Issue #20 Extra!: New Releases

4/3 De Trio - "Faiblesse"
Action Dreamer - "In the Hole Studio"
The Alchemysts & Simeon - "Simeon & The Alchemysts"
Serge Blenner - "Ars Oratoria"
Clockwork - "Surface Tension"
D.C. Cooper - "D.C. Cooper"
Ray De Tone - "Once More...With Feeling"
Hardline Project I. - "A Virtual Exhibition.."
David Hastings - "Electric Café"
Tim Hodgkinson - "Sang"
HyNGE - "Weekend @ 911"
Irrgarten - "Home and Sanctuary"
Kubusschnitt - "The Cube"
Gavin Lurssen - "Restless"
Machiavel - "Virtual Sun"
 Jim Matheos - "Away With Words"
Mind's Eye - "Waiting for the Tide"
Oberon - "Sonnet"
Oysterband - "Here I Stand"
Philip Pickett - "The Bones of All Men"
Quidam - "Baja Prog - Live in Mexico '99"
The Quiet Room - "Introspect"
Rosenberg 7 - "R7"
Royal Hunt - "Fear"
Spring Heel Jack - "Treader"
John Tchicai and Charlie Kohlhase Quintet - "Life Overflowing"
John Tchicai and Yusef Komunyakaa - "Love Notes from the Madhouse"
VA - "Strange Daze '97"
VA - "Tekito Split Volume 1"
Vanishing Point - "In Thought"

Ray De Tone - "Once More...With Feeling"

 (Dancetone DTM1119, 1998, CD)

Although you may not know him by name, guitarist Ray De Tone has connections with a lot of artists in the mainstream music industry including the likes of Iron Maiden, Ronnie Spector, Billy Joel, Whitesnake, and Billy Squire. With twenty years of playing experience and 150 compositions behind him, Ray has produced his first album, filled with nine instrumental pieces and one track with vocals (by Ray). Most everything is performed by Ray, including keyboards and drum programming. Some friends help out with bass on a few tracks, but when necessary Ray does that as well. Musically, the album is not unlike many solo guitarists' offerings in the past decade, but perhaps none are better comparisons than Eric Johnson's "Ah Via Musicom". De Tone has a similar style, which avoids throwing a million notes in your face but rather kicks back and relies on the melody and the groove to move you. The results vary wildly, and when it succeeds it still seems to be a shallow, toe-tapping, driving-with-the-top-down kind of success. The drum programming makes use of some great-sounding samples but it's still agonizingly cold and mechanical. Music of this nature simply requires the soul and fluidity of a real drummer to groove properly. This is one of those discs where you know what you're going to get, and is most likely to be of interest to die-hard fans of instrumental American guitar pop-rock. - Dan Casey

Jim Matheos - "Away With Words"

 (Metal Blade 3984-14275-2, 1999, CD)

This is, to the best of my knowledge, the first solo outing for Matheos, who is the guitarist and chief songwriter for progressive metal act Fates Warning. The style of that band is completely eschewed here in favor of a more contemplative, reflective work. Matheos sticks mainly to acoustic guitar, with much of the flavor coming from the violin work of Charlie Bisharat. Also helping out are Matheos' band-mate Mark Zonder on drums, as well as Michael Manring on bass. The music is completely instrumental, rarely aggressive and sometimes beautiful. The back of the album recommends filing under "New Age/Jazz", which strikes me as a wholly inappropriate classification. I've heard little New Age with the intricate but subtle 6+4 pattern of "Mumbo Jumbo", for example. "Tongue Tied", on the other hand, sounds like good ol' hoe-down music, and one must fight the urge to punctuate the breaks with a hearty "Yee-ha!" Those who are attracted to quality instrumental work but who dislike the metal style would do well to check this out. It's definitely something best appreciated with repeated listening (in fact, on first listen I was relatively unmoved), as the hidden gems become more apparent. Jim Matheos deserves more respect in the progressive rock world, and this album might help get him some. - Sean McFee

Philip Pickett - "The Bones of All Men"

 (Hannibal HNCD 1416, 1998, CD)

The subtitle on the cover continues after the title: "and of several remarkable curiosities therein occurring being a compendium of Dances, Pavannes, Steps and such, played this time by Mr. Philip Pickett with Mr. Richard Thompson and The Fairport Rhythm Section." On the paper top cover that come with it, retailers are advised to file it under Classical, Folk, or Pop, no doubt leading to some confusion in stores. Philip Pickett's other releases are most likely found in the Classical section, containing selections of Early Music through Bach's time, more or less. On this one, he steps outside the staid constraints of historical reconstruction and into a kind of Early-Modern fusion that has really only been done before by the band Gryphon. Pickett's years of playing guest spots on albums by Fairport Convention, the Albion Band, and others has really paid off. His melding of medieval instruments (particularly krumhorn and recorder) with modern ones (electric guitar, bass, and drums) highlights the connection that British and Celtic folk music has with the music of those earlier times, times when the distinctions between high-brow and low-brow were much fuzzier than they are now. What I really want to emphasize is that this disc is fun. It never fails to bring a smile to my face. The delicate, tinkly virginal (a relative of the harpsichord) which starts the disc is joined by the electric instruments, particularly Thompson's guitar, and my head starts bobbing. Pickett is a virtuoso on his chosen instruments, and Thompson is his perfect foil, playing the melodies straight enough to fit in but edgy enough to add a lot of excitement. - Jon Davis

