Sunday, July 5, 2009

Basslines: Oz is Ever Floating


Oysterhead: Oz Is Ever Floating

[purchase]

Primus bassist Les Claypool is renown among the Bonnaroo crowd for his earth-shattering, jazz-informed slap-and-bounce rhythms, and for good reason: where other rock and jamband bassists are content to hover in the background, Claypool plays up front and center, creating complex octave-spanning bass lines, melding heavy slap-bass style, drifting into full chords and improvisation mode as needed.

Claypool's style is so powerful and distinctive, in fact, I didn't even need to check the label to confirm his presence, along with Phish guitarist Trey Anastasio and Police drummer Stewart Copeland, on their highly recommended one-shot supergroup album The Grand Pecking Order. Though to be fair, Claypool's nasal tenor whine is equally unmistakable.

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