Flying Petals is Kit Watkins' 2004 release of progressive world fusion. â. . . as intriguing for the depth of compositional talent as it is for beautiful sound design and monster grooves.â âKeyboard, May 2004

13 MP3 Songs
WORLD: World Fusion, ROCK: Progressive Rock



Details:
All tracks were conceived, recorded, and produced by Kit Watkins, except âTime Can Talkâ by Kit Watkins and Amir Baghiri.

Kit Watkins: keyboards and modules, sampler, slide and ebow guitars, fretless bass, vocals, drum pads, drum programming, live and sampled drums/percussion, virtual acoustic synthesizer (emulating guitars, saxes, trumpets, percussion, electronics, hybrids), waterphone and other acoustic gems, audio conjecture, engineering, editing, and production.

Synthesizer kalimba throughout âTime Can Talkâ by Amir Baghiri.

Rhythm loops on âFlying Petalsâ and âMood Swangâ provided by outside parties.

Bird call samples on âDragon Breathâ and âCall of the ZâAntuuâ by Steve Reid.

Ambient guitar loop on âBowels of the Agencyâ by David Torn.

âBowels of the Agencyâ voices of Dubya, Rummy, Dick, Wolfie, Colon, and Condi manipulated by Kit Watkins, originally from the Robert Greenwald documentary âUNCOVERED: the whole truth about the Iraq warâ available at www.truthuncovered.com.

REVIEWS
âFormer Happy the Man keyboardist Kit Watkins creates an adventurous sonic journey on this disc, which is as intriguing for the depth of compositional talent as it is for beautiful sound design and monster grooves. Emotive melodies played on mysterious woodwinds emerge from emotional harmonic tapestries, and odd metric constructs seamlessly support form and structure that move forward in time with satisfying sensibility. Throw in some topical social content, and youâve got quite a mature release on your hands. If youâre a synth-head, you gotta check this out.â âErnie Rideout, Keyboard, May 2004

âKit Watkins seemed to be lost for progressive rock. During the last couple of years he mainly concentrated himself on ambient and meditative music, in which performances with the reunited Happy The Man didnât fit. After listening to Flying Petals a guest-appearance on The Muse Awakens, HTMâs comeback-record, is a very good possibility though (ed. reviewer's hypothesis). Itâs a 77 minutes lasting reproduction of recordings made between 1995 and 2004 of so called progressive world-fusion-music. He calls it âBeat Music,â which is a well-chosen definition, when you look at its extraordinary rhythmic character. In the first part the rhythm still serve the compositions, like in the hefty title-track, in which typical Watkins-soloâs (a Moog that sounds like a trumpet or saxophone) and a threatening, slurring synthesizer-theme, combined with a guitar-accompaniment and âsolo lead to a increasingly broader layered sound-picture. Absolutely fierce is Bowels Of The Agency (Bush Lied Mix); sampled and manipulated speeches about the so-called existence of mass-destruction weapons in Iraq create a dark sphere, which is being intensified by low, David Gilmour-like guitar-licks and intriguing loops of guest-musician David Torn. Neptune Goddess, with its recognizable strum-sequencer and a beautiful break to a more up-tempo part, would have fitted perfectly on a HTM-record or on Labyrinth or SunStruck. The second part of the CD looks a bit poor of melody, but appearances are deceptive. Long stretching tracks like Dragon Breath and When Flight Paths Emerge contain a constantly shifting, exciting play of tuned and un-tuned percussion and sounds, in which melody-instruments are mainly brought into action to intensify the climaxes. Working with acoustic and electronic percussion-instruments is one of the trademarks of the music of Watkins; on Flying Petals he manages to reach a certain perfection in this, while comparisons with the Dutch percussion-ensemble Slagerij Van Kampen arenât out of place. Together with the as always very recognizable sounds and solos, the varied beats make sure that this is a successful return to progressive music.â âRené Yedema, iO Pages, May/June 2004

âHavenât heard much from Kit since Rolling Curve and three related ambient releases in 2001. Flying Petals is one of four new releases for 2004 (this, plus two new ambient releases unraveled and This Time and Space, a reissue of 1982âs Frames of Mind, and a new release Guard Lock Skin by his improvisational world fusion trio Tone Ghost Ether have all been released pretty much simultaneously). The compositions herein could generally be described as upbeat symphonic electronica, in many ways similar to earlier works like Labyrinth, although most of the material here is far more percussively charged. Most pieces start with complex rhythms of sampled percussion, then build melodic structures over it using keyboard synths, and occasionally guitars and sax as well. Some, like âSavannah 13,â are pretty much rhythm workouts all the way through. âTodi Kâ and âNeptune Goddessâ take a more subtle approach, elevating the melodic elements in a more typically progressive rock style. âBowels of the Agencyâ takes the Bush administration to task for its intelligence failures, using voice samples from statements by GWB, Cheney, Rumsfeld, Condi Rice and others over a droning backdrop interspersed with more percussive based passages, making for one of the discâs most interesting cuts. Treated voices and obscured lyrics on âTime Can Talkâ join the main theme in unison, while âCall of the ZâAntuuâ begins as a gentle introspective solo piece before busy rhythms guide it to its conclusion. Fans of Watkinsâ previous solo works will find plenty of interest herein.â âPeter Thelen, Exposé, Issue #29, May 2004