Karate - Unsolved
(Southern)
Throughout 1996 and '97 Karate spent more time in my
CD player than any other band. Their self-titled debut
and follow up, In Place of Real Insight, are two of my
favorite CDs of all time. However 1998's The Bed
is in the Ocean left me completely disappointed. The
magic of the first two albums seemed to be missing or
swallowed up in self indulgent blues solos.
Of course that didn't stop me from buying Unsolved on its
release date. I was very skeptical on first listen,
and completed it thinking, "Well it sounds like Karate,
except instead of blues guitar it's now jazz." I
actually didn't think about the album for about a
week, then I decided to listen to it again, and it
stayed in my CD player for the next three days. After
"This Day Next Year" (the final song) had completed
the course it weaves over nine beautiful minutes I
would go to eject the CD and the opening notes of
"Small Fries" would draw me in and I'd end up
listening to the whole record all over again, much like I did
with the first two albums.
Karate have become such great musicians. Jeff Goddard
and Gavin McCarthy are one of the most solid and
unique sounding rhythm sections out there, and they
create a perfect backbone for Geoff Farina's sparse
vocals and lucid lounge/jazz guitarwork. The record
sounds great. Geoff Farina gets the greatest
guitar tones, and they mesh really well with the bass and
drums. Overall the album doesn't move me emotionally
as much as the first two, but it's still really good.
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