Listening to Interzone on a warm (almost) spring Saturday afternoon, on my monster Bose speakers with the volume wound way up, I'm thinking about the rich and varied sounds they (the musicians not the Bose speakers) create on this album. But those of us with access to the global musical conveyer belt, when listening to this album must surely wonder where this music comes from. As the tracks unroll, I try to identify their source. Where do the sounds come from? Whose music is it anyhow?

Interzone is a five-piece outfit, keyboards, bass, drums, guitar and saxophone. The opening track, "Introzone" is a straight up funk/jazz ensemble piece that rocks along and pretty well sets the stage for the feel of the entire album.

Track two, "Digidub" which has echoes of Weather Report has Dave O'Higgins very laid back and warm on his solo followed by a rock/funk guitar solo with lots of wah-wah from Mark Buchanan.

Track three, "Blower" has that wicked chukka-chukka guitar lick made famous in the theme from Shaft, so immediately my mind goes into reverse, back to the movie and the dominant role played by the sound track in the structure of the movie. So okay, whose music is it anyhow?

In South Africa this is an important issue. Perhaps it is also the case in other countries suffering an acute identity crisis as it comes to terms with its past and at the same time tries to face the future. Why am I so concerned with whether this music is South African or not? I suppose I've caught that uniquely South African disease called 'identitisis'. These guys, just like the rest of us have been exposed to every conceivable kind of music. I don't know about the rest of you but I like to know where the music I like comes from. If I wanted faceless music, I'd spend my life travelling up and down in an elevator listening to music that calms me down.

Yet for all that, Dave O'higgins (who hails from London) has what I can only call a very 'English' sound with shades of Ronnie Scott, Tubby Hayes and Dick Morrisey in his, hard-edged, brittle and clipped style of playing.

So here we have it, "Interzone" an album laced with every conceivable musical influence. Should I name them? The Crusaders, Booker T and the MGs, Weather Report/Joe Zawinal, Charlie Parker, Wayne Shorter, Coltrane, Herbie Hancock, Hendricks, The Brecker Brothers, David Sanborn et al. Hey, the list is endless. So whose music is it anyhow?

Don't get me wrong, I quite like the album. Lots of energy. Funky, jazzy. Imaginative. Sensitive. The other night, Tebogo Alexander was interviewing Sean Fourie, the pianist and Londoner Dave O'Higgins, horns and vocals and he asked Dave what his influences were. "Everything", he said. And I know what he means. We both grew up in the musical equivilent of pea soup. So did most of us reading this piece online. So whose music is it anyhow?

In South Africa this is an important question. Is it African? Is it American? Is it European? Above all, is it South African? A cynic would say that the album lives in the corporate world, where anything goes as long as it sells. Yet this would belittle the skills, talents and creative imaginations of the five musicians who makeup Interzone. They clearly enjoy making their music and it comes across on virtually all the tracks. Dave O'higgins is a funky, economical saxophone player, with a nice feel and excellent timing. His solos are not too long either. As saxophonist Ben Webster said when asked about long solos, "If you can't say it in eight bars, you ain't got nothing to say."

It would be nice to think that it doesn't matter whose music it is. It's a global village and all that stuff. And when the music is really great (say Miles Davis' Carnigie Hall Concert album), it truly doesn't matter where it comes from. The stuff is transcendental.

But it is a pity that the music is not more clearly identifiable as South African, whatever that means. It lacks a sense of place like the 'international' style of architecture. If this disk lands in your CD player by accident, you may not know which country you're in. Is this a criticism? Maybe…

My favourite track is also Sean Fourie's favourite, the last one of the eleven, "Swans of piano lake" dedicated to a friend who recently died. It's a pity though that it's so short. More of a statement than a song and the elegant changes could have been explored further. Maybe we'll get lucky and hear it done again on a later album. It's also the only 'ballad' on the disk. This album could have done with maybe one or two more slower paced songs where the artists could have stretched out some.

Is it South African music? Not really, it could have come from a whole bunch of places. Does it matter where it comes from? Not really, if it grabs you. Should you buy it? Well if you're into funky, jazzy sounds with some nice rock/r n b guitar thrown in for good measure and you like jazz saxophone solos, you'll like this album. The music also has a sense of humour (check out Mark Buchanan's guitar solo on "The Theme from 'The Man From Interzone'", with its homage to the "Theme from Peter Gunn"). You could even dance to a couple of the songs. I think I'll try it out at a party and see if my super critical friends agree with me.

[WB]

Interzone "The Man From Interzone" (Sheer Sound SSCO 049)

Interzone is:

Rob Nel - Bass
Gaston Goliath - Drums
Sean Fourie - Keys
Mark Buchanan - Guitar, Intro Voice
Dave O'higgins - Sax, voiceover & scream

Tracks (all tracks composed by Interzone)

01 Introzone 3.00
02 Digidub 7:43
03 Blower 6:41
04 Just as sweet 6.22
05 Sporthen egnosia 4:04
06 The Theme from 'The Man From Interzone' 2:49
07 Where Thoughts begin 7.14
08 Lounge wizard 3:08
09 Inter-galactic departure lounge 7:12
10 Sinister drug 4:15
11 The swans of piano lake 3:46

Total playing time: 56.23