ILLUMINAE - DARK HORIZONS
Dark Horizons is the album from a new project, Illuminae, fronted by Ian Jones, founder and guiding hand of South Wales band Karnataka, and on vocals Agnieszka Swita, who has a solo album Sleepless, which is now on my must buy list, but is better known for her collaborations with Clive Nolan of Arena fame in Caamora and "Alchemy. The Musical".
This is a wonderful album, which I was reminded of by my very good friend Thomas "Tszirmay". I initially downloaded it on iTunes, but this is far too good for a mere digital download, and after a couple of listens I clicked on the relevant Caerllysi Music button to get the digipack cd. Worth every penny.
Before I discuss the album in any great detail, I really must pay tribute to Agnieszka's stunning vocal performance. There are times, most especially on opener The Lighthouse and closer Dark Horizons, when I am listening to her voice, and the hairs on the back of my neck literally stand up. This incredibly talented vocalist takes you to a place that is full of joyful noise and must rank as one of the finest female performances in prog in recent years.
It has taken me until the fourth paragraph to mention the guest performances. Whilst these are important, and obviously a decent selling point for any prog project, I really must stress that the likes of Steve Hackett on The Lighthouse, John Helliwell of Supertramp fame on Sign of Infinity, Craig Blundell superb on drums throughout, as are Troy Donockley, one of my favourite musicians, and Luke Machin on lead and rhythm guitar, simply enhance what is, at its heart, a rich and beautifully woven tapestry written in its entirety by the two lead protagonists, and produced to wall of sound effect by Jones. The key word here is atmosphere, because the album has it in spades.
So, to the music, and the opener exemplifies that atmosphere perfectly. The Lighthouse opens with foreboding menace, but develops into a paean to a journey we all must take one day. The first hair raising moment comes when Swita sings out "and the weather will be clear", backed by a symphonic storm, and this has become an all-time favourite of mine already, it really is that good. Her voice is angelic, yearning, the orchestration is soaring, and Hackett adds that special ghostly cream on top, because, remember, whilst he does many guest appearances, he is choosy about what he does, and he adds as much as you would expect from a maestro. This track is worth the entrance price alone, and you are left exhausted by the power of it at the denouement.
How do you follow that? Well, with Blood On Your Hands, a thumping track about the dangers of following demagogues set at a blistering pace, but with enough space to allow for Swita to soar. Lyrically, I think that this theme owes much to One For The Vine, another (and I do mean another) classic intelligently warning us of the dangers of following madmen who pander to our worst fears and desires. Jones and Blundell form an incredibly powerful rhythm section, and, again, the orchestration is spot on.
Edge of Darkness takes us into a Gothic world of wolves, and forbidden love. The sound is thunderous, with some lovely guitar breaks by Machin especially. This is intelligent music, and Swita simply takes you above all of this to her own special place.
Lullaby initially takes us down quite a few notches, and features at its heart some of the lilting Celtic themes Jones and co do so well in Karnataka. It reminds me in places of a latter day favourite of mine, namely Feels Like Home. Donockley is stunning on pipes and whistles, and combined with Swita's gorgeous lilt, some amazing fret work, and such intelligent drumming and orchestration, at the closing When The Hopes Are High passage, the dreams become reality. Quite beautiful, really.
Jones plays an atmospheric organ to begin Twice, which is a lovely ballad I take to mean something ever so important, namely seizing the moment and opportunity for love when it calls us. Machin once again brings some wonderful fret work to the fore, and Swita simply makes you fall in love with her by this point with her yearning vocals. The history of progressive rock is full of beautiful love songs. Twice has joined that pantheon.
Heretic and Prophecy takes us back to a fairly dark place, fused with Celtic menace and cruelty. Donockley is again key to much of this. A man is a wolf to another man. The flames of retribution and so called justice, this is a very knowing and intelligent song.
Sanctuary takes us once again to some horror, with lilting organs setting the scene for a rollicking song about bloodlust. If ever Hammer should decide to remake Dracula, they should call on these two for the soundtrack. This is a song with relentless pace and focus, driven by thumping drums and bass, and Swita playing the foil perfectly.
Black Angel is more fantasy than horror, and rips along. The short chorus is gorgeous, and the sequencing is clever rather than intrusive. This is the shortest track on the album, and is enjoyable fare which does suffer a little bit from comparisons to all else here.
Sign of Infinity features a really nice piano extended piece by Gonzalo Carrera of Karnataka. The theme is once again of death and what comes after. Swita dances with her ghost, and the track simply comes alive with the blues when Helliwell adds a gorgeous sax and clarinet.
The title track closes proceedings, and is the longest track with an epic eleven plus minutes. Epic is, in fact, the word which more than describes this, and Swita again delivers her hair raising impact upon the listener. Initially, this track struck me as being a return to the theme of the opener, but upon more careful listening I think it is, in fact, about coming out the other side, reaching out for one another, some form of redemption and an appreciation of what we have and what should be to come, so pretty much summarising where many of us are right now in this pandemic. The production is crystal clear, and there is such a gorgeous guitar solo in the midpoint by Machin that you know we have a successor to Gilmour in both its feel and execution. This is not, however, a copy, a "neo" tribute, it is, rather, quite unique and the whole song rises with it with some wonderful orchestration and programming. From the final "Like an island" in the closing passages, you are once again taken to a different plain, the four main protagonists creating such a sumptuous noise it really has to be heard to be appreciated. Words are simply not enough. This is music as experience wrought large.
