Bartz
Pictures of Earth And Space
Imagineer
1988
Wayside Music

Seldom these days does one come across music that truly sounds fresh, new and undefinable. In a musical market where there are pigeonholes within subgenres within categories of music (prog included), everything seems to already have a label, a market and a demographic niche. Everything has its place and every place has its thing. But every once in a while there are rare moments when one can listen to a new CD and ask oneself “What is this?” Even rarer are the moments when that CD is as good as this one.

Bartz’s Pictures of Earth and Space represents one of those rare moments. At first blush it may resemble typical “new age” music, but it doesn’t take long to discover that there’s much more to his music than what’s typically found under new age banner.

Sparkling washes of highly processed electric guitars, Chapman Stick and an array of arcane studio equipment are used to create shimmering, crystaline floods of melody and sound effects throughout P.O.E.A.S. Much of what is presented is unidentifiable as being one instrument or another, yet most of it manages not to sound distinctly electronic. This helps contribute to the unclassifiable nature of the album, bust so does the eclectic array of musical styles found from one track to the next. Some are very amorphous and abstract while others are more melodic and guitar-centric. On tracks of the latter variety, it’s clear there’s a very good guitarist in there amongst all the sound effects and washes of otherworldly chords. Steve Howe is unquestionably an influence, as Bartz’s melodies and tone are often highly reminicent of Relayer through Tormato-era Yes. At some points the steel guitar drenched in delay just gives this influence away, as on “Channels” and “Majestic Being”. During his occasional use of acoustic guitar, the spectre of Steve Hackett circa his Bay of Kings album appears, as on “Strange Alliance,” which also features some very Tony Banks-inspired piano. These influences combined with the drifty, amorphous nature of this music almost seem to create a British-influenced take on German space music. It’s the best of both worlds, really, but with a more modern sounding instrumental palette and a much more major-key, positive harmonic feel than much of what came out of Germany in the ‘70s. Where Tangerine Dream and their counterparts often painted with the colors of the darkness and emptiness of space, Bartz prefers to approach the cosmos with a sense of wonder and discovery.

Some other comparisons might be made to include the music of Robert Fripp’s ‘90s soundscape albums, the instrumental portions of David Sylvian’s Gone to Earth and especially the recent Ozric Tentacles spinoff band Nodens Ictus’ Spacelines.

Leave your preconceptions and convictions about space music, new age or electronic progressive at the door. Bartz gently melts them all away with a gracious invitation to just listen. — SH

Read RoDU's exclusive interview with Jim Bartz.

Cafeïne
Nouveaux Mondes
Musea
2000
promotional CD from the band

Started in 1990, Cafeïne is a relatively new French band. Nouveaux Mondes is only the band’s second album, but in true progressive rock form, it is a very ambitious one. This is a concept album apparently based in part upon the discovery and conquest of the Americas by European explorers.

As is common among many French progressive rock groups, the music on this CD is grand and delivered with a flair for the theatrical. Not being a speaker of French, it is impossible for this writer to discern exactly what the story is on this album, but it seems quite apparent there is indeed a concept running throughout Nouveaux Mondes, and Cafeïne attempts to tell the story with passion.

Cafeïne’s music can be described as fairly conventional modern progressive rock. A faint element of neo-prog is often evident in the instrumental timbres (airy sounding digital synths and slightly heavy-metalish guitar tones) and slick production, but in composition, creativity and performance Cafeïne rises above the level of even the best neo bands. This is likely due to the fact that Cafeïne’s main influences do not seem to be other contemporary prog bands, thus largely eliminating the watered-down effect so painfully common among today's purveyors of neo prog. Three out of four of the members of Cafeïne are formally trained musicians, and each of the members are influenced by a range of styles and artists — from classical to pop to jazz-rock and zeuhl!

Perhaps the band's greatest asset and most distinctive voice is found in the guitar playing of Patrick Jobard. He operates in much the same Van Halen-meets-Holdsworth style as that of Nathan Mahl guitarist José Bergeron, though he also throws in some '80s-era Alex Lifeson-isms in the chrous-laden rhythm work and arpeggios. His soloing is full of unusual melodies, twists and turns. He's not afraid to shred, but usually keeps things tasteful and concise. Jobard's nephew Christophe Houssin is the band's keyboardist and is a major force behind the band's compositions. He usually plays a supportive role, providing chordal backdrop, rather than stepping out in solos, but when he does, it's well done. Bassist Jean Christophe Lamoureux also keeps a low profile, but his short solo in "Atomik" reveals a very talented musician in the footsteps of the late Jaco Pastorius. According to the band's website, he's a fan of Magma, Ruins and King Crimson, but the influences of those bands' respective histories of aggressive bassists aren't felt on Nouveaux Mondes.

