| | U Totem CD U Totem Discography of CDs
 |
|
Our Price: $14.49  CDFor Sale Usually ships in 1-2 days
|  |
U Totem, both the band and the eponymous album, is the result of a merger between two avant-garde bands of progressive rock/Rock-In-Opposition allegiance: the David Kerman-led 5uu's and the James Grigsby-led Motor Totemist Guild. U Totem is a two-headed beast, a wonderful beast that is. But the integration of the two creative forces wasn't complete and one can feel important style shifts between the Grigsby-penned tunes and the Kerman collaborations. Grigsby is classically trained and shows great interest in contemporary music and Japanese culture, something that would become a leitmotiv in his future works with U Totem (Strange Attractors) and with his Motor Totemist Guild (All America City). Therefore, his pieces are full of complex and contrasting textures with a lot of emphasis put on acoustic instruments like flute and bassoon. Kerman's interest resides more into rock, but a rock derived from Henry Cow. His pieces share affinities with Grigsby's on the complexity level, but his are more structured in terms of rhythm, more driven by powerful drumming and lightning-fast keyboard chops. These differences can be very well felt in the album's highlights, the orientally-inclined "One Nail Draws Another" (although for a Grigsby tune, it rocks!) and the News from Babel-feel of Kerman's "The Judas Goat." This first album is very strong and has become a requirement to any avant-prog fan but, as a band, U Totem will deliver an even stronger opus, the conceptual album Strange Attractors. ~ François Couture
Live Recording
Recording information: California (1989-1990).
Illustrator: James Grigsby.
Translators: Rigobert Dittmann; Kaoru.
Personnel: Emily Hay (vocals, flute, piccolo); Curt Wilson, Howard Shepard, Georgia Grigsby, Kaoru (vocals); James Grigsby (guitar, vibraphone, tapes); Dave Lizmi, Greg Conway, Maria Moran, Rod Poole (guitar); Sanjay Kumar (sitar, piano, keyboards); Mirian Meyer (violin); Becky Heninger (cello); Eric Johnson (bassoon, contrabassoon, soprano saxophone); Herb Kiamant, Herbert Diamant (soprano saxophone); Dave Kerman (drums, percussion, tapes).
Audio Mixers: Curt Wilson; Dave Kerman; Georgia Grigsby; James Grigsby; Sanjay Kumar.
U Totem Music | List Price | $17.97 (You save $3.48) | | Category | Rock Albums, Rock/Pop CDs, Progressive, Experimental Rock | | Label | Cuneiform | | Orig Year | 1992 | | All Time Sales Rank |  233423  | | CD Universe Part number | 1060367 | | Catalog number | 750024 | | Discs | 1 | | Release Date | Mar 29, 1995 | | Studio/Live | Studio | | Mono/Stereo | Stereo | | Producer | Dave Kerman; Georgia Grigsby; James Grigsby | | Engineer | Curt Wilson; Bob Drake | | Recording Time | 60 minutes | | Personnel | Eric Johnson - bassoon, contrabassoon, soprano saxophone
Dave Kerman - drums, percussion, tapes
Greg Conway
Sanjay Kumar - sitar, piano, keyboards
Emily Hay - vocals, flute, piccolo
Emily Hay - vocals, flute, piccolo
Kaoru - vocals
Rod Poole - guitar
Becky Heninger - cello
Curt Wilson
List all 17 contributors
|
U Totem Review
GuidelinesRemember to focus your comments on U Totem CD. Check our review guidelines for specific details regarding customer review policy. To submit your review, please fill out the above form and click "Submit Review." A staff member will then verify your review meets our guidelines. Upon approval, your review will be published within a few days. Please do not use this form to comment on web site errors or for order related questions. If you have concerns of this nature, please contact customer service by filling out this form.
