Obadiah

Obadiah's Rebirthday is a lucid, laid-back but still tense disc of jazz with an undercurrent of funk. The eight songs are all based on conventional song structures interrupted by passages of improvisation, lending a progressive edge to the main guitar-dominated fusion-influenced themes. Rebirthday is both accessible and challenging—the occasional outbursts of skronk and electronics never outweigh the album’s old-fashioned melodicism, and the dark undertones are balanced by the disc’s leisurely pace and confident tone.