Scott's Spotlight #19-- Lobate Scarp
Originally Posted to Facebook on February 6, 2025
Link to post:
https://www.facebook.com/share/18PbPbLfLT/
Welcome to Scott’s Spotlight (#scottsspotlight) issue #19. For more information about this series, please click here:
This week’s spotlight lands on a well respected modern prog band with an unusual name– Lobate Scarp. The term is for a type of landform found on the moon and some planets that causes a curved cliff of sorts caused by tectonic thrust (that would be a cool band name as well, Tectonic Thrust, but I digress). The name may be out of the ordinary, but they make some damn fine prog!
Lobate Scarp is the brainchild of keyboardist/vocalist/songwriter Adam Sears. I brought together the first line-up back in 2006 which included drummer Dustin Prince, guitarist/vocalist Nate Olmos, and bassist Andy Catt. As the band progressed, guitarist Hoyt Binder and cellist/vocalist Adrienne Woods joined the fold. By 2012, the band had created and released their first album, “Time and Space” The prog world loved it! The band described their sound as “progressive-funk-space-opera-rock.” Alex Acuna of Weather Report guests on percussion, and there is a 30+ member choir on the closing track, “The Mirror.” Other standout tracks on the album include the opening epic title track, “The Contradiction,” and “Save My Soul.” The album, and all following music by the band, was produced by the legendary prog producer Rich Mouser, known for his work with (among others): Spock’s Beard, Transatlantic, Neal Morse Band, District 97, Magic Pie, Flying Colors, Tears for Fears, Pattern Seeking Animals, Liquid Tension Experiment and Moon Safari.
(An aside– Rich Mouser’s studio and personal home, “The Mouse House,” was completely destroyed in the January 2025 LA fires. His daughter set up a Go-Fund-Me, which, at the time of this writing, has reached 70% of its goal. Please see the link after the article, along with a link to an article written by Adam Sears on the topic. Please give if you can.)
It would be several years before Lobate Scarp would follow up the debut album. The first sign that something was coming was with a single of the song “Beautiful Light,” released in 2016. Sears, Catt and Olmos remained from the first album, along with drummer Mike Gerbrandt, violist/pedal steel player Andrea Whitt and violinist Rachel Grace, and a number of additional players and backing singers, plus contributions from Rich Mouser. It would be another 3 years before an EP called “Spirals and Portals,” appeared in 2019, with a similar line-up but Hoyt Binder on guitar instead of Olmos. This EP had a different version of “Beautiful Light,” along with 2 other songs (albeit 2 versions of one of them).
Finally in 2022, a full length album called “You Have It All,” appeared. The only full-time members that appeared on the debut are Sears and Catt, with Hoyt Binder and Nate Olmos each on one track. The primary guitarist, however, is Peter Matuchniak (Kinetic Element, Bomber Goggles, solo and more). There are notable guest appearances from Billy Sherwood and Jon Davison of Yes (vocals on the title track), Ryo Okumoto (keyboards, 2 tracks), and Jimmy Keegan (drums, 2 tracks) of Spock’s Beard, and former Suicidal Tendencies drummer Eric Moore playing drums on three tracks, while returning drummer Mike Gerbrandt plays on 2. Whitt and Grace return on strings, and there are a crap-ton of additional players and singers. Rich Mouser, once again, contributes some parts as well. With such an epic undertaking, one would have high expectations for the finished product; but fear not, the album meets (or possibly exceeds) those expectations! There are 2 short instrumental transition tracks, which are fine, but the main songs are all fantastic, and two of those are serious epic-length prog tracks.
The silver lining in the tragic news about Rich Mouser’s studio, is that Sears stated that they were working on a new Lobate Scarp album. Maybe this one will take less than 10 years to appear! I hope so, because Sears and company make some damn fine prog!
Thanks for reading!
Links for Listening (and for giving):
Article about the fire at the Mouse House:
And the Go-Fund-Me link:
From “Time and Space”:
“Time and Space”
“The Mirror”
From “Spirals and Portals”:
“And We Tried”
From “You Have It All”:
“Conduit” (Ft. Ryo Okumoto and Eric Moore)
“You Have It All” (Ft. Jon Davison and Billy Sherwood)
Comments
Post a Comment