Serge Blenner - "Ars Oratoria"

 (MdeC Editions CD 001, 1999, CD)

Serge Blenner was born in France in 1955 and studied composition at Mulhouse Conservatory. He moved to Germany in 1975 and has been recording independently since 1980. This fourteenth album of his has 21 tracks with a total time equaling over 72 minutes. The limited length of the individual tracks is what helps to make "Ars Oratoria" a rather pleasant experience. The songs, which are short and to the point, are strung together in a seamless fashion. Blenner creates a sonic montage of classical, Euro techno, and world music influences. He also constantly adds acoustic fabric to the completely computerized quilt. The production is tasteful with good usage of cello, orchestra strings, percussion, and chorus, and, again, all of it synthesized. The harmony he employs is rather simple; and yet, on "Ars Oratoria," he shows effective implementation and direction within his compositions. This seperates this CD from many computer driven creations from other artists. Well worth many listenings. - Jerry Baiden

John Tchicai and Charlie Kohlhase Quintet - "Life Overflowing"

 (Nada Music Nada 100, 1999, CD)

John Tchicai and Yusef Komunyakaa - "Love Notes from the Madhouse"

(8th Harmonic Breakdown 8thhb 80001, 1999, CD)

Bay area tenor saxophonist, John Tchicai is the leader or co-leader on two recent independent jazz releases. "Life Overflowing" is a quintet project, while the other is spoken word prose backed by reeds. The quintet is made up of well-established East and West Coast players including pianist, Dave Bryant who is an Ornette Coleman alumnus. Tchicai's solo statements are passive understated and amenable statements on "His Tulips were Soft as Berries". Overall certain theme development reminds me of the UK scene and Ian Carr's Nucleus such as on "Detour". There is also a certain amount of whimsy in the free jazz context of the band as the "Slow Down Boreas". Charlie Kohlhase is the album's joint leader and his composition, "Knee Bop" is the most animated bebop groover on the disc, and the group really executes. The rhythm section of drummer, Harvey Wihrt and bassist, John Turner keeps the groove going and the pace driven across the disc. "Love Notes from the Madhouse" chronicles a different Tchicai band configuration from a Chicago live show from September 1997. Jeff Parker's low understated guitar acts as a late night epiphany for Komuntakaa's "Venus's Flytrap". "Dolphy's Aviary/Malachite" is the main showcase piece, where Tchicai's flippant introduction leads into a Komunyakaa recitation, which leads into a somber theme. "Bloodcount" is a cover track, which is concurrent across both discs, the 2nd version featuring a smoother balance than the quintet version. Closing out the album is the upbeat light samba, "Blue Light Lounge Sutra/Time Inside II" (much in the style of Gong's Didier Malherbe). By peeling away the layers of the indie jazz scene there are a few precious stones such as Tchicai's works to be studied and appreciated. - Jeff Melton

Hardline Project I. - "A Virtual Exhibition With Music"

 (Matavcom, 2000, CD)

As the title implies this multi-media CD-ROM features accompanying artwork but since the review copy only contained the music we'll leave the art to our collective imaginations. The musicians here are Hungarian and form a core trio plus guests on guitar, sax, and vocals. Leader Janos Nagy played piano in a group entitled In Line that featured several prominent American jazz musicians such as Dave Samuels and Russ Freeman. The music here is groove-oriented jazz with some flowing Latin lines at times. The drums are very prominent with a big, fat backbeat that is more Steely Dan than Art Blakey. The overly sweet sax lines verge on the dreaded "smooth jazz" sound at times, and the final track is a blatantly commercial vocal piece that could garner some radio airplay. While the playing is solid, the compositions don't generate much excitement. Perhaps this is better experienced in conjunction with the artwork, but the music alone is fairly uninspiring. - David Ashcraft

HyNGE - "Weekend @ 911"

 (Independent release, 1999, CD)

HyNGE are a band to watch out for. On this EP alone (the title refers to the recording studio these tracks were laid down at), they demonstrate an impressive talent for inventive instrumental composing and arranging. The trio (Doug Michael on guitar, Rob Rosen on bass and keys, and Dan Buch on drums) are comparable either to the short lived Polytown combo of several years back that featured David Torn, Mick Karn, and Terry Bozzio, or to Djam Karet. As with Polytown, HyNGE often eschews traditional rock approaches, instead taking the road less traveled, as seen on the tracks "Detour" and "Nightcrawler." Here, the instruments adopt angular patterns, weaving a seductive web as they go. Elsewhere, songs like "Hologrammatical Human" and "Torgo's Revenge" bring Djam Karet strongly to mind. The guitar work is excellent, sometimes heavy and sometimes delicate, laid over superb bass and tasteful percussion. The entire band does a great job throughout but I'm particularly impressed by the attention paid to percussion texturing, no doubt thanks to Buch. At times he reminds me of Bill Bruford and at others like Ginger Baker, especially with his work on the toms. It just goes to show there's no reason that the drum position in a group can't contribute as much as the others. Considering Djam Karet's semi-retired status, it's nice to see other groups plying the same path of creative, inventive instrumental music. I eagerly look forward to what this trio has to offer in the future. - Paul Hightower
[contact: robrosen@pacbell.net]

