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Liquid Tension Experiment - 2

Artist:	Liquid Tension Experiment
Title:	2
Label:	Magna Carta MAX-9035-2
Length(s):	74 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1999
Month of review:	09/1999

Line up

Tony Levin - bass, stick
John Petrucci - guitars
Mike Portnoy - drums, percussion
Jordan Rudess - keyboards

Tracks

1)	Acid Rain	6.35
2)	Biaxident	7.40
3)	914	4.01
4)	Another Dimension	9.50
5)	When The Water Breaks	16.58
6)	Chewbacca	13.35
7)	Liquid Dreams	10.48
8)	Hourglass	4.26

Try a sample of the album in

Summary

They are back: the first of the projects to reconvene and maybe the only one.

The music

Their first album did not make that much of an impression on me (but it did contain the terrific opener Paradigm Shift). This album also opens in a blistering way: the first part is strongly metal like, but in the middle we get more in the jazzrock vein bringing that other band, Dixie Dregs, to mind. There are some nice additions by Rudess in the first half of the track. Strangely I'm reminded of Jarre here. At the end the heavy rock returns, but with Rudess playing the solo. Biaxident (a combination of the medicine Biaxin and 'by accident' it seems) opens lovely with some piano and actually this a very melodic and peaceful piece. Of course, the band just had to put in some heavy stuff as well, but all in all it stays a melodic and also captivating piece. One of the things I usually find hard to get around is the lack of really appealing melodies, but this one has one. 914 is a jam and a relatively short track. It is mostly fusionist. Another Dimension has a slightly Arabic feel to it at first, mostly because of the keyboard melody. Like Biaxident a very melodic track. The guitar playing reminds me a bit of Malmsteen. Most striking feature of the song is the quiet accordion intermezzo in reggae style followed by some Spanish guitar. Good for contrasting with the more involved parts. When The Water Breaks is according to the booklet, the only real composition. The title as you can read is from the fatc that Petrucci had to leave during writing for the birth of his daughter Kiara. I could now remark that this song features all the ingredients present on the other tracks (and it does), but more structured. Because of this and its length it can show what the band can do in detail. The first part is quite melodic with mostly jazz rock guitar. Then the pace picks up a bit and the music becomes positively driving. After this the music tends to alternate between the various elements that make up this fusionist metal band. The Laurel and Hardy ending is a bit of a joke. We then come to Chewbacca. Lots of weird keyboard around in the spooky opening. After that the song becomes a "straightforward" jam, with some very low Stick work itching its way disregardless of the guitarplaying. The ending is quite involved with lots of riff based rocking and something like shortcircuiting keyboards. A succesful jam. We come right into the opening piano of Liquid Dreams. The title is well chosen, since this is a rather calm, dreamy (but also bouncy) track. The track is a bit too uneventful for its length although I don't mind a breather every now and then. The shortish Hourglass closes the album down with acoustic guitar and piano. A nicely melodic lullabye.

Conclusion

Again an album chokeful of pyrotechnics and in this sense nothing has changed. However it seems the jamming is now more spread and also somewhat limited giving the listener access to the full length of the disc. The long epic track is good and the average quality of the music easily surpasses that of the first album. How4ever a track as good as Paradigm Shift I have not been able to find. If you enjoyed the first album, it is almost mandatory to also buy this one (but I figure you have already done that). For people wanting to sample what Dream Theater and Dixie Dregs combine into, I think this second album is a much better place to start than the first one.