BTBAM SIDE-PROJECT TRIOSCAPES ENTERS A SEPARATE REALITY OF JAZZ-FUSION

IMNs of the world, I hope you’ve got a spare pair of shorts ready. Wonky, metal-tinged jazz-fusion is no longer the proprietary domain of T.R.A.M. and their jaw-dropping debut Lingua Franca — enter Trioscapes, a new project featuring bassist Dan Briggs (Between the Buried and Me), Walter Fancourt (tenor saxophone/flute) and Matt Lynch (drums). Prog dorks like us are in for a real treat.

The group will release Separate Realities on May 8th (May 7th in Europe) through Metal Blade Records, and they’ve already posted a song called “Blast Off,” an appropriately named start to their career. It’s jazzy, it’s fusiony, it’s technical, it’s catchy, and it’s notably more bass-heavy than T.R.A.M. (seeing as the latter lacks a bassist). It’s barely metal at all, but boy is it awesome. Listen:

Here’s how the band came together, via a press release:

Trioscapes started in the summer of 2011 when bassist Dan Briggs (Between the Buried and Me) contacted Walter Fancourt (tenor saxophone/flute) and Matt Lynch (drums) about working up a rendition of the Mahavishnu Orchestra classic “Celestial Terrestrial Commuters.” The group also messed around with a few original ideas with the intent of playing a one-off live show.

However, after rehearsing the material and playing the show, the group decided the music was so demanding and fun to perform that there should be more of a future for the project. A few more songs were written near the end of the summer and a full length album was recorded the first week of October with Jamie King in Winston-Salem, NC. Trioscapes combines elements of 70s fusion with progressive rock, dark syncopated grooves, a flare for the psychedelic, and an unabashed love for both quirky Zappa-ish melodies and thunderous abrasive trade-off lines.

Trioscapes currently has one show confirmed for this May to celebrate the release of the CD on Metal Blade Records. The 12″ LP is also available via Dan Briggs’s own Hogweed & Fugue Records. Both will be available for purchase at this show. More shows are currently being confirmed.

Get your hands on a pre-order of Separate Realities here. I cannot WAIT to hear more.

-VN