VA - "Tekito Split Volume 1"

 (Tekito 6, 1999, CD)

A sampler from the same label that gives you Vas Deferens Organization and others, this CD however features none of those names that I previously associated with Tekito. So in a way (from my point of view anyway) the release comes across as an all-the-rest effort. Four different names jump on board here: Liquidrone; Morning 40 Federation; Diamond Dave; and Paris. No member names or instrumentation are listed (to protect the innocent parties?). Liquidrone gives you some very goofball rock tunes that encompass waltzes, and even Mowtown, while Morning 40 specializes in warped Texan psychedelia - touching upon some bluesy rock and bluegrass as well - which has little appeal for me. But hey, you can't say it isn't original! Diamond Dave takes the idea even further into drugged-out space country music, and Paris sweeps up with a low-key ballad. There is nary a straight-faced moment on the entire CD. And almost everything is delivered with that particular twang (absent from the VDO music) that reveals its Texan/Louisianan origin. Whether they are ridiculing it or merely resigning themselves to the inability of escaping its grasp one can hardly tell. But none of it grasps the kind of appeal to Expose's core audience that Tone Float (and to a lesser degree, VDO) does. - Mike Ezzo
[Tekito, PMB #432, 828 Royal St., New Orleans, LA 70116, tekito@excite.com]

VA - "Strange Daze '97"

 (Pangea Music OM-2012, 1999, CD)

The inaugural event which was covered in Expose issue 14 is captured here on 2 Cds. If you have any aversion to space rock at all, keep away. The Gaia Avatara, Red Giant, and Nucleon tracks will most likely hold no interest for Expose readers: They're definitely not prog and arguably not space rock. I'm sure it's difficult to pick just one song from many bands, but ST37 and F/i had much more interesting songs than those chosen. As expected though, Architectural Metaphor is totally soaking in a trippy, hazy, space funk. I like how the Bionaut and Freak Element tracks seem to build into Melting Euphoria's "Celestial Hysteria". Too bad it was followed by Born To Go's "Burning Inside": just awful. Quarkspace's "Faerienot Space" is beautiful. The instrumental tones are so clean and crisp and perfectly chosen. So unusual and refreshing to hear space rock keyboards dominated by piano - even the electronic drums I thought I'd abhor so much sound great. Alien Planetscape's "Soft Martian" rounds off the disc with their intensely freaky psychedelic space rock. On disc 2, Dave Brock mixed various songs (including some duplicates from disc 1) into an aural collage ". . . as a sort of 'Cosmic Trip'" through the weekend, and on that level it succeeds. If you were there, it's a real nice flashback. However, I'm disappointed that the disc wasn't devoted entirely to Hawkwind and especially Nik Turner/Farflung, the latter making up only three short songs. Programming out the duff tracks from the 2 disc set leaves us about an hour's worth of good to excellent space rock. - Mac Beaulieu

The Alchemysts & Simeon - "Simeon & The Alchemysts"

 (Rubric Records RUB05, 1999, CD)

Recorded in September '98, this is probably Simeon's last recording before 'the accident' (see our Silver Apples feature in issue #17). The genesis of the collaboration dates to the 1988 Terrastock festival in San Francisco when The Alchemysts invited Simeon to sit in on their set. This in turn led to a recording session in the UK when the Apples toured later that year, of which this disc is the result. Here the trio of g/b/d and vocals are joined by Simeon on oscillators, vocals, keyboards and electronics (what? No banjo?) for an intense space-rock workout. In fact most of the basic tracks here follow the early Hawkwind model - heavy repetitive riffing in two or three chords, with electronic sounds applied over the top to good effect. The mix of vocals and spoken taped voices, along with some vibraphone by guitarist Paul Simmons spice up the otherwise fairly predictable basic tracks. It's really Simeon's contributions on electronics, oscillators and keyboards that make the material here somewhat special, recalling Del Dettmar's input to the early Hawkwind sound. While the early tracks are somewhat unexceptional, things start to get interesting around track 6 "Magellanic", and truly get smoking on the extended jam "Psychotropic Over Modulation", where the entire band moves into high gear. The spirited closer "Morning Comes" is a slower grooving pace with shimmering guitars and echoey voices punctuated with acid drenched leads. Fans of space-rock and neo-psych of the Hawk/Ozric axis would do well to check this one out. - Peter Thelen

