Meat Beat Manifesto

A visually intriguing package of Meat Beat Manifesto with images culled from a rehearsal in San Francisco, on the road in North America and Canada, at a sound check on June 16, 2005 in Kansas City, as well as a sound check in Chicago six days later, and then the full concert live at that Chicago venue on June 22, 2005. Jack Dangers builds his audio as Greg Hawkes of the Cars and videographer Jeff Hudson did back in the '90s, the concert combining imagery with the electronica/techno/ backbeat and sound weavings. Picture Monsieur Leroc adding some punch to the Chemical Brothers without the soul music. Or perhaps it is Kraftwerk hypnotics with Ringo Starr-style beats courtesy of Lynn Farmer's V.Drums. It's fun stuff, but like Chrome and Helios Creed on their Dual Forces DVD, the quartet here can sometimes deliver too much of a good thing and it can all descend into monotony. Where the rap and performance of a Blackalicious has the potential to evolve, at a certain point the explorations of these sons of Kraftwerk seem to bang their heads against the glass ceiling when they should be bashing through it, though "Radio Babylon" is nicely eerie. Don't expect the Beatles when "Helter Skelter" kicks in, and it is Elsa Lanchester's face and scream from The Bride of Frankenstein that will greet you on "She's Unreal." When it comes to experimenting, a group like Home and Garden seems to have the knack for it and Meat Beat Manifesto would be wise to combine forces with musicians from another world, as the Sutherland Brothers & Quiver once did with their respective genres decades before this. Travelogue Live '05 is a fun jaunt and might spice up a party for 20 minutes or so, but then it's time to slap on Andy Mackay's In Search of Eddie Riff again. ~ Joe Viglione, All Music Guide