Exploring new sounds

From the Autumn 2003 issue.

Based on their new CD, San Diego's Starline Theorie is a band more interested in exploring sounds than in creating a sound.

On some tracks, they come across as a Mideastern-groove world beat outfit. On others, they sound like an avant-garde jazz combo. Toward the end, a couple tracks sound like melodic alt-rock.

And "Copenhagen" has a kind of Miles Davis meets Tangerine Dream feel to it, with Gilbert Castellanos' laconic trumpet laid over a meandering ambient instrumental.

What ties it all together is a thick but never dragging trance beat – it gives everything a surreal feel and a touch of real magic.

Review by Jim Trageser. Jim is a writer and editor living in Escondido, Calif., and was a contributor to the "Grove Press Guide to Blues on CD" (1993) and "The Routledge Encyclopedia of the Blues" (2005).