San Fran Voice

The job of the music review writer is to listen carefully to the tracks on a CD and come up with an original, unique description of the music so that new listeners can gain an understanding of the band’s sound and old fans can gain a new perspective on the music. But, in very rare instances, the band itself does a better job of summarizing the music than the music journalist can do. Such is the case with The Sprial Path, the new CD by Project Greenfield.

As described in the introduction letter by the band, “The Spiral Path is a semi-concept album describing a soul’s journey through life. It is a blend of rock, funk, reggae and jazz fusion with a decidedly Bay Area jamband flavor”.

That’s the best summary that there is for this CD. That said, further description is warranted. A full aural exploration of The Spiral Path reveals that the music is something of a puzzle which must be put together to reveal the complete picture that it portrays. A look at the back of the CD reveals a message which incorporates all of the song titles on the CD into a greater piece of poetry. This is symbolic of what happens with the music itself … on its own, each title tells the short story of the words contained within each song. But there is a greater message to the entirety of the album than just a list of song titles could provide.

Similarly, each part of each song could be taken on its own. The drawn-out lengthy instrumentals reflect the band’s jamband nature. But the lyrics are thought-provoking in that manner that suggests that they have been thought-through and not improvised. Combined with the overall experience of moving back and forth between songs, these qualities give the listener an experience which is more than the sum of the parts of each song. To put it simply, this is not just a CD, it’s music.

Learn more about Project Greenfield from their interview with San Fran Voice.