El Templo Del Dinero - "El Templo Del Dinero"

 (Smogless SR-2018, 1998, CD)

Here we have a power-psych trio featuring a couple seasoned veterans of Mexico's progressive music scene: drummer Victor Baldovinos (Iconoclasta, Delirium, El Puente De Alvarado), and guitarist Victor Mendez R. (the R stands for ROCK - from Subsuelo, Tres De Un Par, AZ, Ulises, and numerous others). Also featured is bassist Alfredo Landa, a name heretofore unfamiliar to this writer, but one we should hope to hear more from. Their basic sound is squarely in the hard rock progressive/psych realm - the intense rhythms and seemingly everpresent fuzzy leads, thus sharing a degree common ground with other Mexican psych bands like Loch Ness, Humus, and Frolic Froth. While their approach tends to be rhythmically and solo driven, there are some strong melodic elements to their sound, as well as jazzy bits, which start to surface after repeated listens. Some comparisons to the harder-edged aspects of bands like Djam Karet and 70's Crimson might also be in order, yet these guys are nowhere near as tight. While in general there seems to be enough variety to keep things interesting, the same 'fuzzy' guitar tones tend to be a bit overused, and we do occasionally find the band in unmistakably out-of-tune character, as on "Puentes Colgantes". That said, there's still plenty here that should interest listeners into the harder edged facets of mordern instrumental psych. - Peter Thelen

Gavin Lurssen - "Restless"

 (Zebra Acoustic ZA 44403-2, 1998, CD)

"Restless" is Gavin Lurssen's first major effort as a solo acoustic guitarist. Originally from South Africa, he came to the America when he was sixteen. He attended Berklee College of Music where he achieved a film scoring degree. His other main line of work is actually as a mastering engineer for the famed Mastering Lab in LA. His music is somewhat similar to film music in that the mood is prominent and the melody has more supportive role. The melodies are hidden most of the time behind the drone of chords and percussive fretless bass. His music, however, is a nice blend of world styles with bassist Lars Danielsson featured on many of the pieces. Lurssen will rely more on riffs rather than solo melodic lines, though. This is all very well until you continue listening beyond the third track. After that, the music is rather blurred than defined. Gavin Lurssen does display a good sense of personal reflection in his music pulled from a very strong asset - his diverse background. - Jerry Baiden

Peter Cusack - "Where Is the Green Parrot?"

 (ReR PC1, 1999, CD)

Well, this is something completely different. Peter Cusack is interested in the soundscapes of our lives, the world of sounds we have around us at all times, the unconscious music of the world going about its business. For example, the first part of "Two Small Boys Go Shopping" is called "Toy Shop," and it consists primarily of recordings of Cusack and his four-year-old son visiting a toy store. The store's alarm is stuck going off, and the boy asks what it means. Then you hear the bells, clacks, and other noises of kids playing with the toys on display. Later the pair visit a guitar shop, and father samples some of the wares, providing a small bit of what might normally be called musical content. Cusack takes all these sounds, as well as some he created himself, and edits them into rambling aural collages. He seems especially fascinated with the sounds made by birds. The five-part title piece has a wide variety of different avian noises, as does "Nightjars." I suppose you could call this "ambient music," but it's like conventional ambient music in reverse: not music composed to provide the background in an environment, but the environment itself composing the music. All in all, it is strangely compelling, though it definitely belongs on "The Difficult Listening Hour." - Jon Davis
[www.megacorp.u-net.com]

Tim Hodgkinson - "Sang"

 (ReR TH2, 1999, CD)

Henry Cow fans looking for jagged, experimental rock will likely be disappointed by Tim Hodgkinson's new CD. This is very experimental stuff, lacking many of the qualities often regarded as required for music, such as melody, harmony, and rhythm. The music has more in common with 20th Century avant-garde composers than with anything in popular or rock music. The textures, often inspired by the music of other cultures (though in no way sounding like world music), are produced by a mixture of live conventional instruments with electronic sounds and tapes. And it is primarily as textures that these pieces succeed, since there's little for the listener to hold on to in a musical sense. Hodgkinson explains in the liner notes that his travels in Asia have given him "the hint of another kind of conversation with the world." While mostly "composed," there is a feeling of improvisation, or at least randomness, about the pieces. Moods range from very atmospheric and quiet to dense and chaotic, with just about every stage in between. There are no objective criteria to judge recordings like this: you can't say it's well-played or the band is really tight, you can't say the lyrics are good, you can't say the melodies stuck in your head. So I'm somewhat at a loss to make a quality judgment. I'll settle for describing it the best I can, and hope the reader can pick up enough of a feeling to decide if he or she might like it. - Jon Davis
[http://www.waysidemusic.com]

David Hastings - "Electric Café"

 (Broad Vista Music BVM 2000, 2000, CD)

