Herb Pilhofer - Spaces

6.5 - USA - 1979

Some very synthetic sounding, mostly mid-grade jazz fusion. Pilhofer is a German-born pianist and composer based out of Minnesota where he founded the Sound 80 recording and mastering studio. This disc slightly predates that founding and seems to have been intended to promote 3M’s new-fangled digital recording system. ‘Cause, you know, when I think of hip jazz fusion, I think of the Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company! As such, it does seem more of a technical exercise than anything else. Eh, it’s not so bad. Second track, “Where Is One?”, starts out like a fairly groovy Super Nintendo soundtrack: like, one of those games that isn’t very good – a commercial tie-in for Wendy’s or 7-Up or something – but still has an inexplicably decent soundtrack. But then it morphs into some sub-par Aja­-era Steely Dan. Closer “Pipe Dreams” – which features a pan-flute funk workout – has a certain something, but I had largely stopped paying attention by the second side.