A recipe for commercial disaster: take a French multi-instrumentalist. Move him, with all his instruments, to Amsterdam, let him play with Steve Hackett (who encourages him to release an album), then send him back to France temporarily to record a second album. None of the material on that album will ever reach the radio charts, and that’s an indication that it will be played and remembered longer than most tracks that do.

This multi-instrumentalist is Franck Carducci, who sings, plays bass, organ, keyboard, mellotron and guitar – and composes his own music. The album is Torn Apart, a 65 minute journey through the world inside Carducci’s head – and as on most journey through unknown territory, there is room for joy, surprise and in some places also disappointment – but in the end the feeling of having arrived.

The journey starts at full energy with a keyboard and guitar driven opening for the title track Torn Apart. After the drums and the organ comes in, the 70s, slightly high pitched rock voice of Carducci starts telling us about a character getting stuck in life, and apparently losing his or her lover at some point. The song is short, lyrics wise, but since this opener is 10 minutes long, there’s enough room for an instrumental part that first covers every instrument and chord that Uriah Heep and Deep Purple have ever used, until everything quiets down and a whistle like sound (is this your mellotron, Franck?) sets in a tune that resembles You Can’t Always Get What You Want. This lasts for a bit (a bit too long for me actually), before leading back to an almost Rush-like instrumental part until the vocals come back in to continue the story, in a more dramatic tone this time. After the final verse, guitar and organ take turns playing good old classic rock solos to build a nice climax to the track.

The follow up track Closer to Irreversible starts a lot quieter, as a rock ballad, but soon the bass, organ and mellotron make it into something far from standard. After the first vocal part, Steve Hackett gets to show what he does with a guitar nowadays. The result is a solo that starts relatively melodic, but builds up into something fuller and faster, with additional effects near the end. After that, the track goes back to the ballad mood from te beginning, but with more room for guitar and organ. A track that has bits of 70s rock in it, but also modern guitar work and some Pendragon and IQ resemblances.

Journey Through the Mind then starts with a rocky, keyboard heavy intro, that immediately brings to mind a Styx song – and I’ll leave it up to the listener to find out which one (I know, but I like to give you all a bit of brain exercise as well). After the intro, a flute takes over, and then acoustic guitar and flute accompany the first verses. Vocals here are slightly less raw than on Torn Apart. Later on the organ wailing under the vocals reminds me of Bootcut, a side project of Beardfish keyboard player Rikard Sjöblom. Near the end we hear the Styx riff from the intro again, but the surprise of this track is the real ending – a full minute piece of tabla (a hindu drum) and sitar, which somehow fits but has nothing to do with the rest of the song.

The short piece (2 minutes) Articial Love, is full of Yes and Genesis influences, but with a modern touch. Funny bit is the guitar that at a certain point seems to sound like a violin, if ever so briefly.

After this, a longer part of the journey takes us through the 12 minute epic A Brief Tale of Time. The four pieces that form this composition are easily distinguishable. The first one, The Quest, is a dramatic piece, with high pitched vocals singing about a character on a journey toward its impossible, secrete love. The organ makes it grow fuller near the end, to introduce the second part Higher and Higher. Here, the organ disappears in favour of bass and acoustic guitar, while Yes like goals sing about the same character getting energy from its (answered?) love. However, suddenly the mood becomes darker and keyboards come in – giving a gloomy feeling, which is confirmed by the closing verse, which explains that the flight of love has taken a dangerous turn, tearing the lovers apart. This accompanied by a ‘square’ hard rock keyboard and guitar piece. A Genesis like guitar fades slowing into part three, 2078: Möbius Trip, which seems to be a time loop. This part consists mainly of electronic sounds and noises, possibly mimicking a time machine. A computer voice tells the character to go away and meet its destiny. When the noises stop, we are in part 4, Back to Reality, in which the character accompanied by the piano and Hacket like guitar tells us that ‘nothing lasts forever but impossible love’.

If that is so, a Girlfriend for a Day may be a better idea. A rock ballad with piano and moog explains that. However, it’s a short one, and when you feel the drums are taking you into the song – that is actually the end of it. Surprise!

Instead, Mr. Hyde & Dr. Jekyll take us into a real classic rock piece, with lovely guitar and bass work. The Jekyll-Hyde theme is reflected in the song, which consists of two rocking parts interleaved by two more laid back parts before the full blown hard rocking outro (note the organ and the bass doing their job more than brilliantly!!)

