INDUSTRIAL:
INSEKT: Teenmachine CD
A duo that came together in the wake of '80's industrialists Vomito Negro & Klinik, this mob have been around since '89. So, can they cut it in 2006? Judging by the opening track alone, the answer to that is a resounding "yes". An EBM act that shuns guitars, they don't fall into the tried and tested pattern of starting with slow-paced atmosphere before moving into a drum-driven slab of industrial dancefloor. Instead, the opener, 'Damage Done', is a massive iceberg of slowly brooding intensity with masses of synths, drones, deep drums, densely phased vocals that are almost part of the instrumental spectrum, that all moves ever onwards with purpose and cohesion. THEN they launch into the title track with juggernaut-like rhythms that roll forward as the giant EBM machine fires up, provocative lyrics and phased vocals taking centre stage as all around the synths slide and glide, thunderous beats providing the propulsion. Throughout the rest of the album, this mix of more brooding, intensity next to nuclear force beats, stands tall and true to provide a class album that will scare the living daylights out of you as well as having you inexorably hooked. There are also two bonus tracks in the form of a Spetsnaz remix of 'Play The Game' which throws open the rhythmic door to produce a motoring slice of throbbing EBM as the sequencers take hold, while the final track is a Funker Vogt remix that also takes no prisoners as it bounces along.
JAZZ-ROCK/FUSION
GUY HALL'S PERIPHERIE: Ardour CD
Fourth album from a band that started out with shaky recordings but some great "Canterbury"-esque jazz-rock. Now, with the quality of playing, production and sound at normal levels, they've produced a 10 track album that's still got plenty of the "Canterbury" jazz-rock qualities to it, but more later era than "vintage", with a more varied set of fusion compositions. A quintet of keys, guitars, saxes, bass and drums, they play some immaculate sounding tracks that are easy on the ear at the same time as being quite complex, the mark of what made the whole "Canterbury" scene such a success. With tracks ranging from quite powerful to more relaxed, the one thing that runs through it all, is a sense of melody, so that all the compositions have structure, direction and a melodic seam that runs right through them. Occasionally, as on 'The Offshore Pirate', this can sound a bit insipid, especially when the piano takes the lead, but with some fine sax playing throughout and compositions that never stand still, any minor lapses are usually corrected pretty soon after. On some of the tracks, the band take a detour and stray into more "'80's American" fusion mode, which makes sure things are kept light and airy, but this, for me, detracts from the more solid sounding tracks that make up most of the album. However, if you like good, solid, no-frills jazz-rock delivered with all the right ingredients, this does have its place.
PROG-ROCK:br>
EZRA: Songs From Pennsylvania CD
Odd album title for a Welsh prog band which is never really explained, so we'll pass on that one! Anyway, what we have here is a quartet playing 7 songs in fifty two minutes and managing to do something with prog-rock that few have dared to tread - revive the ghost of that phrase you just don't utter - "neo-prog".
Yes, it's that time again - a prog-band that focus on the songs, but a prog band that also has arrangements that are crystal clear, crisp but more seventies in its approach, recalling more of a meeting of Yes and Argent than anything. The lead instrumentation between synths, keys and guitar rings out clearly enough but it's more a matter of solo space between the lyric portions than any lengthy instrumental passages., the nearest you get to that being the last three minutes of the longest track on the album - the eleven minute 'Changes' - where the. musicians get a chance to be free from the vocals for more than a minute. The vocals are also clear, the harmonies expansive and the songs do possess a sense of dynamics. Yet, for all of this, there's something rather "ordinary" about it all - the sort of album you listen to and want to like - really want to like - but which, at the end (for you do listen right to the end), you put away and forget, only digging it out again one day when you see it, wonder why you bought it, play, enjoy, still wonder why you bought it, and put it away again!
FROST: Milliontown CD
Two things………………
First - and I'm sorry to have to do this to you - but you're going to thank me for putting you onto this album - not just a passing nod, but bucketfuls of on-your-knees, humbly grateful and genuinely warm-hearted outpourings of royalty-courtseying thanks.
Secondly - the reason why you're going to do this is not just that this is a stunning example of modern prog-rock at its best, but that the title track is going to blow you away and then some. A track that you will play, and be so impressed with, that you'll play it again - and again - and again - never tiring of hearing it rise up and take you over.
So what's so special about this track? Well, for a start, it lasts twenty five minutes - and quicker than you can shout "seventies", let me tell you that it's not what you're thinking right now. If you can say that there is an art to taking the great and good seventies epic prog tracks and turning them into something that is not only contemporary in prog terms but doesn't at any time lose sight of its roots, then this should be prime exhibit in the Tate. Quite simply, it will take your breath away - and then some.
