One of the busiest musicians these days, Jeff Tobias, when he's not offering up music as perfect as that on the latest Modern Nature record, spends his time with other bands like Sunwatchers, Tiers La Familia, Thee Reps, and so on. I try to keep up with it all and I think I nearly let this one slip through the cracks. Which is a shame because One Hundredfold Now in This Age is well worth your time as it provides further proof of the versatility of Jeff Tobias.
Taken from a slogan on a church sign, One Hundredfold Now in This Age is a record of hope. Opener "END IT" echoes John Cale's Paris 1919 record in terms of how to mix chamber instruments and rock ones. A lush hook with Jeff's sax punctuating the melody gives this one a lot of heft. Even better is the spry "Gimme Coherence", a rollicking number that is part Art Rock and part contemporary indie. Sounding a little like Talking Heads and Dehd, this one really stands as evidence of how varied Jeff Tobias' talents remain. With nice guitar from Wendy Eisenberg on this cut and others here, the material soars into a realm of inventiveness while never losing touch with a very cool New Wave-kind of songcraft. "Letter to a Friend in Trouble" is one of many tracks here which puts me in mind of those solo albums from Adrian Belew some years ago. Tobias, a wonderful multi-instrumentalist, is a surprisingly adept vocalist, marrying his warm vocals to a rolling a drum pattern here, and squalls of guitar not entirely unlike something we'd have heard from King Crimson in the Eighties.
One Hundredfold Now in This Age is so different than Modern Nature and Sunwatchers that anyone even curious about the other efforts of Jeff Tobias is likely to be pleasantly stunned. For those who grew up on David Byrne and Laurie Anderson, this album will feel like a homage to an era when Art Rock and New Wave were sort of the same thing. Nimbly leaping between instruments, Jeff Tobias serves up a splendid record here. It's one with a lot of inventiveness and which is still wildly accessible.
One Hundredfold Now in This Age by Jeff Tobias is out now. Details via Bandcamp.
[Photo: Jeff Tobias Bandcamp]