Cafeïne is apparently without a dedicated lead singer, so to tell the grand story that is Nouveaux Mondes, the band recruited an array of different singers from various French progressive bands. Christian Decamps of Ange; Sonia Nédélec and Jean-Baptiste Ferracci of Minimum Vital and Julie Vander (Christian Vander's daughter, currently a member of Magma) are just a few. Decamps lends his trademark dramatic style to "Don Juan" and Vander provides some brief but wonderful flashes of zeuhl intensity in "Atomik." In both of these cases, it seems Cafeïne has allowed these singers to bring components of their respective bands' styles into the Cafeïne fold. It's a welcome technique that allows for some diversity of musical styles. Especially interesting are the Magma-esque key-changing operatic vocal punctuations of "Atomik." This track gives the band a chance to really stretch out, show off some chops as well as get just a little weird. It's the highlight of the album.

Despite the variety of different singers, Nouveaux Mondes is a very cohesive album. It maintains an integrated feel and mood throughout its length. At times, a little more variety seems desirable, and sometimes it arrives just in time. Other times it doesn't. While a good deal of emphasis is placed on vocals on Nouveaux Mondes, Cafeïne still takes plenty of time to provide ample amounts of lengthy instrumental passages, thus striking a pretty good balance between more song oriented pieces and instrumental workouts.

Nouveaux Mondes is an impressive album, especially when considering it's from a band that's not very well known. With its delicate balance between soaring, memorable vocal melodies and long instrumental passages, Cafeïne has managed to successfully straddle the gulf between somewhat commercial neo-prog and more adventurous symphonic prog rock. The album will appeal to many fans of both styles. — SH

Don Caballero
American Don
Touch and Go
2000
Plan 9 Records, Charlottesville, VA

Don Caballero 4 finds the group making up for the loss of a guitarist with the addition of delay pedals. No need to eulogize machine's displacement of man here. This is their most humane release yet. The band emphasizes its unique melodic sensibility throughout while concurrently placing new levels of virtuosity in high relief. This record, a personal leap forward, also reinforces their matchless status in the indie ROCK community.

Those who have monitored Don Caballero's evolution are aware of the slow demise of their volatile, metallic tinged guitar riffs. Having become endangered on the previous record, What Burns Never Returns, they are all but extinct on American Don. In their place has arisen guitarist Ian Williams' finger tapping and Derek Bailey-like string manipulation. For many fans (though not this one), this is a loss worthy of lamentation. Those deep, atonal riffs, suggestive of King Crimson circa Larks’ Tongues in Aspic and Starless & Bible Black, were the appeal for many (prog fans) who may never have paid much attention to the band because of their indie rock affiliations. Don Caballero, however, has proven to become something of an ambassabor to these once mutually exclusive communities.

A few years ago I made a tape of King Crimson culled mainly from Larks’ Tongues in Aspic for a friend who happened to be a Don Caballero fan — one adverse to anything progressive. Later I asked him what he thought of the tape. He replied, “They sound like Don Caballero.” Thus, the two genres' somewhat jaundiced perceptions of one another (coy, disinterested elitism v. pretentious, theatrical bombast), while perhaps not erased, have become less stringent. Many stalwarts of indie/avant garde society like Jim O'Rourke, who produced the most recent Storm and Stress CD (Williams' more experimental endeavor), have been unabashed champions of 70s KC, et al. In so doing he and others of similar influence have bestowed respectability upon a genre many in young indie rock circles had held in disdain. While more lasting and pervasive cross-fertilization may be expecting too much, Don Caballero has, nonetheless, hinted at what is possible.

While the unifying riffs may be gone, American Don is still enthralling enough to attract widespread appeal. Prominent now is the melodious pointillism of Williams' finger tapping/picking, which is enhanced by the use of delay. Resulting are intricate and intertwined patterns of Reich-informed minimalism. On "The Peter Criss Jazz" the piece begins with a lulling Eno-ish keyboard (?) intro that eventually fades into more familiar terrain. The record reaches an apex with "Details on How to Get ICEMAN on Your License Plate", which exhibits the height of Williams' sublime guitar interplay. For those familiar with What Burns Never Returns, this song's sound and structure is very similar to that album's “Slice Where You Live Like Pie.”

American Don showcases a band at its peak. More so than any of their previous releases, this record embraces the beauty of complexity without sacrificing coherence. This is found not only in the guitar playing but also the methodical drumming of Damon Che. Too busy to see them on tour this fall, I am intrigued to know how or if they were able to pull off this record's many feats live. — SM

Gentle Giant
In a Glass House
Alucard
1973, reissued 2000
Wayside Music

One of the most important CD reissues in a while is this long-awaited classic from one of prog’s greatest bands. In a Glass House has been available on CD before, but not in many years. This CD is issued by Gentle Giant keyboard man Kerry Minnear’s Alucard label, so the presentation is top-notch. This is the first time it has been digitally remastered and never has the original, very unusual packaging been replicated as well as this, making this the definitive reissue.

This album has always been scarce and highly prized among American prog collectors due to the fact that it has never been released in the United States. In a stroke of what could only be considered record company incompetence, Gentle Giant’s orignal American label deemed the album too uncommercial for release here in the states. But that didn’t stop imported pressings of the album from selling 150,000 copies.