If any artist releases an album as good as this in the remainder of 2021, it will have to be an all-time great. This is about as good as our genre gets, and proof positive that it is well and truly alive and kicking creatively, artistically, and intelligently.
Very highly recommended. A masterpiece of modern progressive rock.
MOSTLY AUTUMN - GRAVEYARD STAR
For a band who were originally well-known for their love of fantasy epics a la Tolkien and early releases which contained more than a few Celtic and Norse mythical references, latter-day releases by this superb York outfit have been well and truly grounded in the real world. Witness the incredible dying moments story of Dressed in Voices and the achingly sad tribute to Liam Davison in White Rainbow.
Now in 2021, we are presented with a paeon to the Coronavirus pandemic in Graveyard Star, and, thankfully, it is not nearly as depressing as that brief description alludes to.
When I reviewed Big Big Train's Common Ground, I remarked that the lurgy track The Strangest Times seemed a wee bit out of place for a band who dealt primarily with English and Classical history. I have grown to like that track over the passing of the months, but, right from the outset, I had no such qualms about this album. Indeed, this album, to me, marks Mostly Autumn, and Bryan Josh as the driving force behind the collective, as one of the finest modern folk outfits the UK has produced, and by folk I do not mean the narrowly defined definition of prog folk on this site, but a genre, a way of making music and producing thoughtful and relevant lyrics grounded in the collective consciousness of a nation. This entire album is one which millions of people can relate to from bitter experience.
The title track (January 2020 in the Covid timeline) bursts into life with a deep and heavy energy. At over 12 minutes long, though, the moods swing, especially in the thoughtful passage which recalls "so much time, so long ago" pre- pandemic. The Josh axe in this passage simply sings out to us, and throughout the vocal interplay between Bryan and his wife Olivia drags us into the shared emotions of the story. In the heavier passages, Henry Rogers blasts his drum kit perfectly in resonance with Andy Smith's bass, and behind all this the sweeping panoramas of Iain Jennings' keyboards. Olivia blasts out the closing section with an energy and force which takes the breath away, and this segues into the distinctly ghostly The Plague Bell, in which Josh tells perfectly of the darkness of the emotions we all felt as lockdown descended on us.
Skin of Mankind is a wonderful track, commencing with what can only be described as a type of rockabilly meets The Shadows guitar riff ? don't be put off by that. I have fond memories of playing the cd for the first time on a journey back from visiting my son, with my wife exclaiming it was "the best she had ever heard MA!" The body of the track has at its heart a delicate and thoughtful vocal by Olivia, who continues to prove that she has a huge range, power to ballad, but always thoughtful and deeply emotional. This track is the first to feature as a guest the wonderful Troy Donockley on his range of wonderful instruments, with some fine violins being provided by Chris Leslie.
Shadows is a more "traditional" MA track, but one which all of us will relate to in its description of not being able to see our loved ones during an enforced absence and its nod to the real heroes of the pandemic, namely the frontline healthcare workers who deliver despite the worst efforts of their leaders. Nobody in modern rock music does a soaring guitar riff better than Josh, and he delivers again here.
The Harder That You Hurt is the first joint writing effort on the album between Olivia & Bryan, and it returns us to the more delicate mood. The lyrics are insightful and knowing, the stronger you are, the weaker you feel, the deeper that you bleed. The track counts the days before getting back on the road. Your breath is taken away with this when Olivia hurls out the final vocal passage, which follows a very introspective guitar solo, a change of mood which can only be described as stunning, and the power of the track at the denouement is incredible. A stunning performance.
Razor Blade is dedicated to the memory of Val & Tracey in May 2020. I am not familiar with the relationship between the band and these individuals, but it was clearly close. This is a beautiful song, dripping with emotion both lamenting lost loved ones and the desire to be able to be free to mourn. Jennings and Josh set the mood perfectly throughout, and just over three minutes in the former produces a keyboard solo which leads into the emotional vocal interplay of Josh & Olivia. The closing passage soars with the collective producing a wondrous symphonic rock noise.
This Endless War is written by Olivia, and it is rather prescient in how we all feel (no matter what our opinions on measures taken against Covid this past couple of years have been) with the dawn of Omicron. When will it all end? Once again, Iain Jennings' work is critical to the feel of this piece with a thoughtful piano chord accompanying Olivia's vocals perfectly at the opening passages. When she and the band once again open the noise in the mid- passage, the emotion comes flooding out ? "you have to let it go!" and as ever, Josh on lead guitar provides us with the lilting riffs enabling Olivia and us to do so.
Spirit of Mankind brings us to January 2021. Jennings ponds out his keys to introduce this heavy track, with the rhythm section adding dark lustre. Bryan's lyrics are extremely knowing again. He is spot on that those dark days of lockdown two brought out both the best of us and the worst of us, your reviewer most definitely included. We do take for granted all the beauty of normality, and when Olivia sings that "you stole our precious time, no chance to say a last goodbye, this ends now" she speaks for all of us.
