Word: beads
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...members of The Bead Game all have a highly developed instinct for this sort of rock-kineticism. The drummer, Jimmy Hodder, always maintains a sharp edge to his drumming, which is in part a function of the extreme, pungent clarity of every one of his beats, the bassists (Lassie Sachs) consistently keeps up a furious fluttering, Bobby Gass, on organ, punctuates the music with gigantic, sudden, marching chords, constantly accenting with his left hand the lyrical melodies that he plays with his right. The lead-guitarist, John Sheldon, has the kind of rhythmic chording sense that is so conspicuously absent...
...equally the members of the Bead Game are consummate musicians all who have evolved for themselves an immensely satisfying and rich musical form. Kenny Haag writes all the songs and the members of the group then painstakingly arrange them, integrating elaborate variations on the basic tune and a dazzling array of individual musical parts to make a coherent fertile whole...
...Bead Game also has virtually mastered the art of switching from tempo to tempo. On "Slipping," the song begins with Jimmy Hodder singing in a slow 4/4, which then becomes a hard hammering instrumental break in 6/8 followed by a simmering and brilliant guitar bridge in fast 4/4 which leads back into the slow 4/4 with the vocalist coming back in. A few rounds later Hodder beings singing in the 6/8 tempo and the slower beat becomes an arena for long and reflective improvisational playing, completing the circle perfectly. Such fully realized, very abrupt changes, occur again and again...
There is so much more to say about the Bead Game, about Lassie Sach' driving bass runs, about Jimmy Hodder's soft and eloquent singing even while drumming, of Kenny Haag's hauntingly spiritual lyrics, but time and space...
...Bead Game's sudden emergence as a full-grown rock group of overwhelming intensity and power is like seeing a super-group grow up in your backyard. It would seem to be near-criminal to pass them...