The JPT SCARE BAND has seen empires rise and fall. They have been playing together since 1973. Without any real commercial success, they continue to fight the good fight for underground musicians everywhere. Their latest, "Jamm Vapour," is a groovy little platter, packed with, as you can imagine, lengthy, jam-friendly tracks that fly in the face of everything that is soulless in the mainstream.

Musically, you can hear a lot of KING'S X in the JPT SCARE BAND's music. Perhaps it's the similar influences that both bands shared coming up that had led to this comparison. This is most evident on the opening cut "Amazons," which recalls the KING'S X anthem "Black Flag" in groove and melody (although the animalistic ranting that emerges three quarters through the song sounds like an obscene phone call gone bad.) Everyone in the band gets a chance to stretch their feet a bit. It's especially nice to hear bassist Paul Grigsby branch out a bit on "Don't Count Me Out." These guys can clearly play their asses off.

JPT SCARE BAND has been at it for quite some time, and you can hear it in the music. However, this refreshing, organic, bluesy jam-oriented rock is almost undermined by the electronic drum sound the band decided to go with on the album. For the clearest example of this potentially woeful decision, have a listen to the track "Gelo Jam." Here, the band plays things a tad mellower than the rest of the disc, and with less feedback and rocking to hide behind, the artificiality of the drum sound becomes quite jarring. This drum sound might sound somewhat amateurish if it were to be employed by any other band, but given their long-standing cellar-dwelling underground status, it's almost charming in the context of "Jamm Vapour." These guys are proudly out of touch with newer trends and styles. With the current crop of retro-styled rock bands dying to sound and feel like the forgotten heroes of eras past, here is one of those forgotten bands brazenly unconcerned with recapturing whatever sound or style they might have once had. This is music for music sake, and it doesn't get much better than that.

- Broadbent

OFFICIAL SITE: www.jptscareband.com

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