Back in These Arms brings us to July 2021, so-called (prematurely one fears) "freedom day" in the Johnsonian parlance. This is a love song, but not merely to loved ones, but to a love and zest for life, holding one's mother and watching children playing standing in the sun. The drumbeat is pivotal to moving this track along, and the interplay between all the band members produces a foot-tapping, head-nodding ode to the joy of simply being alive and free. Donockley makes a welcome return with his trademark Celtic pipes (oh, to see Iona back!) before the closing passage frees all the senses in a joyful explosion of emotion.
Free To Fly is co-written by the wonderful Jennings and Bryan. It is a short ballad with more of those delicate piano notes and then soaring synth backing Olivia emotionally singing of the winds of change when we can be free to fly. This is quite simply sumptuous, beautiful.
Chris Johnson who replaced Davison takes the helm in co-writing and providing male vocals for The Diamond. The female (main) lead is taken by the extremely talented flautist and vocalist, longstanding collaborator in the band Angela Gordon, who struck me as being quiet up until now on the album. She provided the lead vocals for my personal favourite of White Rainbow, namely The Undertow. She has a wonderful voice, and, despite my admiration and love for Olivia's vocals, I would like to hear more of her. The denouement of the track is a joy, with Angela pounding out a lead vocal and Josh closing with a mournful guitar.
The album closes with Turn Around Slowly, the longest track at just over 12.5 minutes. As a closing piece on such a work should, it ties up all the strands and themes of the album and does so to powerful effect. Indeed, only Josh and Mostly Autumn can combine so many elements of power and soaring emotion. Witness Gordon's lovely short flute solo to a gentle acoustic guitar before Josh packs a vocal punch to a searing rhythm backing, alongside those pipes accompanying Jennings once again lifting his keys to the sky. The close lyrically takes us to the main theme and is as heavy a piece as you will hear all year.
What an album this is. What I love about this is not only the superb musicianship and production, but the way that the lyrics and themes touch me. This is achieved by the band producing a work which connects on the human, and not the political, level. Not for Mostly Autumn a rant. Instead we have a wonderful album which soars in many places, and comments in foreboding dark keys elsewhere, but never fails to forget that the period it comments upon have had a human impact, something forgotten in all the noise and data one sees, hears, and reads about in the media. That is what I mean by this being a true English Folk album, a work which has at its very heart a human and community led vision.
This is one of my top three albums of a mightily impressive year for progressive rock music.
THREE COLOURS DARK - LOVE’S LOST PROPERTY
Although not a native Welshman, I have been living here long enough to feel a certain sense of pride at the achievements of local bands. It is no exaggeration to state that the finest performers in South Wales are undergoing a renaissance, and one of my top three albums last year was the debut collaboration between Jonathan Edwards and Rachel Cohen, namely Three Colours Dark, without forgetting the intrinsically important role played by producer and multi-instrumentalist Tim Hamill.
When I wrote my review for their excellent debut, The Science of Goodbye, I expressed a hope that this would be the springboard for a longer collaboration, and now, a mere 18 months later, I and the many appreciators of class music who enjoyed that album have gotten a wish fulfilled with the release of the sophomore album, Love's Lost Property, which again, in addition to the main protagonists, features the return of guest musicians such as Dave Gregory, Steve Balsamo, and the richly textured violin of Kate Ronconi.
Indeed, it is her wonderful haunting tone which introduces us to the new work on the opener, and title track, before we are treated to a vocalist in the prime form of her career. Rachel Cohen has a beautiful voice, capable of those vital swings between ethereal wonder, sparse beauty, and menacing power. She has never sounded better and combined with a song-long guitar solo this 8-minute plus track is thoughtful, evocative, and simply a lovely infusion of melody and progressive leaning music.
Lyrically, the album continues the themes of the debut, but, I believe, concentrates more on the aftermath of that journey, the coming out of the darkness into the bright light of life. The second track, Dark Before Dawn is a bluesy number with rich inflections, with a particularly lovely keyboard underpinning the rhythm section which itself supports more evocative guitar and Cohen vocals. Just about as good as modern day prog-influenced blues music gets.
Requiem is simply gorgeous. What Edwards and Cohen do so well is present the listener with something as deceptively simple as a piano loop overlaid with a well-sung story before surprising us by introducing one of my favourite musical instruments, namely the classical oboe, played with aplomb here by Catherine Tanner-Williams. Delicate, but powerful, I rather wish this were a longer track, but this is a minor quibble.
Last Day on Earth follows, a smouldering diary meditation on our fragility and ultimate mortality. There is a further burst on this of the type of blues guitar that Gilmour would have been more than happy to put his name to, and the orchestration accompanying the centre-stage of Cohen is a delight. The closing passage raises the tempo profoundly.
Wish I Wished You Well is another thoughtful piece, with Cohen vocally soaring over a clear piano, before Ronconi returns with that lilting violin of hers. Reflecting on love's aftermath and the pain inflicted on Cohen by the subject, this is just about a powerful a ballad as you will hear this year. Music does not need to be played at 120 decibels to be powerful. This is power, and it segues into The Circus, another meditative piece on the soap opera which is life and love featuring more of that beautiful violin at its heart and a toe-tapping underscore. As the sounds of the circus itself close, we are introduced to the new single which has been available on YouTube and Bandcamp for a couple of weeks now, Ordinary World.