Purchase U Totem CD To buy, Click on price to add to cart | Univers Zero Hard Quest CD (1999)
U Totem album
 $15.45 
| | Massacre Funny Valentine CD (1998)
U Totem CD music
$13.39
| | Univers Zero Rhythmix CD (2002)
U Totem music CDs
$15.59
Hey prog rock fans, here's another album by Univers Zero, which means it's time to get down! Not "down" in a good-time rock & roll sense, but rather really down: moody, dark, and with intimations of evil creeping in around the edges. In its 2002 incarnation, Univers Zero is mainly a vehicle for composer/drummer/keyboardist Daniel Denis, who continues his trend of toning down the hellish stuff heard to scariest effect on Heresie over two decades previously. Heresie was Univers Zero at its darkest, featuring low demonic chanting, wheezing harmonium drones, and a track called "Jack the Ripper." On 2002's Rhythmix, the doom and gloom are more subtle, Denis preferring the drama of multi-layered ...
| | Bob Dylan Christmas In The Heart CD (2009)
U Totem songs
$12.85  
After the initial shock fades, the existence of CHRISTMAS IN THE HEART seems perhaps inevitable. After all, the thing Bob Dylan loves most of all are songs that are handed down from generation to generation, songs that are part of the American fabric, songs so common they never seem to have been written. These are the songs Dylan chooses to sing on CHRISTMAS IN THE HEART, a cheerfully old-fashioned holiday album from its Norman Rockwell-esque cover to its joyous backing vocals. Apart from the breakneck "Must Be Santa," which barrelhouses like a barroom, Dylan doesn't really reinterpret these songs as ...
| | Trans-Siberian Orchestra Night Castle CDs (2009)
U Totem album
$11.35 
NIGHT CASTLE appears just in time for the big 2009 holiday season but don't be fooled: this isn't a Christmas album, even if it's sonically indistinguishable from Trans-Siberian Orchestra's other seasonal releases, and the fact that it's been dubbed "Capra-esque" certainly brings it within the realm of the season. NIGHT CASTLE brims with all the drama, pomp, and circumstance of Trans-Siberian Orchestra's other records but channeling these traits through a newly created narrative does have the effect of hearing it in a somewhat new light, shifting the focus entirely to the band's attack, not melody. Still, there's not that much new here -- and the coda of seasonal covers, including the first sober version of "Nutrocker" ever cut, doesn't do ...
| | Michael Buble Crazy Love CD (2009)
U Totem CD music
$14.49   
Buoyed by the popularity of the hit contemporary pop ballad "Home," singer Michael Bublé's 2005 album, IT'S TIME, clearly positioned the vocalist as the preeminent neo-crooner of his generation. Easily the singer's most stylistically wide-ranging album so far, 2009's CRAZY LOVE is also one of his brightest, poppiest, and most fun. Bublé kicks things off with the theatrical, epic ballad "Cry Me a River" and proceeds to milk the tune with burnished breath, eking out the drama line by line. It's over the top for sure, but Bublé takes you to the edge of the cliff, prepares ...
| | Blank & Jones Mix: Volume 2 CD (2003)
U Totem music CDs
$15.35
| | ICARUS I Tweet The Birdy Electric CD (2004) (Import) United Kingdom
U Totem songs
$15.69
Icarus: Ollie Brown, Sam Britton.
| | David Lee Garza Solo Contigo CD (2004)
U Totem album
$11.65
| | Raphael Saadiq All Hits At The House Of Blues CD (2003) (Import) Bonus Track; Japan
U Totem CD music
$56.35
When Tony Toni Tone became a pop and R&B hit-making monster in the early-1990s, it was easy to forget the band possessed immense talent and thorough schooling in the jazz and the gospel of its forefathers. In 2002, longtime Tony Toni Tone frontman Raphael Saadiq's long-awaited and skillful debut, INSTANT VILLAGE, turned many a head with its chilling Sly-esque soul, perhaps giving mild surprise to casual listeners of his former band. A year later, Saadiq follows up his successful coming-out ...
| | Violently: The String Quartet Tribute To Bjork CD (2005)
U Totem music CDs
$13.29
| | Los Capitanes No Fun Intended CD (2006) (Import) United Kingdom
U Totem songs
$29.99
| | Austin Clark Beyond The Pale CD (2009) (Import) Import
$25.89 |
|
|
buttons below to play song samples
Adobe Flash
Email a Friend