A quartet of Jem Godfrey on keys, synths and vocals, John Mitchell on guitars and vocals, Andy Edwards on drums and John Jowitt on bass, they have come up with a track that is so huge, the speakers can barely contain it. With his husky Gabriel-like vocals, an arrangement that sets a new seal on dynamics, a production that is unbelievably strong and playing that leaves you wide-eyed in amazement, this is one of THE epic prog tracks that you'll hear this year. Holding your attention for the full twenty five minutes, it moves through all manner of areas of light and shade, opening with vocals and keyboards, before adding guitars and you can feel already that this is going to be something special. But, even when the band come into play in their full glory, you are not prepared for the immensity of what you're hearing and the sheer excitement and listening pleasure of what's to come. I lost track of the thirty years of class prog bands that I could name-check along the way, but as a melting pot of utterly successful and mighty, dynamic and spot-on prog-rock song-writing, with plenty of instrumental passages that keep you hooked, this is possibly the best prog-rock epic you'll hear this year.
That said, there are 5 more tracks and thirty three minutes of songs and music on this album. The opening track begins with rippling piano chords and melodies so superbly played and written that immediately you're with it as, just under two minutes in, the band with guitars rising and synths soaring, plus rhythm section on fire, just shoot in cataclysmically to provide this huge-sounding tower of prog power, before it all drops back to, now faster, piano melodies as a lead guitar cuts through and just flies above the adding bass as the whole band then roar back into life once again, and the effect is both dramatic and absolutely jaw-dropping. Exuding more dynamics in terms of its arrangement along the way, this is an opening instrumental seven and a half minutes that will have you spellbound. The second track, 'No Me No You' launches right into the first song on the album with immensity and intensity as the band surge ahead, the low-down vocals and soaring harmonies rise up and the whole supercharged dynamics of it all, with synths flying high and guitars riffing madly, as the rhythm section really deliver the goods amid lashings of harmony vocals - and then suddenly it stops - for a few seconds of piano - before - blat!!! - it all begins again, an effect that is so dramatic, it takes your breath away every time you hear it, as the six minute song lays waste to every other prog contender in its path. A couple of four-five minute songs follow that are strong and strident, before we're into the ten minute 'Black Light Machine' which is solid and purposeful, strong rhythms underpinning this immense tower of synths and piano that rises up as layers of harmony and soaring lead vocals take you to heaven and beyond. Then a lead guitar scythes its way in and takes the piece into a wholly higher dimension to incredible effect - and still you're less than three minutes into the track. What follows is not only an exercise in prog writing, arranging and dynamic playing of the highest order, but it makes the epic that closes the album - which I described earlier - even more of an experience, as you reach the end of this track and think "well, surely they can't follow that!!! - only to find that they do.
If you twisted my arm behind my back and forced a comparison out of me, it would have to be the first OSI album, as not since then has a debut album carried so much before it, promised so much and delivered even more - this is solid, powerful and magnificent contemporary prog-rock with its roots intact and to describe it as "genius" would not be stretching the mark in any way at all.
DAVID GILMOUR: David Gilmour + About Face Remastered CD's
If you're a Pink Floyd fan and don't own the first album here, then you're seriously missing out on a great, consistent and cohesive album of songs and instrumentals. Away from the sci-fi imagery of the band, the songs on this album follow a much more personal trail, way more "down to earth", but still possessing all the charm that made the band such world-beaters. That the keyboards on the album are kept predominantly to a more background role, tells you that this is Gilmour doing what he wants to do, guitar in hand, rhythm section providing the drive and composing with half a head of Floyd and half his own unique visions. Thus, songs such as the heartfelt strength that is 'There's No Way Out Of Here' evoke all the same feelings that you'd get from any Pink Floyd album, only here more instrospective in terms of the lyrical content and the overall warmth, whereas a song like 'Cry From The Streets' belies an almost blues way of doing things with some stirring lead guitar, soaring vocal, backing organ and a mix of Floyd and blues that works a treat. 'So Far Away' is a six minute ballad that features some stirring guitar work, rippling piano, gentle rhythms, soothing lead and layered harmony vocals, while 'Short And Sweet' is a soul-stirring anthem that can't fail to move you. Without a less than heartfelt, engaging and enjoyable track on the album, this is an essential purchase for anyone into Pink Floyd and anyone into solid, expansive, well-written, guitar led seventies era song-writing of the highest quality.
