It’s nigh on impossible to remain an original in today’s music world, especially when your career spans over five decades, yet that’s how Judge Smith rolls – and rocks, too – with the veteran’s output being quite varied, if often careening on the progressive side of things. Sometimes, there’s something meta about his concepts, as it was on 2011’s "Orfeas" for instance, which requires lyrical input; only Judge can be lyrical without relying on verbal things, and his just-released “Music from The Garden of Fifi Chamoix” – available on Bandcamp – is a purely instrumental offering.
Music from The Garden of Fifi Chamoix
The disc content harks back to Smith’s 2017 film “The Garden of Fifi Chamoix” that was issued on DVD and has been edited and remixed to stand on its own two legs… or rather ten, as the record consists of ten tracks, titled “Part One” and so on. This album reunites the British multi-instrumentalist not only with sax player David Jackson, his former colleague VAN DER GRAAF GENERATOR, but also with guitarist John Ellis, most famous for founding THE VIBRATORS (who recently put out the brilliant "Mars Casino" and earning prog credentials after stints with Peter Gabriel and Peter Hammill – Smith, Jackson and Ellis worked together on MR AVERELL’s "Gridlock" years ago. The result of their, and a couple of other performers, labors is an intriguing opus that deserves delving into.