Hastings' debut album is released on Biff Johnson's Broad Vista label, although Hastings' style is quite a bit different than the tribal ambient style of Johnson's two albums. It features 19 (!) tracks all between 2 and 6 minutes long, featuring a sound that is mostly an original blend of sequenced rhythms, spacey chords and lots of effects. Hastings has a lot of different influences, and I hear artists like Frank Zappa (synclavier music particularly), Jean-Michel Jarre (on "Revenge of the Delinquent Account"), and Klaus Schulze in his music. Hastings' strengths lie in both the concise focus of each one of his tracks and the detail therein. The music sort of comes out like a wall of sound, whether the piece is an electronic floater, a more classical, piano-based song, or a sequencer surge. There are lots of synthesized sounds pinging around the ambiance, making for a real shimmering, busy sound. It's quite the nice debut and very different. - Mike McLatchey

Kubusschnitt - "The Cube"

 (Neu Harmony NH013, 2000, CD)

If you are still searching for the near-perfect modern equivalent to Tangerine Dream and Klaus Schulze from their peak form in the seventies, you may find something tantalizingly close with this stellar release. Kubusschnitt is, amazingly, four guys from four different countries who have, as of this writing, anyway, never actually played together all at once. This makes their accomplishment all the more amazing. The best Teutonic music brings forth images of distant outer space voyages, and a sense of drama and adventure, alternating open sonic expanses with energetic sequencing. This disc has all of that and more. From the opening barrage of "Cube," a 24-plus minute epic sequencer fest, to "Ra," a simple but beautiful expansive piece, this disc seems to have it all for electronic music purists, in abundance. The aforementioned title track has three distinct musical movements, all of them outstanding. Classic sounds emanating from the Minimoog, the ARP Odyssey and 2600, and many others, will have retro fans in analog heaven. The rapid-fire layers of sequencing only let up for a couple of minutes in the middle of the 28-minute "Alpha Three", otherwise it is all intense electronic energy. "Hypercube" is a brief, more energetic version of "Cube," adding beats and Andy Bloyce's great guitar work. By the time it is over, you may find yourself exhausted but deliriously happy. - Phil Derby

Spring Heel Jack - "Treader"

 (Thirsty Ear THI-57083.2, 2000, CD)

You might think that the modern sounds of drum & bass are not the premise of Exposé writers, that there is no cross-reference point. Shouldn't we put head into the sand simply to ignore whatever appears with a programmed rhythm track spurring away at the speed of light? Part of the tenet is how to harness technology by merging high tech with a muse of texture and deceptive motive. Spring Heel Jack is the composite of two innovative Englishmen, John Coxon and Ashley Wales, who have hung out with the likes of Bill Laswell, Tortoise and Thurston Moore (Sonic Youth). In these varying dalliances between disco grooves and the far right they have managed to create their own niche. Their shtick is how to maneuver between extremes and generate excitement while keeping adventure intact. Pieces of note include the title track, which walks the line between Kraftwerk and a low-end massive attack. Track two, "Winter" utilizes a raunchy trumpet melody which is backed by an infectious groove. By the close of the track, the tone has shifted to a watery swirl of mystery. "1st Piece for La Monte Young" is the duo's chance to push the ambient envelope by abandoning meter altogether and diverting focus to an impenetrable mood. And don't forget the two obtuse bonus tracks, "My Favorite Things" and "Climb Every Mountain" which verge on light comedy. While Spring Heel Jack have nothing in common with symphonic prog, they do capture the imagination of a modern approach worthy of further investigation. - Jeff Melton

Oberon - "Sonnet"

 (Koch Records KOC-CD-8079, 2000, CD)

Sonnet is an interesting collection. At its core are readings of 12 of Shakespeare's Sonnets, 8 of which come with a song. The readings are all by trained English actors that lend them a high degree of authenticity. The songs and background music to the readings are the product of Atlanta-based composer/arranger Trammell Starks who has recently gained attention with his Taliesin Orchestra project that topped the Billboard chart last year. If I were to be kind I'd liken Starks to a modern day Chip Davis, though in reality John Tesh or Yanni are a more apt comparison. I'd best describe the songs on Sonnet as new-age Yuppie pop, orchestral in their approach, though played on modern instruments by ace studio musicians, and all graced by the lush, breathy soprano of Felicia Sorenson. At their best, these tracks recall Joanna Hogg and Iona ("Heaven Queen") or Loreena McKennitt ("Samain Night," a McKennitt composition). Otherwise, they're really not much more than glorified muzak, full of romantic, breezy melodies and wispy sentiment with just enough rock to somehow make it cool. It's all extremely seductive and easy to enjoy though, as much as I enjoy McKennitt or even Enya, this kind of thing ultimately lacks any soul or lasting value. It probably sounds great with some wine and cheese, though. - Paul Hightower

Irrgarten - "Home and Sanctuary"

 (Éditions Dédales DED-1001, 1997, CD)