'About Face', the second album, added a full-time keyboard player, came with assorted guests including Steve Winwood, Jon Lord & Ann Dudley, and was a much more varied, less overtly cohesive album than the first, tending to veer farther away from the Pink Floyd ship, while at the same time, not losing sight of it, either. Lyrically, this is Gilmour at his most pensive, a head full of worldly matters that relate to him as an individual human being in a world of uncertainty. The songs are full of feeling, and are in the main, quality compositions, the only gripe being they are more "over-arranged" than the simplicity of the first album - do we REALLY need the brass section on 'Blue Light' - while some of the tracks do steer a bit close to "gloomy", but overall it still has the passion if not the spark, of the previous album, and should suit anyone who wants a set of songs rather than any particular instrumental prowess.
MAGENTA: Home LTD DBLCD
So, you're an up and coming prog band, you've produced several CD's and a DVD featuring the sort of lengthy prog epics that the audience crave and received accolades for creating new millennium answers to the likes of 'Close To The Edge', 'Scheherezade' or 'Supper's Ready' -what do you do for an encore? Or more the point, what do you do for the all-important next album? Obvious - a concept album revolving around shorter tracks, allowing much greater room for variation, pace, dynamics - a chance to show that the band can really write, arrange and create within more defined and distilled confines while still providing all the feel, sound and enjoyment that has made their proggy brew such a treat to date. Which is what they've done here. Does it work? Well, yes, if you like this sort of thing! Let me explain.
Essentially, a concept album, the approach is to produce 15 tracks over sixty seven minutes of music, from a couple of minutes to over eleven, although most tracks revolving around the three-six minute mark, some linked, some not. The sound is a sort of "Renaissance-meets-Camel' type of mix for the majority of the album. Everything is mixed, produced, arranged, played and sung to perfection - and that's the problem, for me - it sounds just SO clinical, so clear, so perfect that they've sucked the life out of it. There's no bite, no attack, no danger, no intensity - there are plenty of dramatics, tons of melancholy, occasional blue skies on a cloudy day and it oozes seventies references from every pore - but it's not EXCITING. However, for those prog fans who jut want an album with which to curl up by the fireside, then this is that perfect pet - it's enjoyable on a serene and sedate level, features a fair few instrumental passages (although nothing remotely resembling the epics for which they've become more well known) and the playing is exemplary. As to the song and the vocals, well, you can't fault the singing, that's for sure - Christina's voice is pure and effective - what I would criticise is that the production is as dry as a ship's biscuit and the songs don't exactly make you want to go out and party! So, you get the picture. Many of you out there who want their prog rock to be safe, dramatic and slow as opposed to intense, fiery and raging, will love this album for years to come - and you can't say fairer than that.
Now, for the lucky few, there's a bonus disc - another concept album of forty minutes length featuring four tracks each between eight and eleven minutes long, called 'New York Suite', and right from the start, although still obviously symphonic, it's immediately more optimistic than most of what's on the main album, sounding more expansive - still with that incredibly "flat" production - but with at least more of a warm feel to it. But, once again, around four minutes in, the effect drops down to just piano and vocals before the Yes-like harmonies reappear - in fact a good deal of all this track sounds like early seventies Yes - as the track climbs and does what the band do best - last longer than six minutes! This is clearly a band that are way at their best when allowed to stretch out, as each of the tracks on this bonus disc testifies. Although still too symphonic sounding for my liking, it is nevertheless a success where the main album falls down and I guess that has to be a bonus, if not the main reason why you buy this package.
METAMORPHOSIS: After All These Years CD
Hell's teeth..............the opening track on this CD is simply sensational!!! Then, so is the rest of the album.
Nearly ten minutes of the title track delivers everything you'd want from a band influenced heavily by the likes of Pink Floyd/Porcupine Tree/Genesis. Starting a relatively sedate pace it gathers steam and blossoms into this mighty work that will have the hairs standing on the back of your neck as the vocals subside and the band hits full steam to deliver one incredible instrumental second half to the track that will blow you away as guitars, synths, bass and drums climb from one height to the next, excellently produced and crystal clear but so powerful and absolutely classic prog-rock. Vocally, the lead vocals are superb, while the multi-tracked and harmony vocals are every bit as good as something like Porcupine Tree/RPWL. But the arrangements throughout display that sense of magic and excitement that only the best new prog-rock groups can deliver, and this is definitely another addition to that roster. Track after track gives you searing guitar work that Floyd would have killed for, and also a range of fantastic synths and keys work that gives the whole music depth and texture as well as lead roles and some incredible duelling with the guitars. All the while the rhythm section holds it all together and drives it all forward almost effortlessly but so strong and tight too. Every track is a prog-rock gem, with no fillers, and the entire album is simply awe-inspiring. Another new band and another complete triumph - you have to hear this.