After that, the actual (but not real) closing track Artifical Paradise keeps us busy for another 14 minutes. Lyrics wise, it could have fit 3-4 minutes or less, so we’re actually treated to a lot of instrumental work. There is a Genesis like piece with a melodic guitar (which for a second I though played the Phantom of the Opera tune) after the first verses, which then grows into a more full blown symphonic part. Then a short break with children’s voices takes us to a Spirit of Radio like part, which then drops into a part where the guitar thinks about ‘going Firth of Fifth‘. The organ pushes it away however to make room for a ballad like part with piano and acoustic guitar that develops into the final verse.  A 2 minute single note on the mellotron ends the track…

The only real disappointment on the album is the bonus track School, which is a lot like the original, but lacks it’s power and energy. The reason is probably the fact that it’s a bit slower than the original, and the vocals are a bit lower (and less piercing) than on the original Supertramp track. Maybe I like the original too much, but I wouldn’t have regretted it if this track was not on the album.

Overall, also after listening to his debut Oddity, Franck Carducci has delivered a fine album. I hear a lot of influences from the past that may make it a bit old fashioned for some, but the great musical skills of Carducci and his many guest musicians make up for that and sound and production wise it is a fine, modern album. Give it a try, and if you like, tell others to do the same!

(Also published on ProgArchives.com)

Belgium is just across the border from where I live. Belgium is also the country where Pink Floyd, Gary Moore, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, The Doors and Lynyrd Skynyrd live. They all live in the house of Stef and Yolanda Flaming, and the houses of their band members in Murky Red. Actually, in the dark 1960’s and 1970’s I suspect various members of aforementioned bands got together in some weird orgy that led to the procreation of Stef, Yolanda and their fellow band members Patrick Dujardin, Luk Lantin, Rene Marteaux and Marie Vancamp. There is no other way to explain the influences of all these bands in the music of Murky Red.

The starts immediately in the first track, I Came A Long Way, which starts as a rock song, but quickly goes into a slightly psychedelic mood, topped by a Pink Floyd like instrumental section, with a guitar solo in the same vein.

In the follow up On New Year’s Day, Stef sings about what we all want – peace on earth and fireworks to celebrate on New Year’s day. This is accompanied by another mellow, slightly psychedelic acoustic guitar initially, but a wall of guitars is quickly build up to make this into a very solid, dark rock song.

The slow dark guitar track Galadriel is something completely different. There is a guitar riff in the opening that reminds faintly of Black Sabbath’s Iron Man, and the feeling of the song is as dark as that one, until suddenly not Iron Man but Iron Maiden takes over, with a Wasted Years like guitar supported by a growling bass. That builds into an almost symphonic piece, with keyboards, bass and a choir like backing vocal support a melodic guitar solo and the voices of Stef and Yolanda repeating the list line of the song.

Then the scene changes and we find ourselves in the land of the blues, with Cold Outside. This song starts as a slow blues, where the guitar seems to be based on a marriage between Gary Moore and David Gilmour. How much mo(o/u)re can you put in single song? The deep, and slightly raw voice of Stef tells a real blue story, making this a great blues rock track.

I give my soul puts another set of options in the mix. This is a 70’s rock track, which reminds me of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, but with Yolanda on vocals it also brings to mind Fleetwood Mac’s Christine McVie. And again… a Gilmouresque guitar solo.

Then it’s time to leave the planet, on a spacy trip to Saturn. This is a somewhat heavy psychedelic rock track, with lyrics that seem like a prayer to the planet with the rings. No Moore or Gilmour here, but loud, dirty guitars near the end, and a surprising little piece of horror movie piano after everything else falls silent at the end.

Back on earth, we jump in Stef’s car and drive off to Last Chance Hotel, which is best described as a ‘Lynyrd Skynyrd meets The Stooges and The Doors on their craziest tracks’. Up tempo, with a fun guitar riff, this track is all over the place. We can only thank Yolanda for taking us to a more quite place on the next track Willow Tree, so that we can dry up from that sweaty road trip. A beautiful, relaxed track that makes you think ‘who was Sally Oldfield’? The backing vocals by Stef are so subtle, certainly for such a big man, that they almost go unnoticed, but have to be there at the same time to make the song complete.

