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| Pilotdrift
Water Sphere
(Good Records; 2005)
By Heather Yarnell, January 2006
Remember that rush of emotions you last felt when the credits began to roll on the most fantastic film you'd ever seen? Be prepared to experience the same exhilarating euphoria all over again courtesy of Pilotdrift and the extravagant symphony they've conducted that is Water Sphere. Hailing from Texarkana, the assemblage that Kelly Carr (vocals, piano, keyboards, acoustic guitar), John David Blagg (guitar), Jay Budziloski (bass), Ben Rice (drums) and Eric Russell (guitar) have organized is no recent discovery. What began as youthful friendship eventually evolved into a musical relationship that successfully aligned with Carr's songwriting, resulting in the formation of Pilotdrift. When the self-released 2004 disc Iter Facere grabbed the attention of the Polyphonic Spree's Tim DeLaughter and Julie Doyle, Pilotdrift went on to become the first non-DeLaughter-associated artist to be signed to their label, Good Records Recordings. The first product of this pairing is Water Sphere, and what an introduction it is. Working under what appears to be the apparent influences of Danny Elfman-penned film scores, OK Computer-era Radiohead, Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera soundtrack and the Flaming Lips' epic weirdness, Pilotdrift have bundled into Water Sphere everything that music should be dedicated to delivering: wild creativity not confined by the boundaries that most of us never even attempt to break through. Water Sphere begins where the rest of us end. From the foreboding, richly layered "Caught in My Trap" to the ten-minute "Jekyll and Hyde Suite" to the 1914-1917 Antarctic adventure "Elephant Island" re-telling, the theatrics never let up. Is it a bit much to digest in one sitting? Not from this music fan's perspective. If you don't have the endurance for forty-eight minutes of over-achieving melodrama, then turn back to your top 40 radio station. You're safer there.
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