Right after the spiral downward of Karate ended with them calling it quit, Geoff Farina is back and with a good record. Honestly after every new Karate record I couldn't identify them anymore with the band I loved during its early days, the impression of many was Karate were getting deeper into jazz rock and fusion but the result was not that good as one may have expected. On "New salt" together with Farina we have a couple of guys one of whom is from Ida, I know the equation just appeared in your mind: "Karate + Ida = emo" but don't take it for granted, infact this cd is influenced by many things but is far from the traditional "emo-sound". Farina's definitely fond of jazz but the specter is full of different colors this time. Minimal and classy drum incursions break in while Farina's guitar returns to be blessed by good taste, the guitars and the harmonium of Dan Littleton paint a psychedelic geometry that pays tribute to Velvet Underground. Extemporary structures probably accomplished through long jams, if Thela (one of the early projects in which Dean Robert was involved) would have ever been much more into jazz-rock probably the result would have been something like that. The echoes of jazz and traditional rock can be reconnected to Farina's style, but if you're into well done impros and you can try to go beyond any logical prejudice you could be surprised.