The last three tracks are the best part for me, starting with the dark, sturdy and slightly heavy Boots for Hire, yet partly inspired by (really, Stef said so!) Father Abraham’s Smurph Song. Listen carefully, and see if you notice… This track starts as slow psychedelic rock, but develops into a heavy blues rock, with great driving bass play, while Stef utters the weirdest lyrics on this album. What do you mean, ‘plastic bitches in repair’??

Heal My Bleeding Heart starts a 6/8 blues rock track, with vocals that initially remind me of Ozzy Osbourne, but it quickly develops into something that is more in the vein of Pink Floyd’s The Wall. Maybe this is where the band decided to describe their music as ‘Pink Floyd meets the blues’. Yet again, a song featured by a very slick guitar solo. This track features Colin Tench on guitars – who also is responsible for the superb mixing and mastering of this album.

Closing track Black Beast Rising once again confirms the link to psychedelic space rock. It’s slow, dark, yet melodic in a way and builds up what some would call a sound scape underneath Stef’s vocals.

Murky Red have their own sound, which is a mix of all of the above, in different combinations. Still, everything seems to fit together, resulting in an album that contains varied sounds, but always recognisable as Murky Red. We had a discussion on coherence on albums on ProgArchives.com recently – I think this album would’ve been a good show case here.

Tracks that impressed me most are, as said, the last three and Cold Outside. I’m curious to the next album, which is due later this year if all goes as planned. Recommended for anyone who likes to try something new, but also likes the old.

What happens if you take the best things of almost 50 years of psychedelic music and space rock, a bit of jazz rock and add a bit of 21st century technology and composition techniques? Depending on who you are, it could go two ways: either it becomes a mess or you end up with something bordering brilliance. If you are Marco Ragni, you end up with an album called Mother from the Sun, that easily fits the second way.

When Nick Katona of Melodic Revolution Records asked me if I wanted to review the album, I had never heard of Marco Ragni. That’s a risk of course – reviewing something you don’t like is not a fun thing to do, and in cases like this, it likely doesn’t help the person asking for the review. After listening to a single demo track (Into the Wheel of Time) I agreed to review, because I was surprised by what I heard.  First of all because I really liked the music, but also because this happened around the time Pink Floyd‘s The Endless River was released. I was having discussions on what that band could have delivered if they had composed new material in 2014 instead of releasing recordings made 20 years ago. What I heard in that first track of Marco Ragni’s album seemed to be one of the possible answers to that question. It was, and it wasn’t, because of course Pink Floyd is Pink Floyd, and Marco Ragni is Marco Ragni. Reality is that Ragni does put down a fine piece of psychedelic progressive rock with this album, that addresses the struggle Man’s dealings with Mother Earth. It is a double CD, of which disc one addresses the gradual destruction of our planet by human behaviour, and the rising consciousness of this fact, and disc two goes on about what happens once Man re-establishes the balance between his behaviour and the rest of nature, after going through a process of inner growth. All of this is laid down musically in a style that is related to, but different from that of bands like Pink Floyd and Eloy, that also shows some jazz rock influences , but is at times also a bit heavier than aforementioned bands – in a way that resembles Porcupine Tree at the time of The Sky Moves Sideways.

It is worth noting, before looking at the tracks, that Marco Ragni is a multi-instrumentalist, and takes care of all lead vocals, bass guitar, keyboards, mellotron and drum’s programming (no real drummer on this album, unfortunately), and a large part of the electric and acoustic guitar playing. On acoustic guitar, Giovanni Menarello and Davide Gazzi play along on some tracks, while Enrico Cipollini plays electric guitar on two tracks. Enrico di Stefano plays saxophone on four tracks and Luigi Iacbone adds a flute on three others. Backing vocals, where applicable are taken care of by Marco’s girlfriend Allesandra Pirani (who also wrote a large part of the lyrics), Pamela Anna Polland, Silvia Mazzetto and The Bizarre Talisman Choir.

The opening track of Disc One (The Rise and Fall of Human Heart) is the same one I heard as a sample of this album Into the Wheel of Time. It immediately feels like a modern era Pink Floyd, with the keyboard opening that develops into a solid guitar solo. The vocals are slightly high pitched, and maybe on the edge of Marco’s range, but not unpleasant to listen to. At the end of the track, we are treated to very nice saxophone solo, with a slight jazz rock touch to it, accompanied by guitar and bass.