Irrgarten is part of the new wave of Québec prog that surfaced in the 90s, and will be familiar to those who attended ProgEst 1997, where they were one of the eight bands performing. This is their only album to date, and shows them playing a conventional neo-progressive style with some occasional harder moments coming from guitarist Jacques Côté. Genesis and Marillion are the main influences here, particularly the latter from whom there is some direct quoting. Vocalist Michel Dek sings in a style similar to that of Fish, but with a more nasal (and sometimes whiny) quality. Without a regular bassist and with frequently plodding drumming, the music has difficulty sustaining intensity over prolonged periods. In addition, the lyrics are all in English, which isn't the band's strong suit. Despite the flaws, there is some promise here. Guest Steve Mercier contributes some nice parts on piano and other keys, there is some tasty sax work on the multi-part "Closed Garden" and the music accumulates an acute sense of mood and melodrama in places. With some changes, perhaps a move to French for one, Irrgarten could amount to something yet. - Sean McFee
[Contact: Éditions Dédales, 450 1ère rue Ouest, East Broughton, Québec, Canada G0N 1G0]

Quidam - "Baja Prog - Live in Mexico '99"

 (Musea FGBG4321.AR, 1999, CD)

It would appear Quidam really shine in front of an audience. I found the group's last album Angel's Dreams/Sny Aniolów to be pretty, but lacking teeth. However this release of the bands performance from the 1999 Baja Prog Festival is so good, it bites. Quidam play that style of prog one could describe as mellow prog; typified by bands like Camel or Renaissance. Quidam are fronted by the vocals of Emilia Derkowska and to borrow a phrase, "That girl can sing". She positively blooms on these nine tracks, an excellent recording helps, but she's better live than on the studio releases. The band is in better form as well; maybe it was the fun of being in Mexico with an appreciative crowd. Only being familiar with the one album, Live in Mexico makes an excellent sampler of this bands catalog, and if the Angels Dream material is any indication, a better introduction. Emilia alters between the English and Polish version of their songs, I still prefer the Polish but her vocals on Angels of Mine (sung in English) are awesome. If you were to ask me what song this band would be perfect to play a cover of, I would have said Camel's Rhayader/Rhayader Goes to Town. Well you got it and it is, as I would have thought, perfect. Like many bands at these festivals they toy with you, you swore you heard a classic riff, well Quidam seems to do that as well, a tease and then later they launch into the guitar section from Firth of Fifth, it could bring tears to your eyes. And for an encore the band does an outstanding version of Deep Purple's Child in Time proving that, Quidam is cool. - Dane Carlson

The Quiet Room - "Introspect"

 (Unus Dominion DR2907, 1997, CD)

This takes me back to 1987! Long live big hair! "Introspect" by The Quiet Room is a teasingly good CD. Sans the reference to eighties-style grooming, "teasingly good" is a serious evaluation of this band's biggest problem: excellent technical delivery without memorable songs. Throughout "Introspect" one is just waiting for a melody or a riff that they might be able to take with them as a souvenir of a heartfelt experience. Unfortunately, that event never happens. One, instead, is however dazzled by the technical vivaciousness of each of the musicians. This problem is actually a common one where the musicians, for whatever reason, forget about making meaningful and lasting contact with the listener. The major problem is the melodies. The melodic contour of the lead vocal lines are very narrow. This is not a big deal when you sound like the guy from Offspring, but when you sound like Rik Emmett, you will only be defeated by the lack of a wider vocal line. The vocalist for The Quiet Room could only benefit from a higher quality melody line. The band only now needs to find that balance between musical and technical aspects. - Jerry Baiden

Royal Hunt - "Fear"

 (Rondel Records RRCD RH0501, 1999, CD)

D.C. Cooper - "D.C. Cooper"

 (InsideOut Music America IOMACD 2005, 1999, CD)

Progressive metal gets an unfair rap from a lot of people, but albums like this certainly don't help. In a sub-genre that is often criticized for gratuitous displays of complexity, Royal Hunt goes the other way completely by never leaving 4/4. The sole "progressive" trapping is the occasional keyboard fanfare. Songs follow the standard verse/chorus structure with vocal harmonies strongly reminiscent of Bon Jovi. Things aren't helped much by the overly portentous and cheesy lyrics, including a ridiculous spoken proclamation at the beginning of the title track. Royal Hunt has a long way to go before they'll be in the same league as Dream Theater or Shadow Gallery. Meanwhile, D.C. Cooper is the former vocalist of Royal Hunt, and had his own solo release in 1999. This album fares somewhat better, being more in the Queensryche vein circa "Empire", aided in no small part by the similarity of Cooper's voice with that of Geoff Tate. Some of the lyrics here are a bit less than exemplary (the insistence on rhyming can be a bit clumsy), but all in all it is much better than what Royal Hunt came up with. - Sean McFee

Vanishing Point - "In Thought"

 (Angular SKAN 8216.AR, 1999, CD)

