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Playing
Outside
2003
1. Child's
Play (Clip)
2. Count Me In
3. Been There
(Clip)
4. The Visit
5. Playing
Outside (Clip)
6. Quest for an Angel
7. Ack-Potion
Fred (Clip)
8. Gort Baringa
9. Inside Out
10. Southern Heart
An
Eye of the Needle Production.
Mastered
by Randy Kling
Discmastering
Nashville, TN.
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Review
By Brian Soergel with Smoothvibes
.com
In
Playing Outside, electric guitarist and composer
Edison West is free to roam around musical boundaries
since his CD is self-distributed and he doesn't
have to answer to suits. West has something different
going on here, but sticks to enough smooth jazz
conventions while tossing in plenty of fresh musical
ideas. Initial impressions are important, and
West sounds like he draws on ideas from the late
'80s and even earlier, when smooth jazz was much
rawer but still written with three-minute pop
songs in mind. A primary asset here is keyboardist
J.D. Wilston, whose initial synth in "Count
Me In" you just don't here in this genre
anymore, a puzzling development. He's talented
and provides the CD's killer hook moment on "Playing
Outside." West is just as talented on the
strings, whether gliding melodically on "Ack-Potion
Fred" and the reggae-flavored "Gort
Baringa" or banging out rock riffs on "Been
There." I liked this CD a lot - it took me
back a bit to a place that wasn't so bad, and
it's refreshing to hear a CD that was made because
an artist simply had to, not because a record
label said it was time. Just don't ask what some
of those titles mean - no clue
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