Home Artist links Label link

Finneus Gauge - More Once More

Artist:	Finneus Gauge
Title:	More Once More
Label:	Cyclops CYCL 055
Length(s):	72 minutes
Year(s) of release:	1997
Month of review:	09/1997

Line up

Scott McGill - guitars, micro jammer
John Buzby - drums, backing vocals
Chris Eike - bass
Laura Martin - lead and backing vocals
Chris Buzby - keyboards, backing vocals

Tracks

1)	More Wants More	7.34
2)	King Of The Chord Change	5.40
3)	Press The Flesh	7.43
4)	Desire	4.45
5)	Doogins (The Evil Spawn)	5.16
6)	Customer Service	5.32
7)	A Mess Of Finesse	5.58
8)	Sidewalk Sale	3.52
9)	Calling Card	8.34
10)	Salvation	6.18
11)	Abandon	3.46
12)	Finding The Strength	6.58

Summary

Although I'm not familiar with most of the names, one strikes a bell: Chris Buzby of the deceased "promise of progressive rock" Echolyn. After going major this band went down the drain and while some the bands members are involved in a band called Still, Buzby has chosen to play with his brother? John in the band Finneus Gauge. In case you wondered, the name stems from a man called Phineas Gage, who by accident got a stick driven through his had in the former century and managed to live another 30 years or so, but with a totally changed character. He's a very well-known character in Psychology books illustrating that things like personality traits and social inhibitions are assumed to be located in the frontal lobes.

The music

While Still seems to have chosen for a musical style that is close to grunge and can hardly be called progressive anymore, Buzby and his band have chosen to continue the Echolyn style in a sense, but have taken it into a jazzy direction. This seems mostly to be a consequence of the fact that Scott McGill plays his guitar in a jazzrockish/fusionist way (a la Holdsworth). The music as with Echolyn is rather complex and hectic, although we have an occassional breathing pause. The vocals are by Laura Martin and she has a pleasant sound, being rather low and not too shrilly. The band does have the Echolyn (actually Gentle Giant) tendency to have rather complicated harmonies which also tend to make the music more hectic than it already is. Still, I like it better than for instance As The World, which was too much of the same for my tastes although it contained some very worthwhile tracks. Everything that the band stands for can be found in the very first track More Wants More, which has the already mentioned harmonies, jazzrock guitar solo's, lots of signature changes, lots of organ and keyboard, the relaxed singing of Laura and very importantly a good melody. The main reference here is Yes. Press the Flesh consists mostly of lowly sung verses with and a great chorus. The song is laced with quick handclapping and some interesting riffs. A very good track. Desire is a ballad. Dreamy and moody. Here Laura shows that she has a very warm voice and musically references can be made to the Canterbury scene. On the other hand Doogins is a rather quircky, schizophrenic instrumental track about The Evil Spawn. In fact this track evokes with me the image of strange wood creatures, and who knows, maybe that's what they are. Customer Service has a nice subject, being the life story of somebody working in a shop with customer service. The song is pumping jazz rock track with references to again Echolyn and the Canterbury scene. The bridge is very good. In Calling Card a rougher guitar sound is added, while Salvation starts as quite a funky track. Finding the Strength is a strong closer of this strong album.

Conclusion

Over seventy minutes of fine progressive jazzrock with references to Echolyn and the Canterbury scene and through the Echolyn reference to Steely Dan, Yes and especially Gentle Giant, but all in the jazz rock mould. This means mostly guitar solo's in the jazz rock vein, good vocal melodies, busy drumming with lots of tempo and signature changes, Echolyn like harmonies and keyboards reminiscent of the Canterbury scene. Although the album might be a bit too long it contains only good compositions with some great melodies. Still to like this CD, I think a preference for Echolyn or jazz rock is probably necessary.