Objects in the Mirror

When this Placer County jazz-fusion band gets it right—like on “Funkle,” which opens this album—it sounds like something you might have heard on a late-1970s solo album by one of the sidemen who backed Steely Dan: Larry Carlton, perhaps, or maybe Lee Ritenour. Guitarist Perry Mills has the kind of pinched metallic tone that made Carlton’s solos on such Dan staples as “Green Earrings” a delight, and the rest of the quintet has a good feel for what made the Dan’s weird, jazzy chord progressions work. The vocal numbers (“Getaway” and “What Do I Have to Do”) are the weakest point, as are instrumentals that sound like Michael Bolton power ballads with crying guitars (“Mister Sensitive,” for one). A more focused, audiophile production might sharpen things, too. Still, kinda interesting for 2004.