This is followed by Sea of Vibes, the first of three very long tracks (15+ minutes) on this album. This one does honour its title, it literally is a sea of vibes. The acoustic guitar intro and the first two verses reflect happiness and bliss, followed later by fear and a form of despair. All of this is reflected in the music – the acoustic guitar part is followed by a guitar solo, and a sort Porcupine Tree like soundscape in which guitar and keyboards guide us through the different vibes. The anger of the guitar at the end matches the despair of the last verse ‘I haven’t strength to face you, I haven’t planned to change this flow’…

The acoustic one minute interlude Panting again brings to mind Pigs on the Wing, in terms of sound, but only slightly. It leaves Man catching his breath after a first realisation that something is going wrong.

I called Painting an interlude, because it separates Sea of Vibes from the second long track on the album, Haven of Marble. This one is about the damage Man does to our planet, and reflects some of the discussions between those involved and those opposing it. It starts on in a melodic, mellow way, but develops into another soundscape that ends with an angry guitar solo. The final verse, accompanied by acoustic guitar seems to bring hope, while the sound of a clock suggests time is ticking away. The ending is instrumental, with another saxophone solo accompanied by keyboards, leaving us in a slightly minor mood.

Faint Memory then is another short piece, with acoustic guitar as the main instrument, accompanied by background sound effects. Man starts to regain his feelings for Mother Earth.

The Light is Burning is the second short piece, which tells how Man realises his mistakes, accompanied by a late ’60s guitar sound, and a matching psychedelic guitar solo. It is followed by Turning back the Clock, which features multiple voices (all Marco’s) in the lyrics, accompanied by acoustic guitar. Man finds out what really matters: “Only now I realise, I’ve been wrong the whole time”

That is the bridge to Disc Two, entitled The Awakening of Conciousness. This disc opens with the 22 minute long track, Far Beyond the Line. Spacey keyboards and guitars accompany the vocals that descibe Man’s ‘awakening of conciousness’. Once the vocals stop, the acoustic guitar and flute (or is it a synth on this track?) allow the listener to visualise for himself what man has done and has to do next. Then, a sudden electric guitar seems to reflect Man pulling out his own hair in despair while finding out how to continue. This leads to a 1980s Gilmouresque guitar piece accompanied by church choir like chants, which is then followed by Man’s desperate confession of past mistakes, accompanied by acoustic guitar again. After the confession, a long instrumental part starts, with a slick guitar solo, and saxophone and keyboards building another psychedelic soundscape. The vocals and electric guitar return for a final verse, about Man returning to active duty as maintainer of our planet, and a somewhat trippy instrumental part. The multi-vocal chanting and screaming at the end is a surprising part, that does not and at the same time does fit the track.

After this challenging piece, a short instrumental The First Time I Saw the Sun with piano and electric guitar leading, brings us back to quieter atmospheres, paving the way for Skies Painted by the Wind. As the vocals tell how Man sees that his efforts to re-establish balance with nature are working, the flute underneath an acoustic guitar mimics the wind that paints the sunny sky.

The positive mood now continues into In the Air. The acoustic guitar is replaced by a picked electric one, but the flute remains, as Man walks through the fields and talks with the earth, the wind, the sun and the rest of nature. Marco Ragni’s bio mentions his interest in the Californian hippie culture of the 1960s – this song would have fit in that time and place perfectly.

The walk through the fields ends with Man breathing and enjoying the air, in the short acoustic and electric guitar piece Breathing that again features some very nice saxophone work. With filled lungs, Marco continuous singing in a lower register (closer to his natural voice, from the sound of it) on Northern Light. The way this is sung, combined with the fuzzy guitar sound somehow bring the feeling of balance, man becoming one with nature again: “Feel me, I’m a part of you”. This carries on into the short outro Mother from the Sun, in which programmed strings and a simple guitar accompany the closing lyrics.

