Ozone Quartet - Cloud Nine Reviews

Cloud Nine Reviews

Cloud Nine Demo #1

Spectator
A most solid debut. Assemble a former blackgirl, some Confessor and others, and you'll get...angst-metal? Naw. Raleigh's Cloud Nine reintroduces the best influences of rock-fusion pioneers like King Crimson. The results are spectacular! Hollis Brown's electric violin swirls spryly over and often alongside larger, dense themes. It sings! Graham Fry operates his guitars like precise surgical instruments the size of refrigerators. Large, yet nimble. Steve Smith's drumming doesn't fall prey to jazzitis, that hazard whereby the player feels compelled to display his entire range in five minutes. Wayne Leechford plays a unique modern stringed instrument, the Chapman Stick. If this is what Wayne does with a Stick, I will defend his right to do so - to the death! Certainly radio and MTV are more interested in the salability of singers and their causes. But if you could put the crooners aside for a moment, you'd discover new worlds up there in Cloud Nine. -TM

Live Wire
What an unexpected twist, this unification of four very talented musicians. They combine a myriad of moods, an electric violin alongside a Chapman Stick mingled with the standard drums and guitar. It's an ingenious mixture of shadowy imagery. 'Flying in Circles' portrays a mystical pictorial that's both fluent and sensual. You're then taken into 'Room #7' for an euphoric cup of tea. The climax brings an alluring taste for desire with "Fresh Blood". This four song EP by Cloud Nine is impressive. It will awaken your senses for the obscure. -JL

Out 'N About
Cloud Nine starts out on 'Cloud Nine' and stays there. This music is out there and obscure. It's meant to be. You won't find any stolen sounds or ideas here. The style is rock fusion that sometimes reminded me of an electrified symphony with Hollis Brown's electric violin sprinkled throughout this four-song demo. The four-member group from Raleigh and their songs are intelligent, probably too heady for some tastes. Their energy is high and their unorthodox instrumentation is really quite intriguing and very individualized. -BGC

Cloud Nine Demo #2

Spectator
This rock brusque instrumental quartet from Raleigh avoids the pitfalls of fuzak jazz. Songs nestle in your noodle with nary a vocal in sight. Hollis Brown is getting more out of her violin nowadays, from an ethereal Eddie (Roxy Music) Jobson-like saw to a trumpet's alarm. Wayne Leechford lives under the Spartan rule of his Chapman Stick, an instrument as fascinating to watch as it is to hear. Graham Fry's electric guitar has tasted grunge in it's day, but it's also tasted King Crimson. Steve Smith's drum kit is probably the jazziest thang here. Catch their dates in the Triangle. This is the band to see if you love big electric sounds in your music. -TM

Cloud Nine Demo #3

The Charlotte Observer
This Raleigh band wins the award for most unlikely pairing of the year. Cloud Nine features the former guitarist from top NC speed-metal purveyor Confessor and the electric violinist from eclectic folk group blackgirls. The result is an interesting all-instrumental affair that sounds like a cross between the Dixie Dregs and King Crimson. The group also includes drummer Francis Dyer and Wayne Leechford, who plays the strange-looking Chapman Stick. -KJ

Creative Loafing
Cloud Nine is a Raleigh band with an interesting pedigree. Violinist Hollis Brown was one third of the early-90's avant-folk group blackgirls. Guitarist Graham Fry was a founding member of the speed-metal extremists Confessor. If a musical union between the two sounds incongruous, it is, but more often than not those produce the best music. Teamed with a Chapman Stick (one of those techy bass instruments) player and drummer, the quartet cooks up some wickedly dense jazz-fusion. Brown's electric violin brings a spacey melancholia while Fry's heavy but unostentatious bursts of metal power chords drives things toward grunge. -KM