Critic's Review
Stewart Mason, All Music Guide
Fretless AZM's third album in barely two years, 1997's Distant Earth maintains the template used by the earlier albums: wiggly funk-based grooves mixing samplers and live instruments to create a sound somewhere between the cold futurism of electronica and the organic grooviness of the likes of Medeski, Martin & Wood. Only one of the seven tracks is under seven minutes, and the opening "Manipulation (Is Suspected)" is nearly 13, most of it devoted to a lengthy section of what sounds like a static-laden transmission from outer space, but these aren't the space rock-derived drones of most electronica. Fretless AZM mainstays Max Brennan and Rupert Brown look to '70s fusion and funk for most of their stylistic cues, pulling elements from both Parliament/Funkadelic and Deodato, but there's a chilliness to songs like the title track; for all of its African-style tuned drums and rubbery basslines, it still sounds oddly clinical. Confirmed Fretless AZM fans will enjoy Distant Earth, but it probably won't make many converts.