Now here we place before you a wee bit of advice. Be openminded. Ordinary World is a cover, and what is more, it is a cover of a single released by those lovely looking lads of the 80's and 90's, Duran Duran. Yep, that's right, those New Romantic heroes of yesteryear, and there will be many reading this review who will wonder just what on earth it is doing on a progressive rock site. Well, believe it, and enjoy the sound of Three Colours Dark rocking out and creating an expansive wall of sound. The track itself was written by Simon Le Bon as a tribute to a dead friend and was performed memorably with Pavarotti at a WarChild benefit concert. Personally, I think that Duran Duran were a decent band, and their offshoot Arcadia's Election Day was one of the finest complex pop songs of its era. This is a track which will live in your memory for a long time. Symphonic opening, violin, foot-tapping rhythm which opens in much of the vein of what preceded it. Three and a half minutes in, we have some deep and dark effects backing Cohen before we listen to a wonderful guitar solo which leads us into the final couple of minutes. The guitar screams, the tempo and sound are expansive, and, yes, about as good a progressive rock track as you will hear in 2021. Open mind and open ears, ladies and gentlemen. The final bars will linger in your head for a long time to come.
The penultimate track is Eye For An Eye. Coming in at almost six minutes, I can only describe this exceptional piece as dangerous. It exudes a sense of dramatic menace throughout, Edwards' keyboard work especially provoking that sense at the opening segment and Cohen means every single word when she gracefully, but powerfully, talks about moving on. At the mid-point, you simply gawp at the speaker as Steve Simmons brings to the party his tenor saxophone. The final two minutes is about as loud and powerful as it gets with Cohen and Balsamo competing, and a guitar spitting out its anger. Really quite brilliant and exhausting, we are then allowed to come down from this feast with a reprise of the opening track and more wonderful violin and a lovely paeon to the treasure that is Love's Lost Property from Cohen.
This is an album which delights more with each listen. It is most definitely to be filed in that drawer marked "grower". As with all exceptional music, it demands patience and appreciation of the listener, and those of you who love female-fronted melodic prog will be all over this and your patience will be richly rewarded. It has it all. Haunting melodies, blues-infused passages, symphonic prog, classy musicianship, crystal clear production and the sound of an ensemble at their peak.
This is very much a progression from the wonderful debut. It really is an exceptional piece of work which strikes a deep chord within me, and I know it will for those of you reading this who share my musical tastes, which I hope are eclectic in the true meaning of that often misused word.
The physical album is available from Burning Shed from 6 September, and you can also download it from Bandcamp. I might also add here that the cover painting is worth the price of a physical copy alone.
My thanks to Three Colours Dark for providing me with an advance digital copy for the purposes of this review.
BIG BIG TRAIN - COMMON GROUND
So, here we are in Summer 2021 with a pared-down 'Train. There has been a wee bit of a mass exodus from the band, for reasons which I admit are not wholly clear, and for this album we have a core fourpiece of David Longden on vocals, founder Gregory Spawton on bass, Rikard Sj'blom guitars, keys, and backing vocals, and last, but by no means least, the wonderful Nick D'Virgilio on drums and vocals.
Thankfully, for me, they have replaced Rachel Hall, the departing exceptionally talented violinist & vocalist, albeit on what appears to be a session basis, with Clare Lindley and Aidan O'Rourke, and other guests appear, together with the wonderful brass band ensemble.
So, most definitely the start of a new era. Is it any good? A question I asked myself with a little bit of trepidation when the cd plonked itself through the letter box on 30 July, and which I have been pondering since. The great record-buying public of Great Britain certainly seem to think so, because it debuted at an impressive number 30 in the charts upon release.
To begin, let us say that this is definitely (by the band's own separation on the cd booklet) a disc of two halves, and many comments I have seen around the weird and wonderful interweb suggest to me that opinion is sharply divided.
For a band who have made a (glorious) career out of writing epic songs about the past and England's role in that history, it comes as a wee bit of a shock to have an opening track, The Strangest Times, dedicated to the 18-month Covid-19 lurgy period of varying lockdowns and restrictions. Given the rather depressing subject matter, it is actually a bright and breezy piece of music which moves along at a fair old rate assisted by some understated piano work and frenetic fretwork, and it is a piece which has grown on me somewhat with repeated listening.
The second track, All the Love we can Give, is easily the most difficult to get one's head around. Written by D'Virgilio (and I might mention here that I have found listening to his latest solo work, Invisible, difficult to say the least), it features Longden singing in a tone several octaves below his usual floating range. However patience does bring its usual reward, and especially pleasing are the ensemble vocal harmonies, with Carly Bryant especially sounding very nice above Longden. Musically this is a stripped down 'Train, with the extended mid-track instrumental pretty noodly, and NDV treats us to a couple of sung verses, and whilst I now enjoy the track as a whole, it is not going to be a regular on any BBT playlist I create.
Black with Ink is the first Spawton written piece on the album, and Longden is mercifully reinstated to his wonderful full self, and Bryant contributes some lovely vocals, which should make watching her live next year something to look forward to. This is a very pleasant track, and three minutes in we have the first recognisably progressive segment of the album, with some very pleasing guitar and mellotron/Hammond keyboard work by Sj'blom. Deliberately retro in its feel and execution, the closing guitar led section is the first which takes you to that higher plane the band execute so well.
