The Bob Lazar Story - 2025 - From Mouth To Ear

(16:30; The Bob Lazar Story)






















It has been way too long, but Matt Deacon (guitars, anything else he fancies) and drummer Chris Jago are back together for the first time since 2022, and if that wasn’t enough they have somehow convinced bassist Mike Fudakowski to again put his reputation on the line and return for the first time since 2019’s ‘Vanquisher’ while saxophonist Gareth Wyn Jones also plays on two numbers. As Matt says, ‘From Mouth To Ear’ “brings you a heady blend of wonketprogmellowmathcore, which has always been your favourite genre.” So now you know. What you might not understand, apart from Matt having a very British sense of humour (except like me he now lives in New Zealand), is that The Bob Lazar Story are one of the most under-rated instrumental bands around.

In some ways they are a logical extension of Cardiacs, and I am sure that if Matt was in any other country than Aotearoa the band would be a major player in the scene, even if he does have any unhealthy fascination with foodstools. In addition, Chris actually lives in the States so the opportunity to gig together is impossible, plus Matt can’t actually play guitar and keyboards at the same time, so they appear to be fated to keep releasing albums and EP’s which are generally excellent but criminally ignored. Matt has put out some TBLS releases as a solo artist (as well as his side project Dronestool), but it is when he is working with Chris that the juices really flow and the result is something which is jagged and sharp, which Zappa would undoubtedly have enjoyed. This is prog which is refusing to sit happily in a pigeonhole and instead goes wherever Matt and Chris feel it should. Song titles are deliberately obscure, such as “Total Kaikoura Not Cheggers Plays Pop”, so one needs to not only remember the awful TV show with Keith Chegwin but also know that Kaikoura is a wonderful small town on the coast of South Island which was the epicentre of a significant earthquake in 2016. 

The Bob Lazar Story are a great little band, and one which should be far more widely known (even though their last album was released on Bad Elephant in the UK), and this seven-track 17-minute-long EP is available on Bandcamp for just $3 USD so what do you have to lose? 

Kev Rowland, December 2025

Links:
https://www.facebook.com/theboblazarstory

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