The final word of the lyrics is “Begin“, and that is what I did after the record ended – begin again, for another listen. Partly to make sure that I heard correctly what I heard, partly to find out if there was more to be heard. This album is so long, and so much is going on that it is easy to miss things, but also to discover new things on every listen. In a way, this is one of the nicest albums I’ve heard in the past 10 years, and it will get a lot more playing time for sure. Highly recommended for fans of Pink Floyd, Porcupine Tree, psychedelic rock in general, or Marco Ragni himself.

“As we approach the gates, the trumpets sound. The gates open, and A New Era is about to begin, as we enter Progeland.” That’s the idea I get when I hear the opening track of the album Gate to Fulfilled Fantasies by the Finnish band Progeland – brainchild of bass player Perry Lindström, who also released albums with Corvus Stone and Voice of the Enslaved this year. On this album, for which he wrote all the music, Lindström is accompanied by Tomi Murtomäki (vocals and all lyrics), Juha Kaski (keyboards), Matias Kangasniemi (guitars) and Pasi Manninen (drums). The aforementioned gates are visible on the beautiful album cover – Sonia Mota took care of all the artwork.

As mentioned, the album opens with A New Era, which is a keyboard piece that resembles horns blown at the walls of Jericho (anyone remember Helloween?). This is followed by a Dead Calm Waters, which is best described as Progeland’s own Easy Livin’, driven by a rhtyhmic pounding tandem of guitar and organ, on top of a rock solid rhythm section. Don’t play when driving. Or, on second thought… why not?

Once we leave the calm waters, Solar Boat leads us through a slow, dark intro that develops into a guitar riff that returns a few times in between versus and is accompanied by a keyboard piece that makes you wonder whether a flute would’ve fit here as well. The song tells the story of man going to war, and eventually ending up in war, saving each others life. As war approaches and is entered, the guitar takes up more and more of the musical underpinning of the song, until it the courageous death of one of the men is announced by a Deep Purple sounding organ.

After a short keyboard interlude, Ocean, we meet a man and his beloved, sitting at the fire in One Day I’ll Be Your King. This one starts with another Uriah Heep like guitar and organ intro (and what is that bass doing there, Petri?). As the story develops further, more room is created for the singer, who announces they will have to part their ways, until he comes back for her. After this, the guitar takes over again toward the end – and bringing us to Under Ancient Skies, the most varied track on the album, with great vocals, accompanied by keyboards and a nice, long guitar solo at the end.

After the melancholic ballad So Silently (with a somewhat medieval ring to it) the album ends with Angel, in which a man offers himself to the Angel of Death. This is a slow, dragging track carried by guitar and piano, a fitting end for both the subject of the song and the album itself.

Gate to Fulfilled Fantasies is a concept album, in the sense that all lyrics are inspired by Egyptian mythology, but no continued story lies underneath the songs.

All in all, a very enjoyable experience – a classic rock album that has yet to become a classic.

Sometimes, you wake up in the middle of the night, and go out to see what is going on in the world – or just lay on your back and fantasise about it. That’s what Aisles’ album 4:45AM is about: a man doing just that, get up and stroll through the city, soaking up all the emotions he feels. Each track on the album fits an emotion he may encounter, from melancholy to sorrow, but also the feeling of strength to correct past mistakes.

All of these are different emotions, and that explains why all tracks on this album are so vastly different, despite the idea of it being a concept album. This also makes it in hard to grasp the album at first – but by the time you reach the end, you just want to listen again. My review notes show this – usually I listen to an album ‘on the fly’ a few times, and then over time I start taking notes as input for a review. Even after playing the album 10 times, my notes still showed doubt about the first few tracks, and more and more curiosity near the end. And I’m playing it yet another time while writing this…

The opening (and title) track 4:45AM opens with a catchy guitar riff, which makes you expect a straight forward rock song. Nothing is less true, this is a full blown, varied neo-inspired track with a lot of very nice guitar and keyboard work.  The instrumental Gallarda Yarura that follows is a very well done instrumental piece. At first I found it just a bit too long, but after some time you start realising that more is happening than you hear when listening to casually – a sin when listening to this type of music any way. Now the real confusion of the first few listens starts right after this, with the 80s pop alike track Shallow and Daft, which according to German Vergara in an interview is exactly that – an 80s pop alike track with a message about the shallowness of commercial radio. It grows on you, despite not being the most complicated track on the album.

After this, there’s a lot more on offer, and my personal highlights are The Sacrifice, Intermission and Sorrow.

