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Ratings:
The * rating (½-5) is my personal, entirely subjective and completely partisan rating of the music.
There is, of course, no 'Tron rating.
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Thieves Kitchen Transatlantic Travis |
Trion Twin Age |
Valinors Tree Versus X |
The Watch Willowglass |
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Head (2000, 63.08) ***½MuteTime The Return of the Ultragravy Integrity T.A.N.U.S. |
Current availability:
Thieves Kitchen are a newish UK prog outfit, sadly cursed with the Modern Prog Syndrome, at least on their 2000 debut, Head, a.k.a. overly heavy guitar across the board, when a more subtle approach might make for a more varied and listenable end result. Spock's Beard are not the be-all and end-all of the genre, chaps... The only member of the band with any obvious track-record is drummer Mark Robotham, previously of the not-very-good Grey Lady Down, and to be fair, Thieves Kitchen sound little like them, although there are a few unfortunate musical neo- references here and there, particularly in the vocal department. Much of Thieves Kitchen's music has a fusionesque feel about it, giving them more in common with fellow Brits Sphere³ than anyone else, although Simon Boys', er, 'emotive' vocals (why?) change the emphasis considerably. There are some sublime moments on the album, not least one of the instrumental sections in The Return Of The Ultragravy, although it's overlong (again...), and there's far too much pointless noodling. Speaking of that track, what's with the crapola 'humour' plastered all over the CD? At least there's only one stupid 'joke' title (although I'm not sure I want to know what T.A.N.U.S. actually stands for...), but a couple of pictures in the booklet are completely unnecessary (put your tongue away, Robotham), and the album's title could be read as a tedious example of toilet humour at its worst, too. Good prog doesn't need bad jokes, gentlemen, so if that's what you aspire to...
German keys man Wolfgang Kindl does a pretty good job on the album, playing those jazzy chord inversions like a good'un, although it's quite clear that all his 'vintage' sounds are no more than that: sounds. OK, so he doesn't own any vintage kit, but the band must know owners of the real thing, not least Sphere³. Sad to say, all too many current bands, especially prog ones, seem to feel that samples and/or synth replications are perfectly acceptable recording tools. Live's another matter, but in the studio, use the best you can afford... Anyway, Kindl rather overuses his Mellotron string samples (source unknown) on all tracks, which is one of the biggest giveaways on the sample use front. They still sound more authentic than his 'Hammond', mind...
Anyway, on the evidence of Head, Thieves Kitchen seem to be trying to do something slightly different, at least as far as the appalling current UK 'prog' scene goes, being vastly more listenable than, say, fellow GLD refugees Darwin's Radio, or the truly execrable Magenta.
STOP PRESS! I don't know how much it'll improve their music, but Thieves Kitchen have recently hooked up with no lesser a Prog God than Thomas Johnson (hi, Thomas) from the mighty Änglagård, apparently currently studying in the UK. Their website states that not only has he been co-writing their new material, but he'll be using a real 'Tron on their fourth album. I would expect no less.
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SMPTe (2000, 77.14/114.26) ****½ |
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| All of the Above Full Moon Rising October Winds Camouflaged in Blue Half Alive Undying Love Full Moon Rising (Reprise) We All Need Some Light Mystery Train My New World |
In Held (Twas) in I ['bonus disc' includes: My New World (alt.version) We All Need Some Light (alt.mix) Honky Tonk Woman Oh Darlin' My Cruel World (original demo)] |
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Bridge Across Forever (2001, 76.52/130.32) *** |
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| Duel With the Devil Motherless Children Walk Away Silence of the Night You're Not Alone Almost Home Suite Charlotte Pike If She Runs Mr Wonderful Lost and Found pt.1 |
Temple of the Gods Motherless Children/If She Runs (reprise) Bridge Across Forever Stranger in Your Soul Sleeping Wide Awake Hanging in the Balance Lost and Found pt.2 Awakening the Stranger Slide Stranger in Your Soul |
['bonus disc' includes: Shine on You Crazy Diamond Studio chat And I Love Her Smoke on the Water Dance With the Devil Roine's demo bits] |
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Current availability:
The aptly-named Transatlantic were a prog 'supergroup' consisting of Spock's Beard main man Neal Morse, Roine Stolt from The Flower Kings, Marillion's Pete Trewavas and Mike Portnoy from Dream Theater, and the end results, at least on their debut, were vastly better than might be expected from such a potential clash of egos. The wittily-titled SMPTe (in case you don't know, 'smpte' is a studio MIDI/video conversion protocol, and the four members' initials, of course, pronounced 'simpty') comes across as an amalgam of the 'Beard and various '70s bands, with very little of the other three members' outfits in there at all, although I suppose we should be grateful for that in at least two cases...
