On to the "music".

The instruments that show up are: sax, violin, guitars, bass, karna*, drums, tabla, accordion and sitar. And of course, Ann's vocals. It sounds like she listened to some 60's Hindustani record one time, and said, "This is so cool!" In reality, the singing comes off as pretty damn annoying. She's a white girl stealing the music of not only the Indian Continent, but of the Beatles.

The liner notes proclaim that they "Fearlessly deconstruct every song to it's melodic/lyric essence, then they remodel them with space/time rhythm shifts..." Come on. Why are you trying to sell me this thing with a review of it, printed on the inside of the album?

I'll fearlessly deconstruct this album:

Deconstructing simple, and elegant songs is like taking apart a Q-tip. What you end up with is a little pile of useless junk and a stick.

As you may have guessed, I don't particularly like this album. So I'll go on. The reviewer, Tom Terrell (from New York) describes the band as "Cold-rockin' jazzbo Jedi Knights." Do I need to describe them any more than that? Well, yes.

The sound is like a new-age jazz combo gone awry. A calamity, even. They slow down most of the songs to a crawl, and Ann does the Hindu-thing over top of the beginning of most of the songs. The sax plays around the melodies like John Lurie. Occasionally moving with the vocal lines, (Tomorrow Never Knows) which move in those half-step, quavering lines. It sounds cool, but write a new song. I guess, from the info on their site, they recently got signed to some delicate label in San Francisco - meaning that there will be a more national release of this album soon.

One of the reviews on the label sit says, "Dyer takes a major leap forward in her interpretation of Revolver ... less a cover than a deeply lived-in meditation..." The reviewer is Gary Giddins of the Village Voice. Kurt Vonnegut once described meditating as "Scuba-diving in lukewarm boullion." This seems pretty accurate here.

It's all too drawn-out. It has the feel of a rainy day, when you can't leave the house, and you just wish you could go to sleep, and wake up tomorrow.

Check them out at: www.andyer.com

Read about: Windham Hill