CD Review: Spastic Ink - Ink Compatible
Published July 20, 2006
With all compassion mired in the haze of a sinister technocracy, a noir is stipulated. A malign system, shadowed by despair, silhouetted by menace, reaching out and suffocating its encased proletariat. Providing a matte environment, chiseled by insulated wire, an electronic hum swarms and ingests all shades of liberty. The coils of mass production and the insensate scatter down like rain showers, osmotically instilling the mild strains of oppression into the individual psyche.
Such is the effect enkindled by the synthetic atonalities that introduce the predominant theme of Ink Compatible. The birth-whispers of a modem leak from the speakers, waltzing to the artificial hues of information technology. Scenes are set, moods are configured, effectuations are distilled, and balls are mobilized into the movement stance. This is the negated aura spun outward in a perpetual web, ensnaring all those bred with the temptation to motion towards that trite idea of ‘a closer look.’
Ink Compatible is the second album by Spastic Ink, a progressive metal band of US nascence, led by all-round genius and guitar virtuoso Ron Jarzombek. In fact it would be just to label this a solo-project, as Jarzombek, along with possessing a really cool surname, writes and orchestrates all the music. Ink Compatible is the 2004 follow-up to debut Ink Complete, released in 1997. The differences between the two are overt and obvious. The debut proves to be a rather simplistic and lackluster affair, with a tiny production and plain arrangements. But despite this, the potential for something far beyond it’s limits are noticeable, especially in songs such as the brilliant ‘To Counter and Groove in E Minor’, a song so pleasing to the ears as to almost redeem the tedium of the majority of the album.
Luckily Ink Compatible avoids the chasms it’s predecessor stumbled into. This album sounds huge; given the grand production job, it has depth and reverberates long into the abyss. It sounds like a professional recording, whereas the previous release sounded bare-bones and stripped-down.
The music, as is the reason why we’re here, is led by the guitar shred of Jarzombek. For those familiar with his fabulous tech-thrash band Watchtower and their two albums, it won’t come as a surprising wallop to learn that things here flow in a torrent of technical intricacies. With his homemade guitar in the classical position, Jarzombek imprints the proof of his wizardry and instrumental efficacy, and demonstrates that he is not only one of the best players in the metal arena, but that he is also one of the most creative and inventive players.
The tracks on here don’t just gallop through one virtuosic hoop after another. No, they demand attention, and capture it in a trap of prodigious and original compositions. Bit like a mousetrap, only with more scales.
The soundscape here makes use of odd-meters and a rapid oscillation of time signatures. Things are insanely technical, and with relentless intensity it is shot forward with nary a moment for reflection. This isn’t your usual neoclassical guitar-based album, Ink Compatible maneuvers along more like a shredding Mr. Bungle, including maintaining the comedic elements of that eccentric band. Songs like ‘Words for Nerds’ and ‘Melissa’s Friend’ are punctuated with soundclips of an assumed technophobe’s quandaries in using computer technology. There are also audio interpolations of what can only be described as a Dickensian nightmare involving the purchase of a computer - a sweet, young English accent requesting a number of technophile ideals, but the whole scene slicked with a disconcertingly subtle air of uneasiness. The penultimate track includes a wonderfully uncomfortable spoken section; suitably enigmatic words breathed by a creepy female voice. Interestingly enough, the album sleeve informs us that this mysterious voice is none other than that of Jarzombek’s wife, Jennifer.
- CD Review: Spastic Ink - Ink Compatible
- Published: July 20, 2006
- Type: Review
- Section: Music
- Filed Under: Music: Hard Rock, Music: Metal, Music: Progressive Rock, Music: Rock
- Writer: Aaron Fleming
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Comments on this articleComments
Are my eyes tricking me?? An actual review done of a brilliant metal fusion album that has been flying under the radar since its inception?? Excellent Review....
Though you should've also mentioned the pure brilliance of the other guest Musicians like Michael Manring(Windham Hill,Solo CDs,Attention Deficit) who is an absolute genius on Bass and, in my opinion, tops people like Victor Wooten. Also, Sean Malone on Bass, a key member of one of the most pioneering metal bands in the world...Cynic.Doug Keyser(Watchtower) on bass. Jens Johansson(Malmsteen's Rising Force,DIO)on Keys...
I mean this project was a studio musician's dream!! It just goes to show that Mr. Jarzombek is f*cking awesome to get all these people together. I recommend this CD to anyone who likes a "thinking man's" Metal!!
Again, Well Done, Mr. Fleming!!!
Good lord. At their website I was able to listen to Aquanet, The Mad Data Race, and That 178 Thing, which I guess refers to the part of the song that's in 17/8, and Multi-Masking. Wow.
Jarzombek is one of those guys that no one has ever heard of that could blow away 98 of the Rolling Stones' Top 100 guitarists. Maybe 100. I would have to look at the stupid list again.
Thanks for the lead, Aaron.
Thanks for the comments.
Guppus, indeed all the musicians who feature on the recording are of such high standards, it really doesn't lack in any instrumental area.
Duke, if my use of the English language can compete with Chuck Billy's Chuck Billys, then I must be doing something right!
Duane, oh definatly, Jarzombek could outplay all those Kirk Hammetts, Slashs and Pages with ease. He's one of many players to fall under the radar.
"Thinking man's metal" --- that's pretty good Guppus. I was gonna say that it's like speed metal mixed with a little Mahavishnu, which slammed into some Tool, which fell in a pool of King Crimson, but I wasn't sure that quite captured it.
I was looking around Jarzombek's website and noticed a picture of him standing with Allan Holdsworth, who I claim is the finest electric guitarist in the world, bar none (as far as I know). Holdsworth is holding a piece of paper, and Jarzombek is looking at it, and he has this puzzled look. The next shot is a closeup of the paper, which is filled with obscure musical notation on it. It's pretty funny actually.
Thanks Duane... But unfortunately it didn't originate from the lips of this MasterMind of Metal(lol)!! I stumbled onto this notion from the arena of bands like Watchtower,Ironchrist,DT.
Anyways, that's why I made a stink about the guest musicians because Michael Manring probably inspired half of these people like he did me with his 1991 release "Thonk" which was fusion at it's best to me(I still get blown away to this day). Ofcourse, with releases at that time from Atheist and Cynic('93), It was bound to happen. Fusing jazz & metal just gives me a woody!!
Still... Mr. Jarzombek is F*cking amazing and deserves all the credit in the world especially for playing with Watchtower!!
*BTW* "Ink Compatible" is still available for purchase on his website($15 + Shipping) so don't get hustled into buying an over-priced CD on Half.com or Amazon(Sorry Eric).
*opps* Again... Great Review,Mr. Fleming
I have been aware of Manring, ever since my brother, who plays bass, made me listen to bits of Thonk, of copy of which I now have.
I will have to check out Watchtower.
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sweet zeus! could it be that via those intoxicating words of yours, Sir Fleming, you have led me, me and none other by god, to salivate at the thought of hearing an instrumental metal work, a genre which, whilst i admire and respect, at least insofar as it inspires prose such as this from your brilliant self, nonetheless rarely greet with much excitement? me, who knows nothing much of anything with regards the ins and outs of a guitar work-out, all sortsa giddy at the notion of hearing this record... a testament (chuck billy's gonads are reportedly gargantuan, i feel i must add) to your mastery o' the english language. marvellous.