After a while I begin to wonder why Angular keeps sending us these metal bands to review. They must be absolute gluttons for punishment. Perhaps they have some weird German fondness for pain. Who knows? But then again, bands like Vanishing Point (and the seemingly endless others like them) do have redeeming qualities if one is willing to approach them with an open mind. A very open mind. In the interest of constructive criticism, I'll go ahead and point out this band strengths and weaknesses as heard on this disc, their debut. Much is made by Angular that this quintet (double guitars) hails from Australia though there's nothing in their sound to set them apart from the myriad other bands mining the same ore; crunchy guitars, oh-so-tough vocals, thudding bass and guitar- you know the drill. The ten songs are all minor key mini-opuses on topics such as fate, destiny, individuality, etc. There's even the 'sensitive ballad,' "A Memory," featuring piano (played by a non-band member) and some truly miserable singing. Still, the band displays promise in the dual guitar attack of Tom Vucur and Chris Porcianko, with some inventive arranging and styling, as best seen on the tracks "Vanishing Point" and "Dream Maker." Plus, like all good metal bands, Vanishing Point gives the material a certain visceral appeal through sheer weight and forcefulness. Unfortunately, while that may earn them points with the metal crowd, for the average Exposé reader it's not a recipe for success. - Paul Hightower

Machiavel - "Virtual Sun"

 (Musea FGBG 4305.AR, 1999, CD)

I'm not even a big fan of Machiavel in their "classic" phase, circa Mechanical Moonbeams. Even then the group's proto-neo-progressive/mainstream symphonic rock style does little to impress. So perhaps, I'm not the most objective reviewer for such a style, one that is basically little different from 80's symphonic pop like Saga or Mike & The Mechanics. The album is heavy on the lyrics, short on song length, and laden with trite Gilmour riffs (circa Momentary Lapse of reason) and Zeppelin-isms. Machiavel are undoubtedly pros - the album has good sonics, the band is tight, and the delivery assured. It just ain't my style, a far too conservative and histrionic symphonic rock angle with no sense of adventure. - Mike McLatchey

Mind's Eye - "Waiting for the Tide"

 (Round Records RR001, 2000, CD)

Mind's Eye may not have the most original name, but this quartet (vocals, guitar, bass, and a drummer who also plays keys) more than makes up for it with a sound that is. The requisite elements of all prog-metal bands can be heard on these 10 tracks, whether it be the chunky chording and speedy riffing of Frederik Grünberger's guitar, the thundering bass drum attack of Daniel Flores', the virtuosic and melodic bass work of Johan Niemann, or the wailing croon of Andreas Novak. But the entire band contributes another dimension that easily lifts their sound well above the standard dimension of metal mediocrity. Special attention must be called to Grünberger's guitar work. He regularly alternates his metal shred tone with elegant chiming and acoustic timbres that add an entirely original quality to the material, especially benefiting the quieter moments in the songs. This is particularly important since the key feature of Mind's Eye's music is the ability to turn between hard and soft extremes on a dime. Wicked shifts in meter and dynamics makes some of the music come off a bit herky-jerky, though strong melodies and compositional focus keep them from wandering off into space. Some listeners may find all of the movement within the pieces tiresome to follow, as I initially did, but repeated listening really pay off and reveal the greater expansiveness within all of the clutter. Waiting for the Tide is a superb effort and should put Mind's Eye squarely among the leaders in the field of melodic prog metal. - Paul Hightower

Clockwork - "Surface Tension"

 (Sensory SR3003, 1999, CD)

So far it seems that Sensory (Laser's Edge) has found a rich deposit of quality progressive metal bands; enter Clockwork. This New Jersey band is very much from the Dream Theater school. I hate to just lump them into this genre, but compositionally it can't be ignored. They are not the first band to do this, and they won't be the last. The question is what do they do with it? The band is M. Thomas Gammarino on guitar, Douglas Gillen on vocals, flute and keyboards, Chris Pignatelli on guitars and keyboards, Chris Pignone on Bass and Anthony Sciamanna on drums. The album opens with a good one, Secrets of the Centuries, this tune has crunchy guitar riffs and a tasty keyboard solo by Pignatelli. Another good one is East of Knowing, which has the standard acoustic intro leading into some Arabic type rhythms (featuring stick soloing by Sean Malone). That builds into the strong vocal piece If These Walls Could Talk, a good rocker with great guitar leads and hooks galore, and the middle section adds flute. This would be my favorite of the album. Gillen is a good singer, and proves to have a versatile voice (if he is doing all the vocals, no one else takes any vocal credits.) Clockwork are a little more down to earth than Dream Theater, tending to rock a little more at times without all the fancy stuff. In all a good debut by a band should get better. - Dane Carlson

Action Dreamer - "In the Hole Studio"

 (Independent, 1999, CD)

