Victor Wooten’s new album Palmystery just hit stores and the web April 1st. Instead of a joke you get a pretty good album. *An Aside: This is also one of the first new releases I have bought on the web.(In Rainbows by Radiohead being the first) I am one of those people that still buys CDs, but those days for me I think are coming to an end.* Back to the album.

At first listen I had a pretty harsh opinion of it, but with most things with me the more I digest it the more I seem to like and understand it. This is Vic’s 5th Solo album and to me is a combination stylistically of the previous 4 albums. It has funk, solo bass with percussion, world music influences from africa to the middle east, singing, lots of crazy runs and a ton of guests. Too many to list. Click here for info on guests.

The album to me feels divided in half almost, where the first half is more complex and the second half is more straight forward. He does start the album off in my opinion with one of the most complex rhythmical songs on the album. “2 Timers”, rightly named having 2 different times during the piece. I think it jumps back and forth between 3 and 4 beat subdivisions. It is kind of hard to follow. It will take me a little bit to figure this out and feel it correctly and internally. The next few tracks have heavy world influences, the 2nd track “Cambo” being my favorite. It has a groove in 8 but is divided 3 + 5. Tracks 6 till the end comprise the more straight forward pieces. These songs are the kind of stuff you hear at his live show. More singing and more straight forward rhythmically, even though they do have some crazy runs and parts to them.

Overall this is a good solid album. For me it is not as good as Soul Circus or Yin Yang but still something I will listen to and learn from.