Dandelion Clock closes Part One, and is another Spawton effort, and is a short four-minute pastoral piece of music which quite honestly would not have sounded altogether out of place on Nursery Cryme. This is a very nice, calming, track which will hopefully convince those English Electric bastion of fans who might have been thinking that BBT had lost their collective marbles.
So, onwards to Part The Second, and what a treat it is. If what preceded it was good (and it is), we are now into full- blown BBT prog excellence with two instrumental pieces, namely Headwaters and Apollo. The first of the two is only a couple of minutes long and is a rather lovely Sj'blom piano solo, delicate and beautiful, the sort of track you will put on your headphones whilst lying under the sun in some meadow surrounded by nothing but nature.
Apollo clocks in at just shy of eight minutes. It is a fine ensemble piece, and it is great to hear Longden on the flute here, with Aidan O'Rourke providing a flowing violin line. Once again, we have those old-fashioned keyboards, and these are then three minutes in augmented by that all together fine brass ensemble. This track is BBT at their very best. Yes, it does have a retro feel to it, and this is quite deliberate, but you can only really sit back and let this wondrous noise, with its time signature changes and wall of sound, wash over you. A mighty fine mini-symphony, and easily a highlight of the decade, let alone the year. Play it loud, with the sunshine above you.
The title track follows, and this is Longdon's second of the album. This is another relatively short track, and is again a relaxing pastoral piece, which proclaims our shared humanity and revels in it. Upbeat and very welcome, especially the closing segment featuring more lovely flowing violin work supporting a gentle riff by Sj'blom.
Atlantic Cable is split into five movements over fifteen minutes of music, so this is the true epic of the album. The first part is a lovely flute and piano segment, strongly pastoral and thoughtful before moving into a more traditional folk-rock track. The subject matter is that of bringing together people separated over vast land masses with the building and use of phone line technology, and the final part of the track reprises the Common Ground theme from the title track through a beautiful gentle close following the crescendo which introduces it. Once again, Longden really does shine with some wonderful vocals (track two now being completely forgotten), and he is backed once again by some perfect harmonies. The whole musical experience tells a story, with the tempest of Lightning Through Deep Waters especially riveting leading to that gentle close. A wonderful piece of music which most certainly will figure on that BBT playlist.
The album closes with Endnotes. Another Spawton track, it is again a gentle start with lilting Longden vocals over violin and piano-led soundscapes which puts one in mind of smoky barrooms. The final three minutes once again bring in those smooth brass instruments, and this segment puts me in mind of (to me) the band's finest hour, namely Victorian Brickwork. Certainly, Longden reproduces the dripping emotion of that fine work, ably supported by the dreamy music. What a fine way to close a fine album.
This is an album which delights, and rewards persistence. It is an album which reaches out and fills the listener with that joy of life, moreover of that shared experience of living on Planet Earth. It proves that it is possible to make such proclamations without being overly preachy or pointing fingers at one's listeners. The album, in my opinion, cements BBT as the natural English Progressive Rock standard bearers (and, yes, I know that this is an international ensemble, but the music most certainly is not) and successors to the crown once worn with distinction by Messrs Gabriel & co.
Not quite the perfect album, although Part Two easily qualifies for this rating, but nonetheless for an excellent work which should deservedly figure on most respectable prog writers top ten list for 2021.
RAVEN SAD - THE LEAF & THE WING
Raven Sad are an Italian band hailing from Tuscany, listed here under Psych as opposed to RPI.
The Leaf and the Wing, released in 2021, is their fourth album, albeit the first since reforming in 2017 following a six-year layoff. This album has been one of the most pleasant surprises this year for me, having picked it up following a favourable review elsewhere in the prog universe. Band founder Samule Santanna is a fine guitarist, and he is joined by old cohort Fabrizio Trinci on keyboards, with new band members Gabriele Marconcini, the lead singer, Marco Geri on bass, and Francesco Carnesecci on drums.
Growing older, and hopefully wiser, I am not a huge fan of labelling works by their supposed sub-genre, so it is sufficient to say that this is very much an atmospheric work which rather escapes such categorisation. There are many highlights.
The album is bookmarked by two instrumental tracks, Legend #1 & #2. The initial piece is a perfect introduction to the type of soaring sounds we hear all over the album preceded by a Floydian talk-over. The closer brings proceedings to a close with five minutes of an ensemble beauty which provides perfectly the conclusion to the work I describe below.
The Sadness of the Raven is a thoughtful track, whilst City Lights and Desert Dark features at its core a vocal which reminds me very much of one Yusuf Islam, or Cat Stevens as he was previously known, and some wonderful riffing by all concerned creating a mid-track wall of noise, with a wonderful, soaring guitar solo by Santanna which segues into a beautiful, brief, coda.
There are two 10-minute plus epics on the album. First up is Colorbox, a monster of a track clocking in at 13 minutes, and my favourite here. It opens with a quite lovely harmonic vocal overlaid on a piano chord before entering a far darker (again brief) phase. This then takes us into the main segment, which twists and turns in its themes and musical textures, but with that lovely "wake up" vocal at its core. Marconcini can make you sit up and take notice, because the hairs on the back of your neck are rising when he hits the top notes. The closing third is just gorgeously dreamy with piano and a deceptively powerful rhythm section backing more soaring guitars before the lead vocal introduces the close with intensity. Very powerful and very classy progressive rock.
