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Bridge Of Flowers: A Soft Day's Night

By Mark Corroto
January 26, 2022
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Go back to a time when music genre categories were not in effect, and listeners were open to crossing borders.

Miles Davis

trumpet
1926 - 1991

" data-original-title="" title="">Miles Davis was invited to play at rock concerts and Carlos Santana could cover a

" data-original-title="" title="">John Coltrane composition. Some might recall that the innovative free jazz label ESP Disk, started in 1963 by Bernard Stollman, put out albums by The Fugs, Pearls Before Swine, and The Godz concurrently with free jazz from

Albert Ayler

saxophone, tenor
1936 - 1970

" data-original-title="" title="">Albert Ayler and

Ornette Coleman

saxophone, alto
1930 - 2015

" data-original-title="" title="">Ornette Coleman. With the revival of the label in 2015, music of all sorts is beginning to flow again. A Soft Day's Night by the Massachusetts' lo-fi indie rock band Bridge Of Flowers fits nicely alongside recent releases like

Fay Victor

vocals

" data-original-title="" title="">Fay Victor's SoundNoiseFunk and pianist

Matthew Shipp

piano
b.1960

" data-original-title="" title="">Matthew Shipp's explorations.

The music is experimentally confessional, like a 17th century Samuel Pepys diary modernized to take into account drugs, disillusionment, and a pandemic. Wait, those are the same troubles that troubled Pepys' London. The music draws from early Pavement and The Velvet Underground. Guitarist and vocalist Jeff Gallagher channels

Marc Ribot

guitar
b.1954

" data-original-title="" title="">Marc Ribot's Rootless Cosmopolitans, albeit a more rocked out version. Like Ribot, Gallagher favors a matter of fact truth telling. "Year Without Summer" and "Vinegar And Salt" are open wound descriptions of loss, while the story of little "Tambo" and his drug trip ignites a catchy anthem. The music sounds like early demo versions of songs by the 1980's band The Feelies. Cleaning it up though, with a producer, engineer, and some filters would certainly destroy the vitality of Bridge of Flower's message.

Learn more about our star rating system

Track Listing

Vinegar and Salt; Empty Room; Aloe Vera; Tour Rider; Year Without a Summer; Poetry in Motion; Tambo; Brittle; Mirage; Never.

Personnel

Additional Instrumentation

Jeff Gallagher: guitar, vocals; Jonathan Hanson: guitar, keyboards; Shane Bruno: bass; Chris Wojtkowski: drums.

Album information

Title: A Soft Day's Night | Year Released: 2021 | Record Label: ESP Disk

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