One day near the end of my tenure in high school, my friends Sean and John came up to me in the cafeteria. "Banana, how are banana?" Sean asked.

"What?"

"Banana said, 'How banana you?'"

"What the hell are you talking about?"

The gruesome twosome giggled to themselves until I got fed up and left. It turns out that Sean had hacked into a file I was keeping online in the school computer room and replaced every third word with "banana." I guess he figured out that it was a story about how I was in love with the girlfriend he was too afraid to have sex with. None of the changes saved, but he obviously thought it was funny.

The banana story comes to mind after listening to yet another Synergy disc. I kinda dug the three that came before it, but this shit has got to stop. It's its own joke, a testament to late '70s "hi-tech" laser shows and the sounds of the future. Worse yet, it all sounds the same. This album from 1981 sounds exactly like the Synergy albums from the late '70s. This reminds me of the Windham Hill collection of new age, what with its tonal atmospheres. I'd rather listen to Celestial Soda Pop by Ray Lynch. Seriously. It's that mind- numbing. I'm sure if you played this album for someone who lived in the jungle, they'd put a crown on your head and give you a feast and a virgin. Play it for me and you'll get your head bitten off.

There's an old saying: "First time is funny, second time is silly, third time's a spanking." When I reviewed the third record in Synergy's massive catalog reissue, I let it go. I wish I hadn't.

-Jason Josephes

"After The Earthquake"

[Real Audio Stream]