Mark Feldman’s Level 5
The Sybil EP
Mutant Cat Records
The title track of this EP is a call back to the book/movie about a woman with multiple personalities. The song is pleasantly grooving along on a jazz funk riff when, out of no where the hounds of Hell bust in with death metal riffing. Just as quickly as the onslaught come, it’s gone. The quartet are back on their sunny summer day jam. Is this a product of too many psycho girlfriends or too many wacky sessions in one day?
Mark Feldman and his crew are all New York based session musicians. Mark has played with folks as dissimilar as Alison Krause, Marshall Crenshaw, The Marvelettes and Soundgarden. His co-conspirators are similarly flexible accompanist. Bass player Will Lee was a fixture in David Letterman’s house bands for decades. Guitarist Oz Noy wrote the tunes on this EP and Adam Klippie plays the keys. At least those were the co-conspirators for this EP. Mark has a whole different crew for live gigs at the moment. I guess that’s bound to happen when everyone in a band is a session ace.
The other tunes on the EP, “Swagger” and “Jabber Jaw” are pleasant throw backs to the days when instrumental bands stood a chance. I hear a lot of the Meters and Wired-era Jeff Beck on these tunes. The most important thing is you can hear that the folks in Level 5 are having fun jamming.
