Sage - Forked
Reviewed November 19th, 2024
Sage is a pretty unique band from Seattle, WA I found while looking up artists that played with acts I particularily liked (in this case, it was the Tacoma band "My Name"). After a while of digging, I decided to "pick up" their album "Forked" (released 1993 on Will Records), and also write down my thoughts on it as I heard it.
Track #1 - "freDDY": Pretty average rock song, with the exception of it featuring odd guitar riffing, and repetitive vocals. While this reminds me of Flipper to a certain extent (see the album Gone Fishing and you'll get what I mean), I think this is pretty unique for the time.
Track #2 - "aHpooK": Starting with funky bass patterns and guitars, Sage creates a pretty nice blend of elements from various genres. Overall, really good stuff. It features a guitar solo towards the end that is unlike others I've heard before, followed by some instrumental action that is mostly drums/bass-centric.
Track #3 - "foRkeD": I'd have to say this is my favorite one out of the whole album, and also how I discovered this album in the first place. It features some nice funky drumming and nice vocal work. Honestly, not a lot to write home about here, this is something you would have to hear on your own to really get a feel on it.
Track #4 - "SnoW": With some rather broken Spanish at the beginning (which I kind of got a kick out of), it's more or less much like the song "aHpooK". This one also features a nice guitar solo, which oddly enough, gave me some Pink Floyd vibes. I'd say this is another highlight track for this album - and probably some of the strangest four minutes of my life.
Track #5 - "delicaDos": Despite the track title being in Spanish, this is in English! This song is much more slow-paced, which is a nice change of vibes from the funk oddysey that the past few songs presented. This is also probably the most experimental thing in the album, featuring more instruments such as banjo and... something else I can't quite put my finger on what it was called.
Track #6 - "sNag": This is one of those songs that right off the bat, goes out of control rather quick! Starts off with a funk drum pattern, before going off into whatever around the 2-minute mark. The guitar has less of a presence in this song, since it's primarily drum and bass in here. Not much to comment on the lyricism, as I (as a non-native English speaker), still have issues understanding spoken word.
Track #7 - "miRRoR": Two-minute instrumental track that serves as a good reference as to what Sage does. If you want a small summary of what their stuff sounds like, I think you should check it out and make of that what you will.
Track #8 - "zhong quo": Longest song in here, clocking in at 7 minutes and 4 seconds. This is the BEST reference for Sage's experimental work. Starts off slow-paced, randomly goes fast... This is where you can best hear the guitar and echo harp working together. At around four minutes, the song starts going a tiny bit faster. During this time period, is where you can hear the best bass work in the album. While at first, it has vocals, it later on goes into instrumental territory - something that seems to be pretty common with Sage here. Overall, really good album closer.
My Conclusion
If you want something funk-oriented while delving into experimental territory, check out Sage. While you can't buy this album anymore (and it is no longer sold ANYWHERE in that regard), only stream it - below are the streaming links for this album, and an MP3 copy for those who want it the older way.
I know this review is pretty short and at times kind of bad, but I have not polished my skills on doing reviews of ANY kind yet! This is just a test of what stuff I can do in the future, mostly written for an assignment in my Spanish class. To my professor, if you see this - you should listen to this! It's probably something you'd like, considering you listen to Crimson King and the like.
Listen to "Forked" here...
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