Approaching the Chaos is a heavier track, but with some interesting fusion cemented within. A sense of deep foreboding is expertly created in this instrumental story which then takes us to the second epic, Ride the Tempest. When said Tempest arrives a third of the way in, following a deceptive calm, it hits you straight between the eyes, but once more the moods and tempos change as we move through the track with such intelligence. The easy option would have been to provide us with crashing riffs throughout, but the band take us on a journey, at once with beautiful guitars, then with thumping drum and bass underscored by some looping keyboard work. The closing segment features a mournful cello solo.
Absolution Trial is simply a joyful heavy prog piece of music, perhaps not as subtle as all else here, but certainly foot-tapping and head-shaking execution before the close once again has those soaring guitars and delicate vocals underscored by rhythmic excellence.
What we have here is a work whose musicianship is never less than exemplary, with vocals that lilt all over your sound system, and a sense of yearning throughout, and by far the best (what I have interpreted as a) commentary I have heard on climate disaster since the wonderful Disturbance Fields by Edison's Children, to which I feel it is worthy of being compared both in scope and in execution. The production is crystal clear, and the album is available via Bandcamp. Oh, and the cover is to die for as well.
Highly recommended - an album I hope marks the long term re-emergence of a talented outfit
SYLVAN - ONE TO ZERO
One To Zero is German outfit Sylvan's 10th studio album, and there has been a gap of six years since the last opus, Home.
On this, we return to the world of concept albums, and the concept in this intelligent work is that of a story dealing with the birth, life, movement to self-realisation, and ultimate demise of an artificial intelligence, although the demise is somewhat open to question, as I shall relate.
A grand concept, then, and Sylvan do here what they do best, that is translating such a concept into a work which is at turns thoughtful, grandiose, theatrical, and never, ever, dull. This album, as with most works by the band, does require a bit of patient listening over a period of time in order to finally "get it" and appreciate it fully, but that is time extremely well spent.
The band have always been magnificent in creating moods, and changing these at the drop of a note in order to push the story across to the listener, and this is no exception. Within the core story of the AI entity there is just as much a commentary on the one species responsible for the potential ruin of our lovely world, namely one Homo Sapiens.
At its heart, a lot of the music and delivery here is very much on the melodic spectrum of progressive rock, but the band do then create numerous crescendos and symphonic roars that simply take your breath away. Following the overture of the opener, Bit By Bit, we have the birth sequence of Encoded At Heart which has a melancholic start, but slowly, but surely, builds into a choral magnificence, and then features an achingly beautiful guitar solo by the marvellous guest Jonathan Beck, who shines throughout.
The infant stage, Start of Your Life is an extremely catchy ditty. Unleashed Power is simply a wonderful melodic tour de force, with some lovely Gluhmann vocals set over guitar and chorus. There are some orchestral strings setting the tone on Trust in Yourself, before similar moods on the exceptional journey of discovery which is On My Odyssey build into a wonderful vocal chorus underpinned by strings, guitar, and piano, one which simply takes one's breath away.
World's Apart is an extremely intelligent and knowing piece of music in which the dream of coexistence is blown away by the realisation that creators and created simply do not share the same worldview. This segues into Go Viral, a far heavier piece of music, although featuring again the most lovely guitar solo, which very aptly provides us with the final break of the AI with its human surrounded world, and the mood is very aptly set for the closer, Not A Goodbye, which is the death scene, self-inflicted, although the final couple of seconds of the track which follow a long silence as the main piece fades suggests that this is, indeed, not a goodbye. This closes the album perfectly, with a cornucopia of moods and instrumentals backing the emotive vocalist.
This album is Sylvan at their very best, an emotional journey which tells an intelligent story in a manner which takes you with them. As ever with this band, once you invest your time and energy with theirs, you are left very much satisfied at the outcome of said investment.
An excellent album, which is very highly recommended for those who simply love being carried away with the mood.
FROST* - DAY & AGE
All rather bleak stuff.
Day And Age is the fourth studio album released by Frost*, that now long-established vehicle of Jem Godfrey, perennial performer John Mitchell, and Nathan King. On this 2021 release, we have three drummers appearing, but unlike the triple-headed monster that is King Crimson, Pat Mastelotto (of that triple-headed monster), Kaz Rodriguez, and Darby Todd do not all play at the same time. Completing the line-up is Jason Isaacs, an actor whose main claim to fame in the Laz household is the fact he played the original captain on Star Trek Discovery.
Humour is a sometimes difficult tool to use in music, and especially in the altogether "intellectually superior" world of progressive rock. So, when a charming young female English voice proclaims at the commencement of the album "hello, and welcome to the rest of your life. Before we begin this short journey, please sit back, relax, and remember, enjoy yourselves? You Scum!", you either raise a chuckle, raise your eyebrows, or think to yourself, oh yeah, that's me, raise a glass to the scum making up the plebian classes of modern life. In my case, in fact, all three!
This interesting narrative moves into a nearly 12 minutes of very enjoyable modern prog as the title track blasts through your stereo speakers. The lyrics and rather dystopian tone of a thunderous beat suggest to us that we are not living and dying in a particularly progressive or positive age, and that for poor old humanity, the writing is indeed on the wall, lyrics which could easily have been written by a certain Private Fraser of Dad's Army fame. We're doomed, doomed, I tell ye! There follows a very enjoyable mid-passage in which the participants seem to musically circle each other and we the listeners, and the riffs created are deeply impressive, and special mention for Rodriguez who really does belt out the drums here. The sense of menace is heightened by the return of our young lady who ethereally voices her ubiquitous charm over the pounding riffs. The pace, if anything, quickens to a pulsating crescendo as the track ends. Extremely impressive, and as good as anything this band have done.
