Jack Vees is in the strange position of having a stake in three usually conflicting worlds. As an avant-rock bass player he's appeared in numerous outfits, including Forever Einstein with Chuck Vrtacek, and with John Trubee and the Ugly Janitors of America; as a classical composer he's studied with Morton Subotnick and Louis Andreiessen and received commissions from the Bang On A Can ensemble; and as an academic he's currently co-director of the Center for Studies in Music Technology at Yale University. When these disparate strands are tied together and let loose on the electric bass, what we get is a surprisingly diverse album, where this most neglected instrument in the rock universe is given full rein. Classics like Hendrix's 'Manic Depression' and Lennon's 'I Want You' are given a direct in-your-face treatment, with the bass taking all the parts through overdubbing. Vees doesn't hold back on the Big Muff fuzz box for the distorted lead parts. The original compositions, which make up the rest of the album, are more abstract. In the hypnotic and gently seductive title track, the sounds are made by hammering the fretboard and releasing numerous harmonic overtones. 'John Henry' reveals layers of squealing distortion, and for 'Monsieur Pinata' the bass amp is stuck inside a piano to feed off the resonances. Finally, the twenty minute 'Surf Music II' launches into another world of floating harmonics and strange interweaving harmonies; the bass is being plucked and bowed with a glass ashtray and a super-ball mallet. Vees is no stranger to bass harmonics; "Around my junior year in college, Jaco Pastorius came out with his first solo album, and everyone was trying to figure out how to do harmonics. Just for my own information, I started a list of various note combinations". This led to his 'Book of Bass Harmonics,' published in 1981.

Truly an album of bass guitar - no other instruments are used here - 'The Restaurant behind the Pier' is an intriguing proposition, exploring technical limits, classic rock, and undiscovered ambient worlds. It will, of course, be treasured by every bass player; but the rest of us too will be charmed and titillated by its presumption.

"Think you've heard everything that can be done with a bass guitar? Consider Jack Vees's The restaurant Behind the Pier'" Bass Player, April 2000 "A gargantuan grab bag of musical elements. Listeners familiar with Rhys Chatham and Glen Branca may want to check out Vees" American Record Guide "It's the synthesis of classical and rock approaches that marks out Vees" The Wire