Discipline was founded in Detroit in 1987, and have recently released their sixth studio album, Breadcrumbs.
The first fact to get you progheads salivating is the strong Rush connection here, with Terry Brown twiddling the knobs, and Hugh Syme providing the (striking) artwork. Also of note is the fact that the band - Chris Herin, electric guitar; Mathew Kennedy, bass guitar; Henry Parmenter, drums; and Matthew Parmenter, vocals, keyboards, acoustic guitar, violin – have partnered with the increasingly impressive Progrock.com’s Essentials.
Five pieces of music on this, but two of them epic length, so the first new work in eight long years seeks to impress long term and new fans in terms of its ambition, but does it provide us musically with the full meal, or merely small pieces to be picked up off the patio floor? Let’s find out.
We open with the title track, nigh on seventeen minutes of music to kick us off, very interesting lyrically in its discussion of the disconnect in our modern lives through the power of algorithms, and the power of simple human interaction and love. Immediately, the keyboards hit you, with the collective joining in on a distinctly fusion orientated sound, core funk, and I love founder Matthew Parmenter’s vocals, with a full range of emotive to menacing via descriptive, some of the music below him very cleverly sparse, yet conveying the intent powerfully, the piano particularly duetting so well with Henry’s methodical drum work. The “so far gone, bye bye love” passage is particularly evocative, and Herin two thirds of the way in provides us with a very thoughtful extended example of how good his fretwork is, reminding me strongly of Steve Howe in the dexterity and emotion displayed. In the manner of all classic epics, it builds the intensity and emotion as we approach the conclusion, mellotron used to suitable impact. I really like this track, a strong contender for the “epic of the year” award on the website in December.
Keep the Change is another powerful song lyrically, an anti-war or brutality polemic, the likes of Putin and those who run our lives in the corporate world not giving a fig about who they kill or brutalise. It is a song in the finest of Americana traditions. I hear CSNY, Simon & Garfunkel, the tradition of protest inherent in thinking people across the pond, the music never needing to scream at us, but quietly intensive, no better exemplified by the dark riffs four minutes in.
When the Night Calls to Day has a video, and this is embedded below for you. A tale of drunken shots and I believe of ultimate loneliness amongst the bars where instant gratification is found, but not long-term contentment. This is wistfully playful, the music recreating the easy atmosphere of the bar, some great organ work in there.
Aloft is the penultimate track, and an instrumental. At the outset, it continues that speakeasy feel prevalent throughout the work, the grooves created by Herin on the guitar prominent, perfectly complimented by the keyboards, and the very welcome introduction of the eastern pastoral violin. It sounds very much like Solstice in their finest moments as we progress.
We close with the second epic, Aria, which I think is a dark tale of love, but reticent, almost rejecting in its lack of confidence. The opening passage is, though, lighter than those words might suggest, a gorgeous touch of sensitivity from the piano and guitar, the vocals taking me back many years to the feel of the early seventies in their depiction of emotions, particularly lonely reflection, the closing segment really delicately beautiful, more barroom dexterity, I see myself when I was single many years ago, staring into a glass, lost in my thoughts of a lost love.
Breadcrumbs is a very interesting album, one that repeated listens reward the discerning music lover, emotionally acute and very moving in parts. It is well worth you checking out at https://disciplineband.bandcamp.com/album/breadcrumbs-24-bit-hi-res