Music reviews. CD reviews. Critically hip!

The proper role of the producer of a recorded music project has been kicked around for decades. It boils down to a question of whether the producer’s proper job is to bring out the best sound possible in a musical artist, or to put the producer’s own distinctive stamp upon it. John Boyd and Cosimo Matassa would be examples of the former; Rick Ocasek, Ray Manzarek, and virtually every hip-hop producer you can think of would be examples of the latter. My own preference is with the Cosimo Matassa school of production, wherein, as he modestly puts it, “I just moved the mikes around.” Indeed, and in doing so recorded a generation of New Orleans’ rock and soul musicians who changed the sound of music forever. Such producers are, at least temporarily, out of favor now, for good or will, with the producer being recognized in some cases as an integral part of the band.

Floratone takes the concept of producer as artist one step further. Floratone is the latest brainchild of jazz avant garde guitarist Bill Laswell; it brings Laswell and drummer Matt Chamberlain (with guest instrumentalists Viktor Krauss on bass, Ron Miles on cornet, and Eyvind Kang on violin and viola) together with producers Tucker Martine and Lee Townsend. The result is an interesting foray into rock and jazz which never really settles into either groove.

As might be self-evident, the most interesting tracks on Floratone are the ones upon which Laswell’s guitar work is predominant. Laswell infuses some blues and funk into the proceedings on such tracks as Mississippi Rising, Swamped and Monsoon, with Chamberlain providing a steady, low-end beat throughout. The remainder of Floratone, including the title track, is a bit of a mixed bag, with The Wanderer treading into Paul Winter Consort “Icarus” era, and The Future sounding just a bit like Jean-Luc Ponty. The production contributions seem to be limited to the intermittent inclusion of samples and loops, giving the proceedings a muted space-age sound, most predominantly on the mercifully short Threadbare and the more interesting title track.

The groove of Floratone, overall, is closer to early Weather Report than to, say, late period Miles Davis or the like. Its overall accessibility is at once its major strength and major weakness, possessing the potential to appeal to a rock and soft audience even as the hardcore jazz audience will to some degree turn from it. Overall, however, this is a project worth repeated listening and possibly even the hope of a follow-up.