Has it been two years since I reviewed PAKT’s No Steps Left to Trace on the MoonJune label here on Echoes and Dust? Yes, it is. Whenever something from MoonJune Records comes along, I know straight away, I would take a crack at it from Leo’s record label. But there’s always a treat to hear live recordings the quartet have unleashed on their Bandcamp page.
This live recording took place last year in July for their summer tour when PAKT were in Canada between two remarkable nights in Montreal’s Piranha Club on July 18th and Toronto’s Rockpile on July 16th. Drifting between the passages of unbelievable arrangements from the quartet as they march forwards into incredible improvisations that’ll get you a front-row seats for those two shows they did during the tour they did.
You feel the electricity, the beauty between Percy’s Wal 5 fretless bass, Alex and Tim’s fast-paced guitar work which speaks of jazz and world music, and Kenny keeping up the pace in ramming full-speed. There’s so much chemistry the quartet have with each other on this live recording for those two evening shows PAKT have brought forth in the Great White North.
I imagine the audience were in awe, cheering for them, urging them to keep going with their ambiance, Stanley Clarke-like nods, the spacious techniques for the summer tour they were doing, and their roller-coaster adventures will never let you down.
Most of its intense, but there are moments where PAKT are walking into the Berlin School of Music in a way Tim, Kenny, and Percy were walking into some Krautrock-like territories honouring the visions of Klaus Schulze, in a jazz fusion orientated way. That’s how PAKT handle things, by giving audiences a chance to relive their stress and land in some unknown world by going deeper into new music they ran throughout their stop in Canada.
The sounds are incredible, yet pushing you to join along to be in PAKT’s millennium falcon with a solid base to make the jump to light speed. Skolnick has proven to be not just an incredible guitarist, but pulling in these visual ideas he puts into his instrument, showing how much, he’s come a long way. He has this incredible complexity, following Percy’s funked-up bass sounds in the quartet and knowing where the other three will go next.
