Kalistan

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Thomas Jones steps into the Noise side of Art
Live Album Trans-Seleyan Railroad called " Artistic Masterpiece"
Kaliburg, Grand Duchy of Ananto
January 6, 5712


Thomas Jones' Trans-Seleyan Railroad experiments with sound, noise, and progressive songcraft

Thomas Jones, the art rock flag bearer for the 5700s has moved on from his sassy space alien glam rock personna. His first three records were characterized by this sort of rhinestone studded heavily theatricized image which culminated in 5710's hard rock classic Modern Art. In 5711, he released a studio album which showed an adoption to a more R&B based-influenced sound as he moved beyond arena style crowd pleasing, is thematically esoteric fist pounders into a more danceable direction. The album, Kaliburg by Night featured a modest hit, the funk adjacent, saxophone drenched self titled "Kaliburg by Night" which hit the Top 10 on the Singles chart, and the follow up single featuring a liquid funk riff "Celebrity 5711" that gained modest radio traction but barely cracked the Top 40, but the album itself only scraped the lower reaches of the Radio 1 Hot 100 Albums chart.

But Jones is an artist that defies easy categorization, and so in late November, when a new album which aimed to build on the direction of Kaliburg By Night was announced by Jones' reps, fans, radio and the music press didn't know what to expect. Could it have been the second disc of a rumored Double LP? Was it a return to a more orthodox art rock sound which fans longed for after the drug fueled Kaliburg by Night? Was it an LP of purely experimental music that was extremely inaccessable to even his long time fans and fans of the genre?

The answer is no: none of those were correct. Instead, what dropped on the night of December 1st was a full Live LP which featured only new music. The album was recorded over three nights at a series of secret concerts held in Kaliburg from October 8th to October 10th last year, and represents some of Jones' most progressive music to date. The music is largely influenced by noise alternative, electronic, funk and disco and the themes he sings about are mostly about travel, much of it esoteric or mental. The album title and lead off single themselves reflect this theme: Trans-Seleyan Railroad.

"We wanted to do a progressive album," said Jones. "We just got done with KBN [Kaliburg By Night] and that music was certainly something, in fact, I don't actually remember recording a lot of it because of the all the drugs we had around all the time. But while we were doing this kind of more dance oriented music, we were also writing this really far out stuff, there were a lot of occult references throughout, and we wanted to include electronica in there too. At the foundation, though, it is still quite fundamentalist. Riffs, jams, and familiar styles that people can attach to and find something there. But people are encouraged to listen to it like a trip, with the world flying by, station to station, with a new experience at each stop, while cities and farms and people and houses and land flies by."

The lead off single, "Trans-Seleyan Railroad" talks about a decadent Kalistani Noble trapped in a foreign state who only wants to get home. It sets the tone for the rest of the record and "... represents his journey north from Southern Seleya," said Jones. The song opens with as pure and uncut noise alternative: a fully synthesized steam locomotive effect created by a highly gated, phased, delayed chord played on the keyboard which is held as Keyboardist Marcellus Amblin cranks up the phaser and delays, while guitarist Brad White produces a chaotic melange of sounds with his lead guitar. It then becomes a funk jam with operatic vocals provided by Jones. It then shifts into a mathrock jam that, about mid song, jarringly shifted to a full out disco barnburner. "We had a 15 piece band for this record," said Jones. "Many of these guys played for me on the KNB sessions. We sort of knew what we were doing working together and didn't have to reintroduce ourselves again for the live shows. From that, we got to create a Noise-Art record."

The rest of the record is a similar collage of styles, sounds, and experiments. "This is definitely the most progressive music I've ever made, and definitely the loudest" said Jones. "Each of the songs are themselves little three movement concertos, informed by classical music, using modern styles and instrumentation. I could see orchestras doing this stuff, but they'd probably have to slow some of this stuff down. Basically its classical music that you can dance to. It really was a lot of fun to put it together. I am so grateful to have this opportunity."

Jones said at some point he may do a concert movie where he and his backing band perform the entire album live and film it. "Capturing that energy again will be kind of tough," said Jones. "5711 was a hard year for real, and I think I may need to clean up my act a little, because some of those sessions, not for this record, but for Kaliburg By Night, I don't even remember, I was so dusted. I was eating horribly. I was down to like 87 pounds: I make a reference in the song 'Trans-Seleyan Railroad' to the Thin White Count... That was me when we were done recording Kaliburg by Night. I got hospitalized one night before we went to start recording the concerts, and they said I had kidney damage and had a minor heart attack. So I think its time to get off the drugs and see what we can do with a clearer head." He also confirmed that for the video for "Trans Seleyan Railroad," the entire band was "... all pretty dusted to the gills. I'm surprised those concerts went as well as they did."

The critics however didn't seem to care. Lead writer for Kalistani Rawk Monthly Christine Reynolds called Trans-Seleyan Railroad an "artistic masterpiece." In the initial review, which earned the record 5 stars of 5, she praised his experimentation: "This record is the new exemplar of the Art Rock genre in Kalistan. By far the most interesting record released this year, it is not for the casual listener, but then again it is accessible that even with a modest primer on Mr. Jones' style, say on the very accessible Modern Art, even the new Jones fan can easily find the groove and vibe on the entire trip. This is the kind of music [Art Rock pioneer] Anne Jean introduced us all to, and this was the heights she strove for and only occasionally also reached. But Jones is definitely the apex monster of the Art Rock scene."

Check out Trans-Seleyan Railroad, Thomas Jones' first live album, released on KMI, and start your journey right here with the title track and first single from the album.

[Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bnEc91KRKrc]
The first single and video, "Trans-Seleyan Railroad", by Thomas Jones, recorded in Kaliburg in late October