The Sacrifice is a beautiful acoustic guitar and vocal track, in which Sébastian Vergara shows what he can do (with his brother on backing vocals), and the additon of a string quintet at the end to complete the feeling of the sacrifice being made.

Intermission is a very surprising and addictive instrumental. With it’s pulsating rhythm and the guitars sounding almost as if being produced by a synthesizer, it is an almost psychedelic rock track that stays with you.

Sorrow is the highlight of the album altogether, with a varied mix of melodies, instrumentation and great vocals. It also shows the one weakness of this album: the balance between highs and lows in the mix. It’s not only because my own main instrument is bass that I feel the bass side of the sound spectrum is lacking on this album, only Sorrow seems to be more balanced in this respect.

The two remaining tracks Hero and Melancholia I will not describe in full detail here, but they are of the same quality as the other tracks.

This album is really what some would call a ‘grower’ – and exactly why I never would write a review based on a single play of an album.

(also published on ProgArchives.com, thanks to German Vergara for providing a review copy of the album)

A good voice, an well composed melody or the overall mood of a song may surprise you, and sometimes a band manages to deliver an album full of that. The self title debut of Light Damage, is such an album.

When I play it, this album grabs my attention from the first second.

The opener Eden, starts with a guitar and tubular bells ticking away like a clock, before building up into a guitar driven instrumental that only stops to make room for a vocal part. Here, the first hint of vocal harmonies appears – promising more for the rest of the album. The track builds up to another crescendo that seamlessly connects to the next track Empty.

Right after the start of Empty, the band quiets down, to allow singer Nicholas-John to sing the opening verse. After that, the band builds up a great heavy progressive rock sound, ending in a guitar and keyboards taking turn soloing, leaving the final note to the organ that was wailing underneath all the time.

The master piece of the album is the mini epic The Supper of Cyprianus. Here Nicholas- John guides us through the story of this supper, that turns from a feat into the execution on the spot of a girl, convicted of being a witch. Luckily for all, she returns as an angel in the end. Well worked out keyboard melodies and guitar solos by Stephane Lecocq support the changing mood of the story from beginning to end.

After this story, we go straight to Heaven, another track that builds up gradually, this time with a key role for the rhythm guitar, which at times is almost metal like.

The short instrumental F.H.B. (For Helpful Buddies) may be dedicated to people helping the band, but I found nothing to confirm that. It’s features a plucked guitar and keyboard under a melodic guitar solo. Short, and uncomplicated, it is the least grabbing track of the album.

After this, Touched proves easily to be the heaviest track of the album, with a lot of guitar and interesting, less obvious keyboard melodies.

Light Damage has, by other reviewers, been compared to Sylvan, Pendragon and IQ, but also Marillion. I’ll avoid further comparisons, and prefer to think of Light Damage’s music as rooted in 70s progressive rock and later neo-progressive rock, where keyboard melodies and heavy guitar work support well executed vocal work. Nicholas-John has a very slight French accent, which leads to unexpected pronunciation in some places, but it works out very nicely.

A promising debut!

(also published on ProgArchives.com)

Belgian band Isopoda was also referred to as ‘the Belgian Genesis’ in the 1970s, and has long since disappeared from view. However, former singer and bass player Arnold de Schepper is still very much alive and kicking, and tries to bring the remains of Isopoda back to live, by means of Fossil Evolution, a band in which he plays together with his three sons and one of their friends.

Their debut album World in Motion was released in October of this year, and contains some great music, that does require a attentative listen to be appreciated fully.

A track like opener Beautiful Colours starts out slow and mellow, and just when your attention drifts away, it takes of into a well performed, melodic instrumental that resembles Genesis (and of course Isopoda).

World in Motion itself has a similar song structure, initially starts as an acoustic guitar based folk song fashion. As more instruments joins in, the song gains more power, but it never satisfies me completely, and I have the same problem with The Voice Inside.

The drums and bass, and the vocal harmonies of Arnold and Maarten de Schepper (father and son) make up for that on Next Time. 

Oblivion has some jazz influences in its structure, as it builds up to an instrumental climax that is dominated by a guitar solo that reminded me (surprisingly on an album like this) of Savatage.