Action Dreamer is described on the sleeve as 'Alternative Music for Wondering Minds.' The alternative tag could stick since these songs are definitely not like anything you've likely ever heard. Unfortunately for singer/songwriter Ronnie Heber and co., that's because these tunes are just so god-awfully bad. This is suburban alterna/prog-pop of the worst sort and demonstrates the downside of the democratization of music distribution that the Internet now provides. The vocal songs try for a quirky cool a la Adrian Belew while the instrumentals aim for a Wakeman-like ornamental simplicity. Neither approach works due to a few fatal flaws in the scheme. Firstly, lyrics like "Would you like some kind of specialty finish?/My wife does this thing/Makes your walls look like spinach" are meant to be taken seriously. Secondly, the keyboard Heber plays sounds like it was found at the local Wal-Mart and the entire collection sounds like it was recorded on the cheapest equipment possible. Lastly, the quality (an oxymoron to be sure) of Heber's voice and his 13-year old kid's drumming leaves much to be desired (to put it kindly). If further proof is needed, just take a song like "Lady," no doubt an ode to Heber's wife that includes the lyric "Lying in the sun wondering about the creatures of the world/Like the rabbits, the squirrels, and the skunks." Fortunately, the vocals are so buried in reverb that they're barely understandable. I've got one message for you, Ronnie: Don't quit your day job. - Paul Hightower

4/3 De Trio - "Faiblesse"

 (Musea FGBG4275.AR, 1999, CD)

With the new King Crimson album, Construktion Of Light, entering the New Millennium with an atomic bang, pretty much blowing King Crimson wannabes out of the water and retaking the Land of Intense Hard Prog-Rock, the Minor Decievers must be on the run. Fortunately, wise Crimsoids have snatched a bit of the glory and taken it elsewhere. Case in point: 4/3 de Trio's "Faiblesse", from Musea. "Faiblesse", the song, starts out advantageously in Crimson territory but then wisely angles out, incorporating some jammy rock and some good old fashioned French. "Os" not only heads into prog-metal territory, but oddly veers into something like grunge with a nice clean sound and some old- time psych feeling. By the time you're waring into "Queen Wilson" you pretty much realize that whatever the hell these guys choose to play, they can do it real good. Snappy, powerful, this prog is mainly good old fashioned rock with a progressive intelligence and expertise. It's odd finding a French group rocking this hard - then suddenly pulling out some Mellotrons and getting spacey. The name seems appropriate, somehow, in that this sounds like a power trio of lead, bass and drums, with keyboards taking the backseat, but ultimately making a big difference. There's one song here that, God help us, sounds a lot like Pearl Jam, and I hate Pearl Jam. God help me, it fit well into this fine groups odd look at rock and prog - and I actually liked it. Then, suddenly, you're in the heart of the seventies listening to a fine traditional prog number like "Ma Devise". Oh yes. There's lyrics here, but like the keyboards they are more or less background. Melodic yet rocking, swinging yet discordant, this is a pretty good album from Musea - a label I've grown to trust. - David Bischoff

Oysterband - "Here I Stand"

 (Omnium OMM2023, 1999, CD)

Oysterband (originally The Oyster Band) has been making music in their own unique and developing style for more than a decade. I would hesitate to call them a post-punk equivalent of Fairport Convention, but their role in British Isles folk music is similar. They’ve taken a mixture of traditional songs and dances and brought them together with contemporary styles. It was with Deserters in 1992 that they really came into their own, presenting music that went beyond rocked-up reels and really had an identity of its own. Lead singer John Jones has an impassioned delivery and accompanies himself on melodeon or concertina. He’s backed by Ian Telfer (violin and viola), Alan Prosser (electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, banjo, backing vocals), Chopper (bass, cello, backing vocals), and Lee (drums and percussion). Songwriting duties are shared by various combinations of the five when they’re not reworking traditional tunes. The arrangements vary from delicate acoustic sounds to powerful rock. Here I Stand is a fine addition to their body of work, finding a middle ground between the reflective mood of Deep Dark Ocean (1997), and the angry raucous sound of The Shouting End of Life (1995). This new collection features 16 tracks, several of which rank with Oysterband’s all-time best. “Street of Dreams”, with its sawing fiddles and catchy melody, is a great original rock-jig, and “Someone You Might Have Been” presents an eerie acoustic sound with impressive depth. – Jon Davis
[www.omnium.com]

Rosenberg 7 – “R7”

(NorthSide NSD6031, 1999, CD)

This Swedish group has a different take on modernizing Nordic folk music. Instead of adding electric instruments or ethnic percussion, they mix the traditional with a bit of 20th Century classical. The line-up consists of vocalist Susanne Rosenberg, three other female singers, and a string trio of fiddle, viola, and cello. The basic modus operandi is for the singers to present spirited, elaborately arranged renditions of the tunes while the strings embellish in unexpected modern ways. You can still hear the folk flavor to Sven Ahlbäck’s fiddle, but he’s got a distinct way of approaching the repertoire. I’m reminded of times of what you might get if the Kronos Quartet backed Värtinä. But the singers are really the focus for this band. Their harmonies are quite stunning, the weaving around each other with bits of unison coming together out of the polyphony. A playful attitude is often present. They occasionally indulge in odd vocal noises like cattle calls and whoops. The voices blend so well, it’s impossible to identify the individuals, even in the beautiful solo spots. The album gives amble room to both sides of the band, with some instrumental pieces and some acapella. The arrangements make good use of the tension created by dissonance, and the crystal clear production provides a very immediate sound. – Jon Davis
[www.noside.com]