Spaced Out: Spaced Out

John W. Patterson

Recent articles (186 total)

Published: November 1, 2001

If you enjoy excessive loads of guitar doing plenty of fusion-based rocking out — then you will dig this Canadian fusion-driven group’s debut release. Bassist Antoine Fafard composes and arranges all the material and his bass work is pro all the way around. There is speed, unison line flurries, crunch, effective use of polyrhythms, and assorted ear-candy surprises.

Soloing is tight, expressive in a novel way, leaning towards instrumental rock and then back to jazzy fusion in a balanced way. Too many times groups attempt fusion but are stuck in progressive rock ruts. Spaced Out avoids this pitfall. They maintain this reviewer’s focus better than say, uh, that Dream “Cinema” outfit. Know what I mean?

Spaced Out pulls off plenty of great fusion acrobatics with two excellent guitarists, a super bassist, killer drums, with very creative synth programming and nice keys. In fact, bassist Fafard is as good as Stu Hamm. Take my word or just listen to the song “Glassophere”. Great debut!

Cyberhome: http://www.unicornrecords.com/spacedout

Record Label: Unicorn Records
Style: Fusion/Progressive Rock