Review: Barend Tromp – Odd Time Concepts

Style: jazz fusion (instrumental)
Recommended for fans of: Dave Brubeck, Tony Levin, later era Cynic, The Omnific
Country: Netherlands
Release date: 6 June 2025

Just like any prog metal fan worth their salt knows Dream Theater’s Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes from a Memory, Dave Brubeck Quartet’s Time Out is an essential jazz recording—heck, it’s the first jazz album to sell a million copies. Yet despite the fame, Time Out was still theoretically revolutionary, its experimentation with varied time signatures permanently altering the face of jazz. The odd segmentation of the 9/8 time signature of “Blue Rondo a la Turk” and the now classic 5/4 swing of “Take Five” may sound commonplace today, but in the 50s? Wild stuff. Dutch guitarist, bassist, and sitarist Barend Tromp¹ takes a page out of Brubeck’s 60+ year old book, his new album Odd Time Concepts revolving around, well, odd meters, strange time signatures, and wonky rhythms. 

Time Out’s greatest strength is that you would never know it’s in “unusual” (for the era) time signatures; at the record’s core is whimsical jazz explorations that still sound undated, full of masterful songwriting. On the other hand, Odd Time Concepts goes awry at that central tenet of writing good songs, with Tromp and his guests opting for fashion over form, resulting in a record more gimmicky than musically worthwhile.

As the record is so focused on time signatures, the rhythm section is the main draw, with the bass taking on the majority of the leads (fretless and fretted) and emphasis is placed on the drumming parts, including a feature from King Crimson alum Pat Mastelotto. The resulting sound on Odd Time Concepts mixes the blubbery bass of The Omnific, the mind-warping instrumental interplay of Planet X, and the aimless songwriting of Panzerballett and Quadvium. Tromp is a killer bassist technically, that much is clear. After a dreamy, breathy (read: flatulent) fretless intro to “Sitharsis,” a driving riff by the fretted takes over, nice and thumpy. His slapping on “Heavy Slap” isn’t nearly as funky as I’d have expected, disappointingly lethargic; the expansive, subaudible tone isn’t a favorite either, sounding too rounded without enough grit on the lower end. Moreover, while the bass riffs themselves are varied—as are the ways they interact with the keyboards, synths, and guitars—by tracks like “Thirteen” (in 13/8) in the back half of the album, the up-and-down, punchy playing of Tromp is predictable. 

Although focusing more on messing around with time signature than on interesting melodies, the guitar playing shows flashes of songwriting competence that the rest of the album lacks. The playing on “Chromatron (Parts 1-3)” has the melody decay throughout the short track, and “Thirteen” has a killer fusion solo reminiscent of Planet X or Exivious. The rhythm in “Pandrah Ka Yantra” is annoyingly distracting, but Tromp’s guitar playing matches his sitar in an intriguing pattern.

Speaking of the sitar, non-Western instrumentation is a recurrent theme across Odd Time Concepts, which works surprisingly well for the record—but is frustratingly underutilized, leading it to come across as yet another gimmick. “Sitharsis” and “Pandrah Ka Yantra” both have banging sitar parts, interwoven well within the jazz. Sticking within South Asia, “Heavy Slap” has a random tabla, although that isn’t employed as naturally as the sitar. Finally, moving a bit to the East, and “Gamelan Sepuluh” features a strong Gamelan melodic theme, a decidedly successful exploration into the sound. However, their inclusion makes Odd Time Concepts all the more frustrating as the record abandons its good ideas and sticks with the worse ones. For instance, the synths which populate many tracks either sound like they’re from a Halloween soundtrack (“Madhuvanti”) or are full of reverb. For some reason, though, Barend Tromp has his mind absolutely set on implementing dub² throughout the album, more than the sitar even. That experiment, unlike his South (-east) Asian explorations, doesn’t work well, the electronic effects at odds with the more traditional, human-centric jazz fusion. 

Odd Time Concepts sticks with lame gimmicks while leaving its best ideas out in the sun to be forgotten; the record is ostensibly rhythmically focused, yet its highlights are in the guitar and sitar leads. Barend Tromp and his troupe are talented jazz musicians, but they need to step back and look at the masters like Dave Brubeck to escape the shadow of the gimmick. Odd Time Concepts alone do not make an album.

Recommended tracks: Sitharsis, Chromatron (Parts 1-3), Pandrah Ka Yantra
You may also like: Panzerballett, Coevality, Soften the Glare, Planet X, Quadvium
Final verdict: 4/10

Related links: Bandcamp | Spotify | Official Website | Facebook | Instagram

Label: independent

Barend Tromp is:
– Barend Tromp – fretted and fretless basses, fretted and fretless guitars, sitar and synths
With guests:
– Trey Gunn – Warr guitar solo on 5
– Pat Mastelotto – drums on 8
– Ron van Stratum – drums on 2 & 10
– Nathan van de Wouw – drums on 1 & 6
– Eugene Vugts – drums on 4

1. Yes, we all read it as Barron Trump first at the blog and were surprised he played jazz. This is NOT Barron Trump, though, rest assured. ↩︎
2. For context, dub is typically an instrumental form of reggae focused on studio effects like reverb and delay. ↩︎