Fingers", the seventh track, is a medium-tempo blues tune.
This is one of the styles of banjo that I think Bela excels at.  He
can play blazing sparkling flurries, or prod your heart with a
slow-tempo melody with equal ease.  I hope he continues to write more
like this.  This is my favourite track.

"True North" is so named because (the liner notes inform me) the only
way they could get Victor's bass to stop buzzing was to have him
facing true north.  Hmm, go figure :)  Well, it is very pretty.  It
starts with a beautiful wind melody.  It rapidly turns into an almost
"Star of The County Down" style tune with melody-centred banjo leads.
It sounds rather Scottish in style.

Track nine, "Life without Elvis" is a rather unmelodic jazz piece.  It
is similar in key and style to "Blu-Bop".  It is "out" but lots of fun
for people who like that kind of thing.

"Seresta" was written by the keyboard/mouth-harpist and is rather
Latin.  Nice muzak but not overly thrilling.  The first banjo solo is
gorgeous though - it shows what *real* Latin solos sound like.  Beats
Tony Furtado in terms of control of style, but is not as racey as
Furtado's "Daddio".

"The Yee-Haw Factor" is dedicated to "friends and fans of New Grass
Revival with great appreciation and respect for bluegrass music and
musicians".  I think they said the last bit to cover themselves
against people getting angered by the title :-).  It's not wholly
bluegrass but Bela definitely plays a bluegrass banjo in his last solo
(and boy does he play it fast or *what*?).  The track isn't something
that NGR would have come up with, but it definitely smells of
bluegrass banjo (hear the forward rolls folks! :-).

The final track, "After the Storm" is a contemplative, quiet track.
It sounds like it is modelled after "Sunset Road" - it has the same
mellow sound.  While I don't think it as good as SR, I still think it
is a soothing way to end the CD.

In summary, I give it 8/10.  Not absolutely excellent but still better
than the pap I could have bought for my $40.

For those that want to order:
	"Ufo Tofu" (Bela Fleck and the Flecktones)
	Warner Brothers, 0 9362-45016-2 6

(and their two earlier releases)
	"Flight of the Cosmic Hippo"
	Warner Brothers, 0 7599-26562-2 1

	(Eponymous)
	Warner Brothers, 0 7599-26124-2 6

Nat.
(gnat@kauri.vuw.ac.nz -- Nathan Torkington -- is the electronic text and
 MS-DOS archivist for the Victoria University of Wellington, New Zealand)
Newsgroups: rec.music.bluenote