METAMORPHOSIS: Nobody Cares CD
Brand new studio CD that follows the excellent 'After All These Years' an album that we were the first to promote and praise in the UK. Now comes this and it's even better. Exhibiting a maturity of sound and production that even the first could only dream of accomplishing, this is a sizzler. Coming across with strong hints of Porcupine Tree, RPWL and Pink Floyd, this is a triumph from start to finish. It's got plenty of the trademark harmonies, arrangements and even to a degree, sound, of a band such as early millennium Porcupine Tree, with powerful slowly loping rhythms, electric guitar work that electrifies, organ and synth work that oozes prog from every pore, and a vocal performance that fits like a glove. The songs themselves average around about 8 minutes each, from 5 to nearly 13, and they all suck you in to a world of quality song-writing and delivery that, like all the aforementioned bands, is more than "mere prog" but a statement of completeness - a job done well. The album as a whole is so darned excellent, it would be churlish to single anything out - the playing throughout is divine, the production perfect, the constructions powerful, dynamic, surging, intricate, muscular and multi-layered, the influences emanate from all the right places and the album repeat playable to an extent that you'll be hard pushed to believe. In short, it's magic - essential listening for all fans of any of the aforementioned bands and beyond - stunning!!!
MICHAEL PINNELLA: Enter By The Twelfth Gate
Who? Well, he's actually the synths/keys player for the prog-metal band Symphony X and this is an instrumental, studio album of forty-four minutes running time that comes over as a cross between Cyrille Verdeaux's Clear Light, Synergy & Keith Emerson. Using his myriad synths, strings, keyboards (and drums - sampled? Programmed? Not sure but they sound superb), he has produced an album that mixes classical, symphonic, progressive and majestic in one gloriously full-sounding cauldron to create a series of compositions that are highly melodic, flowing, deep and strong works of predominantly symphonic-classical sounding original compositions. Not at all my sort of thing, but done superbly, it has to be said.
PRESTO BALLET: Peace Among The Ruins CD
Right from the opening track you are thinking prog-metal in a sort of Yes-meets-Dream Theater manner, with some smoking synth leads and impressive use of organ and mellotron leading the way with some seriously smoking guitar riffing and soloing in hot pursuit as the rhythm section fires up and the soaring vocals and multi-tracked harmonies from Scott Albright take the song to even greater heights. The arrangement is both direct and yet full of twists and turns with some sparkling organ/guitar work, mid-way as the guitar then powers up even more, duels with string synths as the organ returns and the whole thing races away to perfection - a brilliant opening track. Luckily, it's not a one-off and the album goes from strength to strength in a similarly powerful musical vein, definitely prog-rock, definitely with its roots in the seventies but heavy in the same way Dream Theater are heavy. The playing, writing, arranging and producing throughout are impeccable and with tracks averaging around six to seven minutes long, there is plenty of room for instrumental sparring among the huge-sounding expansive production, as the lead vocals and harmonies veritably fly above the powerfully solid driving ensemble work. Sensational stuff, for sure.
WHITE: White CD£13.99
OK - the one burning question which you are going to want answered before we go on to review this album of songs from the Yes drummer Alan White's new band, is whether or not the vocalist is any good.
Well, if I tell you that he comes across as a mix of 70% Peter Gabriel and 20% John Wetton with a touch of Neal Morse and a few others making up the rest, then I think that will put your mind at ease - it certainly made me breathe a sigh of relief!!
So, thorny question out of the way, what's the album like? Well, imagine a collision of first album-era Asia, "90125/Big Generator"-era Yes, then add tons of 'Relayer'-era Steve Howe-esque electric guitar work, take out the syrup and commercialism and inject the songs with substance and musical cohesion, give it all a heavy coating of classic New Millennium IQ, and top it all off with a prog-metal sheen - always there but barely noticeable - and you have some semblance of what a gem of an album this is.
Being more specific, you have 10 tracks between four and seven minutes in length, most of which are full-on powerful slices of attacking prog-rock, anthemic prog-rock and a band glowing red hot. There are no soloists to single out - this is a band performance - although the guitar work is mind-blowing throughout - and we're talking the classic line-up of drums, bass, electric guitars, keys/synths and vocals. That each and every track is superb - not a filler in sight - is a testament to the quality of the musicians, production, arrangements and sheer class song-writing.