Those of you who enjoy Mitchell's Lonely Robot projects will find much to enjoy and recognise in Terrestrial. Godfrey's keys portray more sense of deep foreboding and there is a crushing guitar riff at the forefront of a very heavy piece of music which also contains far more subtle and quieter moments, and never fails to capture the attention.
This is followed by Waiting for the Lie, which brings us down somewhat from the freneticism which preceded it. The vocals are spacey, and the piano and electronic effects at the heart of the melody provide a satisfying contrast and a very good piece of music. At the end, our now familiar young lady exhorts us all to "wake up!", presumably just in case you have been lulled into a psych state of musical or drug induced stupor, and, indeed, quite possibly both at the same time of asking.
The Boy Who Stood Still is a story, narrated by Captain Lorca, of a boy who can, erm, stand completely still and observe the human races' many foibles in a suspended state. Godfrey creates a fascinating soundscape underneath all of this, and the basslines of King are particularly thunderous supporting both the narrative and some very good vocal harmonies. The closing section is heavy with the harmony vocals very powerful, before we are exhorted once again to "enjoy yourselves", this time by a lady of the American persuasion. A very clever track.
Island Life follows, and this is another pulsating heavy track, with lyrics now repeating the familiar refrain to enjoy ourselves, this time on our holidays, but the mood amplified by the swirling keys, looping bass, and thumping drums do not really put one in mind of a relaxing time on the Mediterranean beaches. Skywards is a relatively shorter track, downbeat but a fascinating listen with the virtuosity Mastelotto brings to the drum and percussion department. In fact, this is a track I believe could quite easily sit alongside the later Crimson industrial musical phase.
Kill The Orchestra continues this downbeat, some might say rather bleak, mood, although the music which creates this is about as diverse as it gets. It opens with a gentle vocal and simple piano arrangement, although the statement that we should kill the orchestra as they are dying anyway is not particularly guaranteed to cheer one up. As the piece moves into its main body, there is a lovely rhythm created before we are hit by a thunderbolt of alternate industrial metal riffs and the return of those gentle loops. This is a track which absolutely keeps a hold of the listener because you never really know where it is going, and I say that in a positive way. A deep bass voice advises the listener to "relax and enjoy yourselves" once again towards the close, and this does lead us into a beautiful passage of music led by swirling keys and a delicious, albeit far too short, pastoral guitar solo. Indeed, a reasonable criticism I would put out here is that the album might have been more complete with some extended examples of this.
Closing proceedings is Repeat To Fade, and this is hypnotic stuff, albeit something that might be considered as something out of your darkest and scariest nightmares. We have the main lyric of the song title alongside some very dark sound effects, screams, and operatic resonances, all underpinned by more thundering drums (Mastelotto again) and bass, but, once again very cleverly, interrupted by some perfectly lovely passages. As all this builds to a final manic two-minute crescendo of noise, and we have a psychotically bonkers voice shouting at us "enjoy yourselves! Everything is ok, you scum!"
This review is of the first cd of a Deluxe Version. CD2 contains some very impressive instrumental versions of the main body of work.
This is not an album for the fainthearted. The initial humour I described at the top is pretty much gone by the end, and what we have here is a rather dystopian view of the world, which most certainly should not be listened to intently when one is experiencing a negatively life changing experience. we might never see you again! It is a very good rock album, and it is altogether marvellous in its execution, production, and ability to hold our attention, but, by God, it is rather bleak, and perhaps not the type of album which a young Jon Anderson with his hippy perspective on the universe would have imagined progressive rock in 2021 to be about.
Recommended, but do, please, put on Time And A Word after, if only to pick yourselves up off the floor and get going again.
LIFESIGNS - ALTITUDE
John Young’s vehicle returns with third studio album, which I found a bit of a mixed bag.
Altitude is the third studio album by Lifesigns, the progressive project started by John Young, the keyboardist and vocalist who has worked with a plethora of stellar prog artists, notably Jon Anderson, John Wetton, Fish, and The Strawbs. On this, he is once again joined by Dave Bainbridge on guitars and Jon Poole on bass/vocals, alongside new drumming recruit, Zoltán Csörsz.
There is quite an eclectic mix of styles and composition here, but the honourable mention must go to what must be one of the finest ballads ever put to disc, Last One Home, a quite gorgeous paean to the power of nature, and man's mastery of it. This features precisely the kind of lush melodies, a beautifully understated at first, rising and peaking in intensity as it progresses, guitar solo by Bainbridge which should appeal to admirers of Latimer in particular, and atmosphere which ticks every single box for me. Sumptuous and a standout for the year, the closing passage is deeply moving.
