IMperfect - Destiny of Chance

IMperfect's first album came together over a couple of weeks in a New York recording studio, downtown on 6th in the summer of 92. But don't go thinking that such speedy delivery is evident in the finished product. Far from it. Driven by Carsten Moss's acoustic guitar (and occasional keys), Urbano Sanchez's percussion and Kahel's voice, with some backing from Lisa Kellar it's a gentle affair, drifting upon languorous Latin rhythms, passing the occasional nod to Sting's jazzier solo work as well as Pink Floyd's classic psychadelic blues (both inspirations to Kahel) without ever losing it's own identity.

The album's contradictory title acts as a sign post to the listener as to how they need to handle IMperfect's work. It's not something that you just put on in the background. It requires your attention. These are no throwaway pop songs, they are Kahel's innermost thoughts, hopes and fears. Or as he said once: "Art as an expression of a way of life."

On the one side you have a desire for a simple, pure and honest love expressed through Love To Thee, The Power and The One, "the best love song I ever wrote", whose sequel, The Return Of The One, will appear as one chapter within The Counsel Of Excellent Truth. On the other there are the questions over how we live our lives, the directions we take, ideas that on both sides will be developed further through Flame Of Passion. Track's like Something's Wrong, Time Melts and Sometimes develop questions of uncertainty, the latter especially snake hipping it's way into a tumbling hum where The Doors' The End meets The Wall.

But all fall at the feet of Destiny's stand out track: Tell Me Which Way on which Kahel shares vocal duties with his two young children, Ben and Jessica. It tenderly and honestly voices both a father's fears of not having the right answers and his children's rebuttal of those fears, through wide-eyed innocence and hope. In many ways it is the ultimate expression of the IMperfect message, that love, perhaps, will eventually conquer all.

The Scribe