Evolution Theory

Album Review

On Evolutionary Theory, Rare Blend mixes fusiony guitars with a little bit of electronic and world music. The results are kind of indistinct and bland, though they have their moments of beauty. A big drawback is the guitar tone of Vic Samalot, which is a bit too over-processed for its own good. At times, the band sounds a bit like the Ozric Tentacles as they slip occasionally wanking runs over swirling synthesizers. For example, the so-called "Techno Jam" is really anything but — instead, there is typical psychedelic guitar soloing over a standard groove-rock drumbeat, with the slightest hints of electronic music in the keyboard effects. In general, if the guitar were a little less ostentatious, it might blend nicely into the textured grooves the band seems more than capable of producing, such as the percussion-driven "Fifty Thousand Years" (which could maybe do with a little less didgeridoo, too). The most interesting playing on the disc comes during "Rod's Migraine," when two relatively clean guitars wrap around each other in a discordantly repeating melody.