All Of The Above is an overblown half-hour epic, but you know what? It works really well, although it could probably have been trimmed down a little. It opens with a chord sequence straight out of the Neal Morse songbook, and carries on in fine form, moving through all the various twists and turns you'd expect, although it ends up being rather predictable in its unpredictability, or something. However, its saving grace is its strong use of melody, without slipping into the AORisms of which the 'Beard are sometimes guilty, and which could be levelled against track two, We All Need Some Light. I personally really like it, but I can see why some critics have lambasted it for its near-'soft rock balladry' approach. Less sure about Mystery Train (not the Elvis number), but My New World's another grand epic, and the album closes in fine style with a cover of Procol Harum's In Held Twas In I; the original was named after the first word of the lyric in each of its five parts, and Transatlantic left out the 'Twas' section, thus the brackets, just in case you were wondering.
Roine Stolt is credited with 'Mellotron', alongside his usual guitar and vocal duties, and however good it sounds, I know for a fact that The Flower Kings neither own nor use a real 'Tron, relying on high-quality samples taken direct from a real machine, so it seems a fair assumption that these are what's being used here. Shame, really, as a real 'Tron always lifts anything on which it's used (well, usually), and it shouldn't be that difficult to find a working one, especially in Sweden, land of the 'Tron revival, but there you go. 'Trad' prog fans might not like this album, but in my book, it's well worth owning.
The band released a double live CD with unseemly haste, Live in America (can you smell the distinctive pong of a quick buck being made?), then rattled off what turned out to be their last album, Bridge Across Forever, in 2001. To be honest, it captures none of the manic joy of their debut; 26-minute opener Duel With The Devil feels far longer than that, and not in a good way, while Suite Charlotte Pike is a bit of a disjointed mess. The title track is a by now typically schlocky Morse ballad, and by far the shortest song on the album, leaving Stranger In Your Soul as the most cohesive piece here, though it says a lot that the best track on this album isn't much better than the worst on SMPTe. With hindsight, Morse's forthcoming breakdown/religious conversion/whatever is quite apparent in his lyrics, too; well, doesn't Duel With The Devil say it all?
The 'Mellotron' is used more sparingly this time round, with the only real highlights being an unaccompanied string part in Duel With The Devil and some flutes at the beginning of Stranger In Your Soul. Disappointing, though the album's relative musical failure made their God-induced split less painful. Incidentally, in case you still feel the need to obtain this, don't go out of your way to get the 'Special Edition'; apart from a vaguely interesting take on Floyd's Shine On blah-di-blah, and a genuinely good Morse demo of what became Duel With The Devil, most of it consists of tedious studio dicking about. Pointless.
Transatlantic were stunningly dull the one time I saw them live, insisting on playing just about all of Bridge Across Forever, and then, for some unknown reason, the whole of side two of The Beatles' Abbey Road, boring many of us into a bad prog-induced stupor, and having the gall to berate us for not enjoying it! They then misjudged the audience enough to encore with All Of The Above, rather than something a little snappier, and all this on top of lining all four members up along the front of the stage, Portnoy included. Egomania. The following year, of course, Morse got God, leaving both the 'Beard and Transatlantic to concentrate on his Christian solo career. Yawn. Anyway, ignore albums two and three, but buy SMPTe, even with fake 'Tron.
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The Invisible Band (2001, 45.29) * |
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| Sing Dear Diary Side Pipe Dreams Flowers in the Window The Cage Safe Follow the Light |
Last Train Afterglow Indefinitely The Humpty Dumpty Love Song |
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Travis really have to be one of the nastiest things to happen to British music in a couple of decades, and I don't say that lightly. Their utterly insipid stadium-MOR is fantastically popular, picking up the kind of fan that Simply Red got in the '80s; "Music for people who don't like music", as a friend of mine once put it. Their mainman is called Fran Healy; now I'm sorry, maybe Fran is an acceptable male abbreviation in Scotland, but where I come from, it's a girl's name. What's wrong with Frank? Anyway... The Invisible Band (though sadly not inaudible) was their third album, and if anything, was even blander than its predecessor, 1999's fairly nasty The Man Who (*½), although it lacks the true horror of that album's chief hit, Why Does It Always Rain On Me? Because God hates you, Frannie, that's why. God hates you, and so do I.
I've been told this horrible, turgid mess has some Mellotron on it, but close listening only reveals one potential track, Dear Diary. The high strings are far too 'clean' to be a real Mellotron, but a few notes towards the end of the song have that 'Tronness about them, although I'm certain they're samples. I paid 50p for this abortion of an album (and the same for its predecessor), and I feel ripped off. I won't even be able to flog them to one of London's handful of remaining second-hand shops, as they're flooded with the fucking things. Down the chazza, then, and wave goodbye to a quid.