The icing on the cake of this album is the Isopoda cover Considering.  This is a full blown 12-minute epic. The piano and keyboard on this one are nearly perfect. A trumpet solo and the vocal harmonies complete the show. However, the fact that the cover is the best part of the album means that the band has some work to do to be able to top this effort on a next release….

Starting in the 1980s, there were people like Yngwie Malmsteen, Edward van Halen, Steve Vai, Joe Satriani, John Petrucci, Chris Oliva and quite a few more who got the label guitar god attached. There was also at least one goddess apparently, called (The Great) Kat. They all had, or have, two things in common: first of, they’re guitar playing skills are fantastic, and second, in each case I lost my appetite for their music quite quickly, maybe with the exception of Eddy van Halen. All that shredding, speeding, tapping etc. is great for guitarists and guitar fans, but as a music listener it bores me quite quickly. Yes, I know, it’s great that someone can make his guitar talk like a human, but it’s all skill and technique and very little emotion, or feeling, if you will. I much prefer the feeling that e.g Steve Hackett put into old Genesis tracks.

Coming January, the world will see the release of an album that helps me with that: Cailyn Lloyd’s Voyager.

Cailyn Lloyd might also be a guitar goddess, but I think she’s broader than that. Her skills are great, like those of the others, but she manages to make it not only about technique, and guitar is not her only instrument – she plays synthesizers, bass and some of the drums on this album as well.

The album is an instrumental concept album, about the travels of the Voyager probes that were launched at the end of the 70s to explore the outer planets of our Solar system.

Each track, except the first and last one, is about one of the planets or moons the probes passed on their journey. The booklet with the CD includes a description of the different rock and gas bulbs, and reading those really shows why Cailyn composed the tracks the way she did. Composed or arranged I should say, because  four of the tracks were composed by Gustav Holst.

The music simply makes you feel, or rather see, for example how the probes fly over the quiet surface of Io, enjoying a slow, somewhat melodic bass line, to be disturbed suddenly by a volcanic eruption of Cailyn’s guitar. A few tracks later, we find ourselves admiring quietly the rings of Saturn, accompanied by mellow keyboards and a bit of guitar, and suddenly we drop through them, driven by a heavy guitar riff, to end up on the dark side, slowly flying away from the giant planet with a steady rhythm towards Enceladus. That moon gives us a dark, almost cold track, just like the moon itself before we head of to Miranda, one of the weirdest moons in our solar system, represented by a high pitched lead guitar that together with a driving synthesizer takes us along the surface something that is best described as a planet turned partially inside out.

After that, there’s still more, with the roller coaster ride around Uranus, which contains a shuffled drum pattern,  the moon Ariel, where a storm at the end of the track reminds me of the staccato riffs that Alex Lifeson played on Rush’ 2112.

Without wanting to describe all tracks, it is worth mentioning the use of an English horn on Pale Blue Dot, which is a track that almost makes the Voyager probes look back in a nostalgic way at earth in the very far distance.

The album closes with Heliopause, which, like the opening track, shows that Cailyn indeed has speed and skill on the guitar, until Voyager leaves the solar system at the sound of the last beat of the drums.

A well thought out album, for all who enjoying a bit of instrumental progressive symphonic rock, with a lot of emphasis on skilled guitar playing. Read along with the liner notes, or close your eyes and enjoy a trip through space. I love it.

(also published on ProgArchives.com)

Silhouette is a Dutch neo-prog band, who released their fourth album this year. An album consisting of 11 tracks, each well composed and well executed.

At the base of Silhouettes music on this album is the keyboard work of Erik Laan, who is also the most productive composer in the band. Together with the two guitar players he creates a musical bed for the vocals, without overdoing it. In the tracks In Solitary and Lost Paradise there is still plenty of room for quieter parts. On Wings to fly, the band builds up nicely by starting with acoustic guitar, flute and cello, to end with a full blown electric crescendo. All of this carried by a very steady rhythm section – where part of the bass tracks are played by Jurjen Bergsma, because Gerrit-Jan Blooming decided to leave the band.

The album is at times a bit bombastic, but never annoying (unlike some of the overdone things that for example ELP could produce in the ’70s). A slight defect of the album, from my point of view are the vocals.  There are a few occasions where I feel, although both singers try their best (and with good results in e.g. Web of lies), the vocals either lack emotion (perhaps due to focusing too much on technique) or sound a bit forced in the higher regions. There is some room for improvement there, because in Devil’s Island it can get a bit annoying for the listener.

