By Jim Jacka

In the past, five lions joined together to create Voltron and six construction vehicles formed Devastator. Keeping this idea of combining complimentary units together to create a colossus, Praxis was formed in 1992. Comprising no less than 25 legendary musicians over its 15 year run, Praxis exceeds genre specifics and stretches customary musical boundaries. Tennessee 2004 is a documentation of Praxis’s set at the Bonnaroo Music Festival.

If your brain runs in a complex manner, you could figure that by combining the city and date in the album title, it would equal Bonnaroo, but myself having a hamster brain, I didn’t put two and two together. It wasn’t until after the first track “Vertebrae”, when upon hearing the crowd cheer, I knew this was live. Praxis’s music is almost too complex to be performed in person. The lineup that entertained the sun-baked in the fields of middle America was Buckethead, Brain, Bernie Worrell and Laswell. Okay, close your mouth and take a breath or you’ll be hyperventilating before everyone gets through their solo.

Knowing even brief bits about these musicians’ histories gives you a glimpse of what you’ll get here. The behemoth is formed from scorching guitars, running bass, time-piece drumming and funk keyboards. In the hot Tennessee sun of 2004, a three hundred foot robot indeed did “the robot”, when the sound pulsing through its units wasn’t shredding the air and verifiably frying its circuits. Praxis is a collective of music’s finest, but free reign and an ability to draw from each others’ diverse backgrounds make them a true monster. Tennessee 2004 is what happens when you let the beast outside and give him a stage to play on. Scintillating.