Tevellus released their new CD Blue Star within recent weeks and the celebratory CD Release Party in Rhode Island went over big. It is hard to define exactly what genre Tevellus is, but they are good. Wild funk beats and exotic foreign music races through all of the mostly instrumental 16 tracks on Blue Star. Opening title track “Blue Star” sounds like it could be from a chase scene soundtrack for a foreign action movie. It is non stop. Rocking guitars and drums play alongside electric sitar and middle eastern percussion instruments.
Sitar notes ring out on track two: “Senniajah(Beautiful Dancer).” The tune soon turns into an intense sitar rhythm coupled with the intense drumming that would accompany a gypsy veil dancer. The rhythm is certainly persistent and hypnotic. You’ll picture that gypsy girl doing her veil dance on stage at a rock concert.
The band Tevellus is guitarist/sitar player Derrick Cordeiro. Cordeiro also writes much of the songs. Drummer Glenn Alexander plays electronic and drum set drums as well as trumpet and several percussion instruments. Zachary Paquette plays bass guitar, saxophone, flute, and percussion. Multi-instrumentalist Glen Schneider plays tabla, sitar, cello, and several percussion instruments. Mike Cordeiro plays keyboards, Belladonna(one name only) plays doumbek, chimes, castanets, shakers, vibra slaps and several other percussion pieces. A band member named Ms. Fury is credited for dance, zils, and fury.
As you can gather by all the percussion instruments, Tevellus plays each of their compositions with a lot of rhythm. Track four, “Funk For Ghang” is a powerful mix of sounds that would make people dance to it if everybody could dance as fast as this song goes. “Palace Of Light” receives firm sitar strumming to push it along and the sitar playing above the drums suggests it must have taken some time to marry these distinct music forms. Any serious music fans would enjoy hearing this CD just to check out how well Tevellus sling their axes and how well they’ve made middle eastern melodies rock out.
“Sphere” is a prog rock piece that just happens to use sitar and some exotic percussion instruments instead of western rock lead guitar. Again, you can still picture their belly dancer doing her circular movements and gyrations. In other portions of the song I can picture James Bond fighting off an enemy in some foreign land. Eastern and western string instruments weave into their special Tevellus blend then move forward, the music rushing like a river toward some mysterious destination.
“Glowing Sun” has a curious rhythmic underpinning. The electric bass guitar notes consistently carry the weight of the song. Yet, there is some element of speed in the percussion that rides over the bass instead of locking in with it. Then, a spiraling sitar melodic phrase runs around the polyrhythm, almost like a mischievous child who refuses to stay tethered to parental authority. The bass grows in stature in this song and becomes the pulse, and in a way replaces the drum set as the timekeeper. Each listen to this CD would likely conjure many new associations each time. There is a lot going on in each track.
“Middle Earth Drums” is the work of brilliant tribal madmen. Drums and percussion become their own melody instruments in this blend of traditional western rock drumming and exotic percussion. “Third Eye Candy” features saxophone playing exotic middle eastern, possibly Turkish, melodies, melodies that make a spiraling sound with increased intensity. Jazz fans might like to take a listen to this sax to follow its musical conversation with the multitude of percussion notes. The percussion patterns are played at a dizzying, hypnotic pace, and I expect to see a snake charmer cajole a long green slithery creature to rise up out of a weaved basket. There is definitely something special going on with that saxophone. It is like a siren call to all in the room, motivating all to some kind of funky action.
“3 Wishes” comes closest to modern dance music with a swaying electronic keyboard sound. The saxophone starts rocking out near the end too. Married to the electric sitar, “3 Wishes” takes on the dimension of strange new delights that Tevellus pedals to its listeners. The title “Timeless Traveler” suggests a wayward wondering sound, and Tevellus does not disappoint. Doumbek provides the beat in place of drum set bass drum. The melody over it, though, dances around in a flight of fancy.
“Miraculous Ways” starts with the gentlest of string plucking, and each string instrument note rings with deep meaning. Electric rhythm guitar chimes in to provide western sounding support, and sustained synthesizer washy sounds make you wonder why no one has ever come up with this blend of western and eastern instrumentation before. It might not have been done before in such an authentic manner, with hard work resulting in meaningful explorations into what these instruments could truly achieve together.
The 11-plus minutes long “Journey To The Oasis” goes by faster than you would think because the up tempo madness of this band keeps you focused on each of their instrumental flourishes. The saxophone gets a lot of room here. Zachary Paquette does a lot of beautifully strange things on his tenor saxophone, making its high notes cry out their own expression of struggle and hope. Electric keyboards chime in and whine frantically while performing a mad dance with the sax. This is wild stuff, folks. You’re not going to hear this in too many nightclubs or concert halls. Tevellus definitely offers something fun, funky, fresh, and challenging to its fans. And fans should be plentiful if Tevellus has a decent chance to market their sound throughout New England.
Tevellus is on Facebook.
Bill, thank you for the in depth album review!!