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Tortoise (2003, 50.08) ***½ |
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| Tortoise The New Moon Hindsight Radiation part 1 Jemetrion Radiation part 2 The Seagulls Hurt |
Tribulation Spectrum of Colours Endgame |
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There's been quite a bit of fuss about Netherlanders Trion ever since the release of their 2003 debut, Tortoise. The band (Their name is a conglomeration of 'trio' and 'Tron') is actually a side project (guitarist Eddie Mulder and keyboardist Edo Spanninga usually play in Flamborough Head, while drummer Menno Boomsma hails from Odyssice), formed as a deliberate attempt to play 'seventies' styled progressive music', according to their site, in which they're largely successful. The trouble is, it all seems a bit... ersatz. The all-instrumental material's perfectly good, within its limitations, but the band have no obvious character of their own; the opening title track has a two-chord 'Mellotron' sequence that is one note away from ripping Watcher Of The Skies, before shifting into a solo Hackett feel, although the rest of the album is less openly derivative. The sleeve art is even more derivative than most of the music, unless it's a deliberate joke? It's a dead-ringer for Gentle Giant's Octopus, only with a... tortoise. Oh, it's got to be a joke. Please.
In fairness, the band are perfectly open about their use of samples; their website credits Spanninga with "Flute, Oboe, Strings, Organ, Cello, Vibe and Choir Mellotron samples". See, told you. I like to think I'd have spotted it without help; the chief giveaway is the overly-smooth strings, often shoved right to the front of the mix, although the flutes almost convince, except when they're played slightly faster. No key-click, no hiss, no... grit. Hey, that's Mellotron samples for you. Spanninga oddly chooses to use 'Tron organ samples rather than an actual fake ('actual fake?') Hammond, giving the sounds a rather dull uniformity, to no particular purpose, as they're not even from an actual 'Tron. Anyway, massive use of all seven sounds, particularly the strings and flute, although he holds back on the choirs, making a nice change for a modern prog outfit.
The trouble is, the whole album comes over as a rather knowing tribute, as against an album full of music made for the sheer joy of it. For all that, it's actually quite good, although I don't know whether repeated plays will make it grow on me, or grate. Come back next year and I may be able to tell you.
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Lialim High (1997, 50.40) ***½Twelve Feet TallBlinded The Pelican Lie Famous Last Words A Sign of My Decline The Final Decision |
Current availability:
Twin Age produced three albums in the mid- to late '90s, but seem to have gone very quiet lately. Going by the second, Lialim High, unlike several other Swedish bands of that era, they're quite firmly members of the neo-prog camp, with relatively simple song structures, few key changes and a vocalist who seems to aspire to be IQ's Peter Nicholls (who in turn, of course, aspires to be Peter Gabriel...). 1996's Month of the Year (***½), funnily enough, is slightly more adventurous than its follow-up, although there aren't even any Mellotron samples on board, never mind the real thing. The material on Lialim High's not actually bad, and better than several similar I've heard lately, but its lack of musical challenge wears me down after a while. Not that I've got a 'thing' about it; I'll quite happily listen to any number of more straightforward acts, but if one aspires to be 'prog', then please BE prog, and don't sit on the fence!
Jörgen Hanson plays 'Mellotron', although I strongly suspect he's using samples. It's slathered all over every track, although Hanson's use is far from innovative, to be honest; loads of string pads, and the choirs sound strangely muted. Actually, the more I think about it, the more I think it's samples; the album opens with stately solo 'Tron strings, but it all sounds too... clean. Anyway, if you haven't got a problem with 'neo' stuff, or the possibility that the Mellotron may be fake, you may well like this more than I did.
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Kingdom of Sadness (1998, 42.12) ***Kingdom of SadnessCold Memories Deep |
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Valinors Tree, going by their debut, Kingdom of Sadness, deal in a sort of metal-influenced prog, maybe like a less talented Anekdoten, while retaining a Scandinavian feel, particularly with regard to the music's darker aspects. I keep finding myself wishing they'd tone down the powerchords a bit, not to mention reinserting the vocalist's laryngeal retaining bolts, but there are plenty of good bits between the overly-Americanised sections.
I've had it confirmed that all the Mellotron on the album is 'first generation' samples, taken from Kenneth Magnusson of The Moor's M400. The samples are all over the album, largely strings, making it a pity it's not real, as their use is pretty good. For their second effort, And Then There is Silence, they borrowed Magnusson's machine and actually recorded it this time, so I'll report back when I get to hear a copy (nb: see review here). You never know, maybe they've got themselves a better singer. And an apostrophe.
