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All Music Guide • September 2003
Untying The Not

After releasing a mammoth 40 live recordings from their 2002 tour, String Cheese is back in the studio with easily the finest moment they have ever committed to tape in this environment. On Untying the Not SCI erase the perception that the only thing it is capable of as a band is playing long, wonderfully intricate, transcendent jams rooted in songs in a live setting. SCI are also fine songwriters and virtually everything here attests to the fact that they have attained not only new inner wisdom as a band when it comes to writing tunes, but in recording them as well. The gorgeous, warm, gooey, organic and spacious sound producer Youth (yes, formerly of Killing Joke and formerly known as Martin Glover) weaves around the band's compositions and updates their sounds without artifice or gimmick. Contrast two of the five instrumentals (all sequenced in a row bridging the album's two themes from search to acceptance), the futuristic deep space jazzy funk of "Mountain Girl," with the Applachian balladry of "Elijah," ," where Michael Kang's strings and Kyle Hollings intertwine intimately becoming a kind of modern day Stephen Foster melody rooted in the grain of the land itself. On the vocal cuts, Billy Nershi's "Wake Up," is one of the more poetic and sophisticated lyrics out there as he offers a practical view of everyday awareness of not only oneself but one's surroundings. It's a Zen track for an un-Zen time. The crunchy guitars and Rhodes piano as they contrast with the Wurlitzer and funky backbeat underscored by Keith Mosely's bass are positively infectious. Elsewhere, such as on the two collaborations with futuristic visionary John Perry Barlow, tough, syncopated rock bends into droning sonics in overdrive as the lyric offers yet another view of awakening. "Just Passin' Through, " uses Indian percussion and ambient guitarscapes to coax an acoustic into the fore where words about the transitory nature of life and how it exists in the body like a bubble in water are both tender and poetic. Ultimately, Untying The Not, is a deeply spiritual record. From its opening tracks to the tough visionary instrumentals to the economically rendered lyrics that stand on their own as poetry to the stunning inner poster by artist Alex Gray point to a moving and reflective stance on everyday life. It's interesting that this entire disc feels like it was influenced by Zen Roshi's and Richard Linklater's film Waking Life. Untying The Not is a stream of white light into the darkened corner that has become our culture. Full of possibility, fascination, delight and stunningly beautiful music, this is arguably the defining moment -thus far˜ in SCI's catalogue, live or studio.