''Mirrors of Embarrassment'' is an album by the American band Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit. It is dedicated to Wayne Bennett. The band supported the album by touring with the 1993

H.O.R.D.E. Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere or H.O.R.D.E. Festival was a touring summer rock music festival originated by the musical group Blues Traveler in 1992. In addition to travelling headliners, the festival gave exposure to bands, charities, a ...

festival.

Bruce Hampton Bruce Hampton (born Gustav Valentine Berglund III; April 30, 1947 – May 1, 2017) was an American musician. He was a key figure in the Atlanta, Georgia music scene, mentoring numerous other musicians who became national stars. His own musical ...

left the band later the same year.

Production

The album was produced by

Johnny Sandlin John Everett Sandlin Jr. (April 16, 1945 – September 19, 2017) was an American recording engineer and record producer. He is best known for producing albums by bands such as the Allman Brothers Band, Widespread Panic, Wet Willie, and Col. Bruce ...

, who called the band the best that he had heard. Hampton played his "chazoid", an instrument that resembled a combination of guitar and mandolin. He spent a month writing the songs for the album, after the band had finished touring behind their debut.

Béla Fleck Béla Anton Leoš Fleck (born July 10, 1958) is an American banjo player. An acclaimed virtuoso, he is an innovative and technically proficient pioneer and ambassador of the banjo, bringing the instrument from its bluegrass roots to jazz, classi ...

and

John Popper John Popper (born March 29, 1967) is an American musician and songwriter, known as the co-founder, lead vocalist, and frontman of the rock band Blues Traveler. Early life John Popper was born in Chardon, Ohio. His father was a Hungarian immig ...

also contributed to the album. "Trondossa" is built around the sound of a

Hammond B-3 The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert and first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, Hammond organs ...

Critical reception

Stereo Review ''Sound & Vision'' is an American magazine, purchased by AVTech Media Ltd. (UK) in March 2018, covering home theater, audio, video and multimedia consumer products. Before 2000, it had been published for most of its history as ''Stereo Review''. ...

'' stated: "Just imagine it—a six-string-bass jazz/funk virtuoso, a mandolin phenom with avant-garde leanings, a guitarist who'd have been a Southern-rock hotshot in another context, and a four-armed drummer (or so it seems), all coming together in a sound that combines the brisk tandem runs of bluegrass, the improvisational aspects of jazz, and the dynamics of rock." ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'' determined that "at times it's all a bit too clever and cluttered for its own good, but more often than not it evokes the open-ended possibilities that hippie-rock has often promised and rarely delivered." The ''

Star Tribune The ''Star Tribune'' is the largest newspaper in Minnesota. It originated as the ''Minneapolis Tribune'' in 1867 and the competing ''Minneapolis Daily Star'' in 1920. During the 1930s and 1940s, Minneapolis's competing newspapers were consolida ...

'' opined that "if you married two great San Francisco Bay Area bands of the 1970s, Tower of Power and the Grateful Dead, the result might sound like the Aquarium Rescue Unit." The ''

Telegram & Gazette The ''Telegram & Gazette'' (and ''Sunday Telegram'') is the only daily newspaper of Worcester, Massachusetts. The paper, headquartered at 100 Front Street and known locally as ''the Telegram'' or the ''T & G'', offers coverage of all of Worceste ...

'' noted that "the playing is spirited, the sentiment a little demented." ''

The State A state is a centralized political organization that imposes and enforces rules over a population within a territory. There is no undisputed definition of a state. One widely used definition comes from the German sociologist Max Weber: a "stat ...

'' declared that "Matt Mundy's mandolin dances with Jimmy Herring's speed-of-light guitar licks in some of this century's most bodacious Southern-fried fusion."

AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

wrote that the album was "relaxed, smart, fun music with big fat friendly shouter vocals from the Colonel."

Track listing

Personnel

* Col. Bruce Hampton – lead vocals, chazoid *

Jimmy Herring Jimmy Herring (born January 22, 1962) is the lead guitarist for the band Widespread Panic. He is a founding member of Aquarium Rescue Unit and Jazz Is Dead and has played with The Allman Brothers Band, Project Z, Derek Trucks Band, Phil Lesh a ...

– guitar * Matt Mundy – mandolin, vocals *

Oteil Burbridge Oteil Burbridge is an American multi-instrumentalist, specializing on the bass guitar, trained in playing jazz and classical music from an early age. He has achieved fame primarily on bass guitar during the resurgence of the Allman Brothers Band ...

– bass, vocals *

Jeff Sipe Jeff Sipe (born January 31, 1959), also known as Apt. Q258, is an American drummer. He is a rock and jazz fusion drummer but is proficient in other styles. He is a founding member of Aquarium Rescue Unit with Bruce Hampton. He was a member of Le ...

(listed as "Apt. Q258") – drums, vocals * Count Mbutu – conga drums *

Chuck Leavell Charles Alfred Leavell (born April 28, 1952) is an American musician. A member of the Allman Brothers Band throughout their commercial zenith in the 1970s, he subsequently became a founding member of the band Sea Level. He has served as the pri ...

– piano (tracks 3 and 5) *

– banjo (tracks 4 and 11) * Oliver Wells – organ (tracks 1 and 10) *

– harmonica (track 2)

References

{{reflist 1993 albums Capricorn Records albums Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit albums