**** Moris Tepper

BIG ENOUGH TO DISAPPEAR

(Candle Bone)

What's odd about this solo album from ex-Captain Beefheart guitarist Moris Tepper is that at the center of his dark-edged surrealist arrangements is an epic sense of very adult romance. What's also odd is that the guitar's never flashy, with the tunes leaning more on an ensemble sound built of comfortably shambling rhythms, horns, mandolin, and Tepper's raw-boned vocals. In fact, it's the singing that's most Beefheartian, although Tepper carries his tunes in a more restrained, digestible way. Despite the weird fringes on Tepper's sonic architecture -- his felt-lined throat, the churning background of meshed instruments, beat punctuation that sounds like slamming drawers -- the intent of this CD is similar to that of Sheryl Crow's latest: to put across good tunes with big hooks in a likable manner. And Tepper succeeds. Get this man on VH-1. (Moris Tepper, P.O. Box 371511, Reseda, CA 91337)

-- Ted Drozdowski