Hailing from Chicago, Illinois, The Hue presents 9 ambitious tracks with the release of “Beyond Words.” With a sound that is steeped in such seemingly different genres as metal, jazz fusion, and rock-n-roll, the Hue presents a collection of tracks that will surely enthuse musicians and the lover of progressive guitar. The band features the talents of Brian Gilmanov on drums, Kyle Meyers on bass, and Jared Rabin and Marcus Rezak on guitars. Gilmanov, Rabin and Rezak share songwriting responsibilities for the album. With tracks that demonstrate a love for jazz guitar and a healthy respect for metal as well, the album keeps its listeners on their toes. These tracks present precise arrangements, atmospheric, crunchy guitar solos and aggressive work from the rhythm section.

The album begins with the swagger of “Blackout,” a muscular guitar workout accentuated by Brian Gilmanov’s driving work on the drum kit. The track proves to be a dazzling mixture of jazz fusion and metal before settling into a striking, atmospheric jam. “Igneous Pillow” begins with crystalline, searching guitar and challenging arrangements. The track has moments that sound reminiscent of old fusion giants like Return to Forever, the Weather Report, and Mahavishnu Orchestra. “Quiet Defiance” begins with lonely, sparse guitar but launches forward robustly with driving rhythms and screaming chord progressions. Guitarists Jared Rabin and Marcus Rezak complement each other nicely on this track. “From Anger” begins with driving guitar and coalesces into frantic measures and head-banging guitar. “Like Lines,” composed by Rabin, starts in light, airy waters but ventures forward with searching guitar and interesting, almost atonal, flourishes.

“Bipolar Pride” is a layered, 14 minute jam penned by drummer Brian Gilmanov. The song begins with loping guitar before settling into a nice syncopated groove. Gilmanov pounds the skins frantically for this track, matching the intensity of his guitarists step for step. The track morphs into a yearning guitar solo before ratcheting up in intensity, proving to be a journey that ventures through many different waters. A dazzling bit of guitar fireworks manifests itself near the tenth minute that shows the Hue’s “teeth,” for lack of a better word. This results in a frantic drum display and the ambitious track charges to its conclusion. “Only Way Out,” also penned by drummer Gilmanov, spotlights aggressive guitar and driving percussion. “Waking Visions” begins with aggressive riffs before settling into a nice, confident groove. The track features guest musician Erik Levy (Garaj Mahal) on keyboards and challenging, complicated arrangements. Like most of the tracks on this album, “Waking Visions” changes directions frequently and features nice interplay between Levy’s keyboard and guitars. The track ventures shortly through uncharacteristically serene waters before closing with some crunch.

The tracks of “Beyond Words” showcase a band with immense musical chops. The Hue successfully melds jazz fusion and metal to create a certain “jam with teeth.” Certain tracks will meander lightly through initial chords only to detonate under the intensity of Gilmanov’s spirited drum work. The three different songwriters for the Hue each contribute their own unique style, with Gilmanov’s tracks being driving, aggressive numbers. Jared Rabin’s tracks feature interesting guitar arrangements and a jazz “fusion” sensibility. Rezak’s excellent contributions to the album, “From Anger” and “Waking Visions” feature frantic guitar and prove to be two of my favorite tracks. In reviewing this album, I found that the members of the Hue demonstrated themselves to be superlative musicians. The complex arrangements presented herein often dovetail into feverish metal riffs or moments of yearning complexity. Like a roller coaster careening to the bottom of a steep hill, the tracks of “Beyond Words” provide a similar, fist-clenching ride.

- J. Evan Wade

http://www.homegrownmusic.net/product-reviews/the-hue-beyond-words-cd

The group’s “aggressive progressive fusion” is defined on Beyond Words, the 2009 debut long-player from the quartet. During the  nine songs and 56 minutes of Beyond Words, the Hue wears holes in their instruments with aggressive playing, shifting continuously with an ear-defying dexterity. The spotlight doesn’t shine on individual players, but rather on compositional complexity and nimble rhythmic attacks. To put it bluntly, these guys are good. This is mind-bending music for casual listeners and learned players alike.

- Jamie Lee
Hittin’ the Note
Issue 64

The first act of the night was Fatbook, based in Appleton, WI, but drawing members from Minneapolis, Chicago and other Midwestern hubs. You’d expect such a far-flung collective to have little opportunity for rehearsal and thus lack cohesion, but these guys gave no such impression. The first few tunes were lackadaisical, with no real excitement from the three-piece horn section. Singer/guitarist Harjinder Bedi was giving off a lazy Jack Johnson-meets-Jamiroquai vibe, and nothing original was going on via lyric or music. But as the show progressed, the band unveiled some pretty terrific horn arrangements, jazzy but melding unscrupulously with Police-style Caucasian reggae. The motley band began to show remarkable synergy, whether crafting a murky moodscape or generating a kinetic dance groove. No long jams, short and purposeful, often integrating the horns really well into the improv.

Ultimately, Fatbook (Bedi in particular) needs to develop a more original sound, something to set it apart from the pack stylistically, but the pieces of the puzzle are all there. Above all, these guys have the togetherness to create that magical swell of intensity as well as hold together in the mellower stretches, and a horn section that can carry the whole band through its more generic moments. That’s worth your ten-dollar ticket price right there.

It was unfortunate for the headliners that they had to follow The Hue. Almost the polar opposite of Fatbook, The Hue is anything but laid back, relying not on jams or dance grooves or even words; rather, intricate metallic guitars and Earth-shaking drums. Before long, the heaviness had cleared any faint-hearted hippies from the floor. Those who remained surely had their minds blown–particularly if this was their first exposure.

We were treated to a brand new, untitled tune, in keeping with The Hue’s tendency towards King Crimson-esque dissonant, angry chords and dizzying time signature shifts, and it seemed as tight as anything they played.

The real treat was when the band settled into the epic Bipolar Pride. The thrill is only partially in the complex composition; the middle stretch is a showcase of guitar improv, Brian Gilmanov’s explosive drumming acting as the rattling lid on a boiling stew. It’s not nearly as chaotic as it seems, but the effect is frightening unpredictability. Both guitarists (Mark Rezak and Jared Rabin) wound tighter melodies into their solos tonight than I’d heard from them before, and the soaring climax came together in a blood-curdling rush.

Overall, The Hue’s music isn’t overtly malevolent, but the sheer force of it undeniably disrupted what might have otherwise been a pretty mellow night of music. SLM came out with plenty of energy for a bunch of career stoners (as saxman Matt Ostlund kept reminding us, in case we hadn’t noticed the multiple pot leaves circling their logo), and right off the bat, I was drawn in by the band’s pleasant guitar/sax harmonizing. Unfortunately, it was a formula that wore thin quickly, a slave to another crop of jamband 101 songs.

Ostlund is a heck of a player, pitching in spot-on vocal harmonies to accompany lead singer/guitarist Don Woppert, and there was nobody onstage who seemed sloppy or untalented. But in this day and age of jamband glut, talent is not enough; you need IDEAS that transcend local-potheads-make-good, or the ability to take your jams into uncharted or at least super-potent territory, and these guys are evidently content with contentedness. Woppert’s guitar tone was so generic that after a decade of festivals, I almost couldn’t hear it. Covering Also Sprach Zarathustra, painfully unoriginal. Not a single lyric or melody stuck in my head after the show. It’s great that we can expect top-notch musicianship out of this scene, but SLM has a long way to go to avoid being forgotten.

http://www.glidemagazine.com/hiddentrack/review-slm-the-hue-fatbook/