That last track, Devil’s Island is great in its instrumentals: when listenig with eyes closed, it is easy to imagine a flight over an island, seeing it from above, in the middle of the sea.

Overall, a good album, worth listening – but not as good as it could’ve been.

(also published on www.progarchives.com)

I thought I had my life in order, that I was leading The Simple Life. Then, one day, I got an Early Morning Call, from Sonia, at the other side of the globe. She wanted to know, whether I was interested in a review copy of the new Corvus Stone album. So, I replied, what makes you think my Boots for Hire? Her reply was very simple, yet artful and musical: she send me a sample of some artwork and music, giving me a Sneaky Entrance into Lisa.

So, I agreed and in a short while the CD was in the mail. I embarked in my favourite motorised vessel, the Purple Stone and sped down the highway, while playing the music out loud. After a while, I stopped at a bar called A Stoned Crow Meets Rusty Wolff, where Rusty is indeed the bar tender. It’s a nice, Texan style saloon that let’s people be themselves. Even Lisa has a cigar there, every once in a while, in between her dates with Mr. Cha Cha, who lives in the Dark Tower. After a few drinks, some food and a good night sleep, I continued down the road, and across the border. Shortly after that, I picked up a few hitchhiking Swedes and Finns, Scandinavians in Mexico, on their way to a party. When we got there, we were received by a Mystery Man with a hump on his back – apparently suffering from a disease called Camelus Bactrianus. He welcomed us to the party, which was organised by the crazy jazz drummer Unkle Chunkle, the composer of the beautiful, philosphical track Eternal Universe. He guarded the door while I spent the night, or rather, just over 14 minutes with Moaning Lisa – rest assured, only to hear her life’s story. I then accompanied her to the Campfire, where we sang songs in Finnish with all 13 Corvus Stone members until we all fell asleep…. only to be woken up by another Early Morning Call.

That is one of the many fun and musical stories I heard in Corvus Stone’s 2nd album. Just like their debut, an album that contains a mix of many different musical styles, all wrapped in a progressive rock packaging – one way or another. The Simple Life for example, or Early Morning Call are material that could fit a modern release of any of the classic prog albums of the late ‘60s and early ‘70s – just imagine the two combined featuring as opening track on Days of Future Passed.

With Boots for Hire, Stoned Crow meets Rusty Wolff, Purple Stone and Mr Cha Cha, we find ourselves in guitar rock land once again, but with so many things going on that you hear something new every time you listen (although the Deep Purple sample was obvious from the start, meh). Neither of the four resembles the other, so take a few rides to really enjoy everything, would be my advice.

The drums and bass on the album are magnificent, which is pretty much laid bare in Uncle Chunkle, where the guitars play second string for a change. Master piece of the album, however, is the epic Moaning Lisa, with its two short preludes Sneaky Entrance and Lisa has a Cigar. Richie Blackmore can eat his heart out, because this is how you can make Renaissance music into progressive rock. The beginning takes us back to 17th century music, evolving into a clean 21st century electric guitar piece.

Each in its own way, every track has something to add to the album, none of them is unnecessary.

And all of them are created by a band that loves music as much as having fun and pulling the occasional joke. The video for Scandinavians in Mexico as well as the track itself make that very clear. A latin piece, but with so many layers of instruments that it depends completely on your mood and position relative to your speakers what you hear (or at least, that is the best way I can explain this track), a track so hot that only Mexican hot peppers still dance to it.

That video is a great job by Sonia Mota, who also took care of the art work for the CD and booklet, with as many things to discover as the music – and all images are real paintings, not computer images. I’m still looking for Lisa’s cigar though – can’t seem to find it in the booklet.

Colin Tench, as the force behind it all, shows what practising guitar since the 1980’s can do, on top of the foundation laid by the bass and drums of Petri Lindström and Robert Wolff. What space is left is filled nicely by Paisi Koivu on the keyboards, with a fine list of guest musicians (mainly great singers) taking care of their part where necessary.

In relation to the latter, I have to add that I admire the band for creating two consecutive albums without ever having been all in the same place at the same time.

To make this long story short: I’m a fan since the first album, now I only want to hear more….