Welcome back both of you!  Just call me Joe Solo.

Despite all the nasty rumors being bandied about, I have no objection to posting other people's reviews.  Truly.  Next time you stumble out of a show flat-footed and bedraggled, slouch over to the keyboard and tell us who soaked you.

Chris Gardner

Bounce With Me
The Mercury
Austin, TX
by Chris Gardner

Advance reports and scattered missives pasted across the tangled web suggest that Project Logic hearkens back to the 70's work of Miles Davis - the unscripted, brain-melting swan dives into the heart of experimental funk, the untethered meanderings stretched not only the boundaries of funk but wrinkled then current notions of free jazz. Logic's Project was said to hold echoes of On the Corner specifically, big musical shoes to fill and unrealistic expectations for any act.  The Project at times reverberates with hints of Davis' funky wanderings, but the steady grooves of foundation make it supremely more danceable if less exploratory.

The Project trounced through Austin for a pair of back-to-back evenings of knee-breaking beats.  The Project is rooted by the sturdy as steel rhythm section of Stephen Roberson behind the kit and Yaco filling in for ship-jumping bassist Mark Robano.  The pair serve as the launching pad from which all other band members take flight and to which they all eventually return.  Their grooves are steady without being boring as they hold the tenuous amalgam together.

The other members of the Project, Casey Benjamin (Rhodes, sax, ewi, flute and vocoder), Mike Wietman (keys), and Logic on the ones and twos are occasionally joined by Baba Israel, who rhymes and lays it down on the didgeridoo.  They are the helicopter, swirling wildly and bursting erratically into new territory.  Were it not for the dense beats of the rhythm section, many of the bobbing revelers would surely have fled the sonic madness whirling overhead, but the steady beats lend a lengthy rope to the explorers.  Their explorations are non-thematic, honing in on textures and colors rather than distinguishable melodies, and they push the edges so quickly that it lacks cohesion, a crumbling weave leaving strands and threads to twist in the wind drafts.  The keys battle each other in a race to the fringe while Logic slices away at the beats, leading and responding in turn, as Corey Benjamin jumps between horns, keys, and the gimmicky and Framptonesque "vocorder".

The styles swing from jazz-inspired romps to hard-pounding urban stomps. Elusive bits of songs slide across the turntables, teasing the recollection. Bizarre sound effects fly from the boards.  The gumbo stews, swirls, settles, and swirls again.  The set closing Bubblehouse was a tip of the hat to MMW, but it was entirely Logical as he slices the beats and stirred the crowd into a flailing maelstrom.

With the addition of Andre Van Buren of TUNJi on tenor in the second set, the mood seemed to tack into more lyrical and thematic waters as Corey and Andre swapped licks and verses on the sax.  Andre's rooted, lyrical approach led the band to more cohesive jams with more chartable changes in atmosphere.  If the second set Cars, Trucks, Buses was a preview the Mockingbird Foundation's tribute, I am on the bandwagon.  It rollicked, rolled, and reeled with the best of them.

After a nearly endless encore featuring Baba Israel rhymin' and beatboxin' into the slidin' didgeridoo, the crowd was done in.  It was no Miles', but down on the corner no one seemed to care.