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The Turbulent Zone (2000, 57.31) ***½Cutting the VeilChanging Conditions Laying Bare the Nerves On Fertile Ground The Gentle Coat of Night In Distant Niches Between the Phases of the Night Strange Attractor The Hostile Sea |
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Versus X are a German prog outfit who I've heard lumped in with the prog metal crowd. In fact, they're far more diverse than that, although the influence is there, mainly in Arne Schäfer's guitar sound and his propensity for powerchords. The music is less adventurous than it could've been, and certainly less than the band believe it to be, but it still knocks the socks off the average Euro-prog metal crew. The only track that doesn't way exceed the ten-minute mark is Between The Phases Of The Night, with Cutting The Veil topping twenty, giving the band plenty of room to stretch out compositionally, although I maintain that a few more key changes and 'interesting' chords would liven proceedings up a little.
There's a fair bit of 'Mellotron' to be heard, particularly on The Hostile Sea, but the eight-second limit is exceeded on a regular basis, and a perusal of the band's site reveals that keyboard man Ekkehard Nahm owns a Vintage Synth module, along with various other digital facsimiles and, to be fair, a MiniMoog and a set of Taurus pedals. No criticism intended, incidentally; not everyone can own a raft of bulky vintage gear, and Nahm at least owns a couple of items, although it's nice when bands make the effort for recording. However, I know from experience how other band members can be less than wholly enthusiastic about the expense and hassle of 'going authentic'...
So overall, not a bad album, while nowhere near 'classic' status. I can see Versus X producing a killer record within a few years if they stick to their guns, so next time, how about borrowing some genuine vintage gear, chaps? You know you want to...
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Ghost (2001, 47.08) ***½DNAlienThe Ghost and the Teenager Heroes Moving Red Riding the Elephant ...And the Winner is... |
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Four years after Twilight, The Night Watch's vocalist/chief mover and shaker Simone Rossetti reappeared with his new band, The Watch. While their general remit is the same as Rossetti's previous outfit, there's less overt Genesis-copycat behaviour, with more of an attempt to define the band's own sound within the symphonic progressive spectrum. Unfortunately, the end result on their debut, Ghost, is actually slightly less interesting than the Night Watch's sole release, although it's a solid enough album; it just doesn't really stand out from the pack. There's nothing specifically wrong with the material, it's just... I dunno; less melodic? It just didn't grab me in the same way as Twilight, but then, in fairness, it's an almost entirely different band, with different writing skills.
Sergio Taglioni's 'Mellotron' sounds less fake than on Twilight, but I'm assured it's still samples; the strings are a bit iffy, but the choirs in The Ghost And The Teenager and Heroes are full-on and quite authentic. Either way, the use is excellent, and I'm glad to say the band bought a real one for their follow-up, Vacuum, reviewed here.
So; a reasonably strong 'typical Italian prog' album, with decent sampled Mellotron. I still rate the Night Watch album slightly more, but this is certainly worth hearing.
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Willowglass (2005, 46.14) ***½ |
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| Peace Remembering Garden Interlude No. 1 Tower of the King's Daughter Summer's Lease Into the Chase A Blinding Light |
Waking the Angels The End |
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Willowglass are the latest in a run of progressive one-man projects, this time the brainchild of Yorkshire's Andrew Marshall, who plays everything except the drums on his 'band's eponymous debut. In many ways, this is prog as it was, not is, so there's a refreshing lack of ferocious guitars, hammering drums and screaming vocals (or indeed, any at all). Influences are the gentler end of the usual suspects, not least Genesis and Camel, with plentiful use of good old-fashioned melody, with tasteful, 'slightly distorted' guitar leads and heaps of acoustics. Best track? Hard to say, but A Blinding Light particularly caught my ear, although it cuts Genesis a little too close in places.
Andrew, by his own admission, uses the M-Tron, which is all well and good, but he commits the usual sample-related offence, and sticks so much of it on that its deficiencies become overly obvious. The near-solo strings in Remembering, say, are lovely, but they're too high in the mix, and too 'clean' to be real. In fact, he uses the M-Tron on most tracks, only avoiding it on the opener, closer and the classical guitar solo, Interlude No. 1, with strings everywhere you look, and choirs on most tracks, too, plus the occasional appearance of the flutes. For what it's worth, if you want a real 'giveaway' moment, the string pitchbends in Garden are far too smooth to be real, and don't even sound like the Mellotron pitch control. Still, nice to hear the sounds used with taste, even if they could've done with being scaled back slightly. Oh, and also for what it's worth, the Hammond is a real L100.
So; a nice (albeit not very original) album, tasteful, tuneful and relaxing, which is NOT a synonym for 'boring'. Plenty of fake 'Tron, which probably isn't going to change in the near future, as Andrew tells me there's no way he can afford a real one, which is understandable. Go on, make his day and buy a copy.