And what of the rest? The title track opens proceedings and is also the longest at 17 minutes if one includes the reprise at the close. Young is a master of his keys, and the piano especially is rather lovely. There are some haunting backing vocals by Lynsey Ward before the track segues into its major passage. All four play as a tight unit, and Csörsz in particular stands out for a rather excellent drumming performance. The track includes some nice violin and cello solos by guest artists, and altogether this is a sublime atmospheric piece of music, perhaps let down a little bit by some out of place forays into more jazzy territory in the second third, although this is perhaps a matter of personal taste on my part, because the thoughtful soundscape reasserts itself very strongly to close, including the triumphant return of the strings at the denouement.
Gregarious reminds me so much of Alan Parsons Project that I had to check whether it was, in fact, a cover. It isn't, and the comparison is in no way meant to be disparaging, because they are responsible for some fine music, and this is an extremely pleasant track in the main, although the keyboard noodling prior to the closing section again, I am afraid, is rather out of place with all around it. I don't object to a bit of noodling, but I do like it to fit into the work I am listening to. As elsewhere throughout, Bainbridge produces some lovely guitar riffs.
Another exalted guest, Robin Boult, plays some lovely acoustic guitar on Ivory Tower, with gentle keys as a backdrop, and yearning vocals create an intelligent piece dealing with love and betrayal. On this piece, the move from thoughtful to more charged and pacy music works better. There is some fine fret work from Poole on bass in particular.
Lifesigns are categorised as “neo-prog” on Prog Archives, and the start of Shoreline with its signatures and feel is perhaps the most "neo" as we understand it on the album. Perhaps it is indicative of how my musical tastes have progressed over the years when I state that I find this section unconvincing, but the overall sense of the album reasserts itself from the "Take me to the shoreline" middle section before Young first with a synth solo, and then Bainbridge with his riffs, take us back again. Those of you who think that Marillion were far better with that big Scottish bloke, and Pendragon should never have progressed beyond Kowtow, will get a lot out of this track, but it is the weakest track of the album for me, I am afraid.
The other ten minute plus track is Fortitude. Bainbridge shines again on this piece, which is a very wordy track. I do wish we could have had more than the final two or so minutes of the closing instrumental passage, a wonderful keyboard led section which soars, and is, to me, perhaps an indication that this album, as good as it is, could have been so much more.
At less than one minute, the instrumental Arkhangelsk is too short to really pass judgement on, but I get the impression that the dark mood it suggests could have been extended into something quite interesting.
In parts, this is a fine album, but my overall impression after many listens now is that these are not sufficient to make this something really special as a whole, which is a shame. If I had rated this after the initial couple of listens, then my rating would have been higher, but, with familiarity, I have no hesitation in recommending it to readers of this review, but with the knowledge that it really could have been so much more.
STEVEN WILSON - THE FUTURE BITES
It’s prog Jim, but not as we know it……
When I get an album and start listening to it, I do not stop to think about whether an album is “prog”, or how “proggy” it is. I am slightly old fashioned in that my first thought is whether it is any good. Do I like it? Will I like it moving forward after that initial rush of excitement on the first few listens?
The answer to the (as far as the so-called hardcore fan base is concerned) "sell-out" electronica pop/rock album that is The Future Bites is yes. I do like it. It is clever conceptually regarding rampant commercialism and its use of technology (Follower is a very clever commentary, as well as including a fantastic guitar riff). Musically, it is as tight as one would expect from a maestro musician. In terms of its sound, it is as polished as one would expect from the man most in demand for remixes on the planet. And in the 10 or so listens thus far, each time I find myself foot-tapping and head-nodding in appreciation at what I am hearing, most definitively on the quite marvellous 12 Things I Forgot, which, perhaps deliberately, reminds one strongly of my favourite Porcupine Tree track, Lazarus.
Elsewhere, we have a guest slot by Elton John on Personal Shopper, an extremely clever exposé of all those utterly inessential "essential" items of shopping we are so addicted to, showing if nothing else that Sir John has a nice sense of irony about himself. The passage where he reels out the list of items is a dreamy sequence in stark contrast to the relentlessly upbeat opening themes, and this continues before the corporate electronica reasserts itself.
Most of the music here is beat driven and electronically upbeat, and certainly a massive contrast to the relentless, if brilliant, gloom of Hand. Cannot. Erase, although there are a couple of tracks which can be identified as natural progressions from that album in their melancholy, namely Man of the People and Count of Unease.
All in all, I admire this album and the driving force behind it. Wilson is progressing and taking his musical vision to places he wants them to go, rather than the somewhat obsessive minority who demand a repeat of In Absentia every time he records something.
In closing, I might also add that this album reminds me quite a bit of that period in the early 1980's when every "proper" Genesis fan decried the commerciality of ATTWT and Duke, and wanted Collins strung up after the massive success of Face Value. Let me tell you something. There are a great many people about now who love a lot of the music we hold dear because of the accessibility of those albums, and others such as 90125. They listened, and thought, "this ain't half bad", and explored further.
Steven Wilson is a man who I think is becoming more and more like the man he obviously holds in the highest regard (and it is reciprocated), namely one Robert Fripp, an artist and leader who spent an entire 50+ career reinventing himself and his music.
I for one look forward very much to the next instalment of Wilson's journey, because The Future Bites is an excellent album those with an open mind to class pop/prog/rock will take a great deal of enjoyment from.
And you know what? As much of a masterpiece I regard aforementioned Hand....this one will be on the deck quite a bit more often, even if it is as background whilst I work. Yep. Accessible. Easy to listen to, but still oozing intelligence in every note and word. That will do for me.