The Hidden Land drops in advance of a major year of touring for our beloved Flecktones, who didn’t perform together in 2005 but certainly found ways to occupy themselves, with all four members mounting successful side project jaunts. Hidden isn’t so much a comeback, as some observers have oddly termed it, but rather just picking up where they left off, possibly with a renewed sense of purpose and a sensibility that seems a bit more earthbound.
The Flecktones are always in motion, and they remain an intensely singular presence. But with their last release, 2003’s Little Worlds, there was slight reason to worry: the songs on the three-disc set, while memorable, delectable and representative of all of the great Flecktones hallmarks, also suggested overindulgence, disorganization, and ostentation. It was the first Flecktones recording where both the band members’ collective and individual skills outshined their galvanic songwriting abilities and penchant for wild, quirky, intensely musical deconstructions of everything from jazz standards to slices of classical repertoire. It was as if the Flecktones were trying too hard to be the Flecktones: a bit forced, somewhat bloated (if you’re in the market, grab Ten from Little Worlds, the sampler version, instead) and, well, in need of a little time off.
The immediacy of Hidden suggests a little break was all that was needed to recalibrate. It’s one of the band’s most impressive recordings: crackling, playful and richly realized. “Weed Whacker,” for one, is ten thrills a second, or at least it feels that way as Fleck steps away from jazz and scratches a jones for Scruggs, picking at warp speed in the style of a true mountain breakdown. It’s the same story in “The Whistle Tune,” where Fleck’s jazz leanings and bluegrass rawness seem in direct conflict, and the latter finally wins out. There are also more references here than on prior recordings to Fleck’s classical yens
