Recipe from a Small Planet

If you boil Babel Fish down to its essence, its goals seem aligned with many on the jam band scene — forge an elastic/psychedelic funk using vintage tones, constant grooves and knit and weave jam breaks. Where the band has tried to step out from the crowd in later years is in casting a wider net into the world of music and hooking some multi-cultural fish — Babel Fish, if you will — to add to and alter their funk-jam rock sound. While you can easily play spot the country/genre on Babel Fish (an instrumental Brazilian bossa nova — "Dorado," and the Cuban/funk "Sleeping Cities," for example) it is unfortunately a few years outdated for the band's current sound — which goes farther afield into dub and international travel. Originally released in 2001 and just reissued under Pacific Music, Babel Fish is very much anchored by funk-based jam rock songs common in the jam band scene and doesn't get a chance to stretch its legs like the live article.