Right from the start where 'New Day' begins with the band roaring in as the song drops back to feature the vocalist before it all starts to take off and soar to the skies on this huge-sounding wave of anthemic prog-rock, the production second to none, you just know that this is going to be a class act. The fact that the vocalist can really deliver the goods, that the harmonies are immense and that the song has the hairs standing up on the back of your neck, is ample proof of your hopes that, if every song is like this, it's going to be one hell of a good album - they are - and it is!! With a towering presence, a guitar-led midsection that will have you jaw-dropped, synths that fill every part of the musical horizon, a rhythm section that sounds crisp and crunchy, heavy and dynamic, it's the perfect introduction to the album. From there, it's up all the way as song after glorious song rings out - all immediate, yet all requiring your full attention, and all a long-lasting, repeat playable pleasure that will have this CD at the front of your collection for ages to come.
If you want powerful prog with 100% song-writing class delivered by a band that are all fired up and ready to go, then this album will satisfy you for ages to come.
ZOMBI: Surface To Air CD
Fans of synths-dominated instrumental prog will love this album. Fans of instrumental early Emerson, Lake & Palmer will love this album. Fans of instrumental prog who've got a leaning towards '74/'75-era Tangerine Dream will love this album. People who think Ars Nova & Niacin are too bombastic, will love this album. I love this album - and this is why you should, too.
Opening with four minutes of 'Challenger Deep', we're immediately plunged into early ELP territory, only a lot fuller sounding, and miles better production, arrangement and bite, sounding like a band rather than three individuals who just happen to be playing the same track. The synth work soars and the rhythm section plays it tight. The other thing you notice is that, having got the "kitchen sink" approach out of their system for the intensity that was the first album, this sounds a whole lot more like the album the band really wanted to do. The four minute 'Digitalis' is synths-led prog with Tangerine Dream's '74/'75-era sequencer base, as solid sequencers underpin and drive the track to awesome heights as the synth melodies and mellotrons/strings, fly, the presence of the drums adding a decidedly '90's Ash Ra Tempel feel to it, on what is a track you wish could have gone on a lot longer. The nine minute 'Legacy' takes us back into the world of instrumental pure prog rock, less of an ELP feel to it, and just a superb slice of flowing prog with great work from the solid bass, the crunchy drums and soaring moog-like solos combined with swirling synth undercurrents, as it all spirals upwards and builds to become a wonderfully melodic but huge-sounding work of prog magic. The seven and a half minute title track, also follows this path only here we have some wicked synth bass that is straight out of ELP's 'Peter Gunn Theme' in terms of its sound rather than its actual content, and above this the massed ranks of synths flow slowly forward as strings and wailing leads provide a soundscape that will have you in raptures as the drums and bass give the track even more strength and structure, the band driving forward with purpose and direction. The final track, 'Night Rhythms', is eighteen and a half minutes long and justifies every second, opening up with a rising stream of string and spacey synths before this wicked phased synth bass enters and hums, the existing backdrops fade, then the drums crunch in, synth leads begin to soar, the phased synth bass lead return and the piece surges forward, slowly and deliberately. Then, to absolute delight, this huge mellotron lead spreads all over the mix as the bass and drums continue to roll, the effect positively inspiring. This then fades to leave a sea of swirling space synths, the drums return and tumble forward, synth choirs magically appear as the whole track takes on a new lease of life and this awesome sound spirals upwards. That then drops back, as, out of nowhere, a solid, huge-sounding, pure '75-era Tangerine Dream sequencer rhythm appears to jaw-dropping effect, the drums flowing solidly underneath as synth strings provide the canvas.and this amazing passage surges onwards as the icing on the cake comes along in the form of an almost Magma-like electric bass of deliciously solid proportions. Then the whole band light up and charge, the drums still clattering and crunching at the bass, superbly produced, the sequencers throbbing away merrily, and the band riding on, only for it all to drop back to nothing but the sequencers as the best track that Tangerine Dream never recorded, erupts into life in a blaze of sequencer heaven. This sequencer rhythm continues uninterrupted for a good couple of minutes before changing pitch, adding the drums once again, featuring more soaring strings to provide depth and expanse, as the whole piece surges ahead to even greater heights in a blaze of prog and sequencers, only for the whole thing to come to a supercharged halt - and it's over.
A stunning album and no mistake - there's nothing here that's overblown, bombastic, boring, wasted or meandering - this is the supreme and ultimate meeting of prog and sequencers, and for that we should all be eternally grateful.
