No Ordinary Day has been around for 10 years we're told, which goes a long way toward proving the point made above. Obvious sources of influence are fusion jazz, more in the vein of Weather Report than groups like Yellowjackets that took the electronics to their obvious conclusion. Rather than adopt the flashy, frenzy of a rock band, Toph-E & the Pussycats seem more interested in the moody cool of a late Miles Davis and some Latin influences to boot. Examples of the latter are evident on songs like "Opus de Tophe" and "Ostinato," while the first two bars of a song like "It Seems to Me" sound almost immediately like something out of the Weather Report catalog. Another thread throughout the album is a love of R&B and blues, where the band really shines. The first great example of this is the title track, which is about as smooth as smooth gets, and very much in the R&B realm. "Black House" is drinking the same kind of Kool-Aid, but in a more upbeat mode. As the remix of Herbie Hancock's "Maiden Voyage" demonstrates, the band isn't afraid to mash things up, as they take a Latin approach to this modal classic.
Musicality is high on No Ordinary Day, but judgment is sometimes questionable. Taste is in the ear of the observer, of course, but the vocal track included here has no place outside of a shower stall. Every instrumentalist at some point conceives of himself or herself as a singer, but few of us deserve a place in the spotlight. Other missteps are tucked away at the back of the album, including a musically interesting riff on Schubert ("Impromptoph") that comes packaged with ridiculous sound effects and a sappy backstory. A cover of Nigerian artist Angelique Kidjo's "Tatchedogbe" is interesting, but too much against the grain, both in terms of how it fits on the record and how comfortable Toph-E & the Pussycats sound playing it. Bottom line is that No Ordinary Day feels like a record made for its niche, staffed with some solid players, writers, arrangers, and studio engineers. If you happen to know these musicians or appreciate fusion jazz, you'll get a kick out of it. Otherwise, there's little here to bring Toph-E & the Pussycats above the radar.
