Donald Fagen - Kamakiriad (1993/2012) [Official Digital Download 24-bit/96kHz]

Donald Fagen was one of the two masterminds behind Steely Dan, the seminal jazz-pop band of the '70s. Fagen's solo work has been a continuation of the band's work of the early '80s - carefully constructed and arranged, intricately detailed pop songs that are more substantial than their stylish surface may indicate. His 1982 solo debut, "The Nightfly", was the best album he had made in years; it covered the same ground as the last two Steely Dan albums, yet surpassed it in terms of ambition and achievement. Originally produced by Steely Dan's co-founding member, Walter Becker, Donald Fagen's "Kamakiriad" is a brilliantly executed futuristic retro concept album which spins a unique Sci-Fi outlook on the world. The eight-song cycle re-creates a retro-futuristic world in which Fagen's '50s nostalgia meets high-tech millennialism. If you loved the studio-intensive blues-rock, tantalizing, crisp white funk grooves that made Steely Dan, and Fagen's first solo album so compelling, "Kamakiriad" will keep your pulse racing.

Donald Fagen's second solo album is a song cycle of sorts, following the adventures of an imaginary protagonist as he travels the world in his car, a brand-new Kamakiri. It is an odd concept, and one that is not obvious to the listener, but reflection upon Fagen's liner notes while listening to the album does tend to evoke a vision of a non-apocalyptic near future, where swingers sip cocktails and fresh vegetable juices as they groove to synthesized jazz-rock. Evocative or not, this is not Fagen's best effort. The songs on Kamakiriad are mainly static one-chord vamps, with little of the interesting off-beat hits or chord changes that characterized most of Steely Dan's corpus (although, it must be said, Two Against Nature isn't too far conceptually from what Fagen is doing here). There is a slightly antiseptic feeling to Kamakiriad. Although the drum tracks are not synthesized, they sure sound that way, and even the horns sound electronic at times, a far cry from the lush arrangements of Aja. Another shortcoming of this record is the fact that the verse melodies don't sound very developed. The choruses are as catchy and cryptic as you would expect from Donald Fagen, but the verses are less than memorable. Walter Becker, who produced the record, as well as contributing bass and guitar, also co-wrote "Snowbound." Perhaps not surprisingly, it does the best job at evoking classic Steely Dan. Kamakiriad is pleasant as background music, but in the end it doesn't provide enough interesting moments to rank as a must-have. The static grooves, coupled with the long song lengths, and general lack of dynamic movement makes this record one of the least essential of Fagen's recorded output. However, Steely Dan completists will certainly find enough here to keep them happy.

Tracklist:

01 - Trans-Island Skyway
02 - Countermoon
03 - Springtime
04 - Snowbound
05 - Tomorrow's Girls
06 - Florida Room
07 - On The Dunes
08 - Teahouse On The Tracks

Produced by Walter Becker.
Recorded & Mixed at River Sound New York.
Additional recording at Hyperbolic Sound, Hawaii; Clinton Recording and The Hit Factory, New York.
Mastered at Masterfonics, Nashville.



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