Percussionist/composer Gregg Bendian is an unusual character: a musician with serious free jazz credentials who also professes a fondness for 1970s-style progressive rock. Interzone, however, produces music closer to classic jazz-rock fusion, although Bendian's compositions also provide breathing room for exploration of pure sound and texture. There are also densely scored rhythmic, harmonic, and melodic complications that occasionally place the band squarely within the contemporary avant-garde. Regardless of musical category, Interzone is a phenomenal ensemble and the band's second release, Myriad on the Atavistic label, is its strongest statement so far. The album's closest stylistic antecedent might be the initial incarnation of Pierre Moerlen's Gong, which during the late '70s featured Alan Holdsworth's electric guitar pyrotechnics propelled along by a crisp and driving rhythm section that included vibraphone, glockenspiel, and other tuned percussion in addition to bass and drums. Bendian handles the vibes and glock on Interzone's Myriad, with Alex Cline and Steuart Liebig ably navigating the leader's charts on drums and bass. Nels Cline, Alex's brother and one of today's finest electric guitar improvisers, rounds out the quartet. While the Pierre Moerlen ensemble of nearly a quarter-century ago ultimately fell prey to many of the same stylistic missteps that afflicted other '70s fusionists, Gregg Bendian's Interzone makes no compromises for the sake of commercial appeal.

1		Interzonia 1
2		Intrepid
3		Pattern Master (for Octavia Butler)
4		Diaspora
5		Drive
6		Sanctuary
7		Tactics

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