Many consider this to be Gentle Giant’s best work. What makes In a Glass House special is not its packaging nor its rarity. The music is what counts on any album, and this music is among the best prog rock ever recorded.

The album begins with the sound of breaking glass leading into “The Runaway,” an intellignetly written song about how a convict escapes from prison only to discover that his fugitive state is a prison in itself. This song is loaded with intricate guitar riffs, delicate keyboard solos, descant recorders and even a virtuoso marimba solo, all of which help set the tone for the rest of the album. “An Inmate’s Lullaby” is another look at captivity, this time from the mind of a patient in an insane assylum. This short, unusual song is comprised entirely of melodies played on tuned percussion. Kerry Minnear’s subdued vocals tell the story of a man who is cozy in his little cushioned room, content to talk to his “funny friends” and eating the tulips in the garden. “Experience” is a little more typical of Gentle Giant’s heralded medival-styled madrigal rock sound. It is also one of the most complex songs on the album, as it features some very intricate keyboard parts, tricky rhythms and numerous shifts in meter. Derek Shulman lends his full-bodied vocals to this song’s hard rocking chorus sections, thus balancing out the rather wispy vocals of Minnear in the verses. Last on the album is the title track. This piece covers a lot of ground in eight minutes — from the almost country sounding violin and acoustic guitar interplay at the beginning to the heavy Zeppelin-esque guitar riffs that take over the second half of the song. Even these, however, are punctuated by occasional interjections of tinkly synth melodies and Kerry Minnear’s slightly airy-fairy vocals.

Two bonus live tracks are included on this CD to entice long-time In a Glass House owners to make the switch. Yet another recording of the “Runaway/Experience” medley (already documented on Playing the Fool and King Biscuit Presents Gentle Giant) is not much to get excitied about, but the somewhat rarer “In a Glass House,” which undergoes considerable transformation in this rendition (big guitar-hero solo) is more interesting. Sadly, this particular recording is of fairly poor bootleg quality.

Maybe it’s no wonder the executives at Columbia didn’t think this stuff would sell in America. Such stark contrasts between masculine and feminie motifs, unusual instrumentation and vocals many would consider sissyish are not the stuff of typical rock and roll. But it is the stuff of great prog rock. Gentle Giant generally eschewed all the typical pitfalls of prog rock, yet they utilized all of prog’s good tendencies with no inclination toward commercial interests. (Not till the end anyway.) In a Glass House shows the band at the height of that good judgement and underscores their creativity and versatility. It’s essential listening for all prog enthusiasts. — SH

Happy Family
Happy Family
Cuneiform Records
1995
Downtown Music Gallery, New York, New York

For those of you who have been long-time visitors to Reels of Dreams Unrolled, you may recall a review of Happy Family’s second album, Toscco, which was written several years ago and went a long way to describing the band’s sound. If you are familiar with their second album, you are most likely also familiar with this, their self-titled first album. If you have still not heard anything from this band, than it’s high-time you allowed yourself the pleasure.

Happy Family consists of seven instrumental tracks, ranging from the one-and-a-half minute piece “Drums Whisper Spacy” to the nineteen-minute “Naked King.” All of these tunes, with the exception of two, were written by keyboardist Kenichi Morimoto. Unlike a lot of bands, though, this does not mean that Happy Family is dominated by one instrument — all four musicians are equally represented on these recordings, and they all can play.

Happy Family is considered by many to be one of the foremost representatives of progressive rock in Japan, and they are generally described as followers of the zeuhl style of music. Don’t let that fool you into expecting a Magma spin-off, however, as the songs on this album sound only a little like the music of Magma, Weidorje, and the like. What is common, though, is the energy, the chaos, the overwhelming drive of the bass guitar (in this case, courtesy of Tastuya Miyamo), the almost insane drumming (Keiichi Nagase doing the honors), and the total lack of conformity to what are generally accepted musical rules and conventions.

It’s really a difficult task to describe what you would hear listening to the entire album. There are songs of incredible speed and energy. The first track, “Rock and Young,” is six-and-a-half minutes of intensity that never lets up. There are also songs where the tempo is certainly slower, but the energy nonetheless remains. The longest track is mainly a slower song, with a fanfare-like intro and a long buildup, yet even then it is full of intensity. The buildup has the feel of a slow march, the bass and drums providing straight accents while the guitar and keyboard (joined later by the bass) begin to play a quirky melody. This gets faster and more difficult as the song progresses until it erupts into a drum/guitar duet. The guitar plays strange melodies and rhythms while the drums echo along perfectly, note for note, as if they weren’t difficult enough for one person to play, let alone two. From there it gets almost funky, and then, well, you get the idea. There’s no predicting anything you’re going to hear on this album.

Even when Happy Family seems to be playing “regular” music, they’re really not. Track 5, “Kaiten (Ningen Gyorai),” by all accounts seems to be a relatively straight-forward piece. After a guitar-laden intro, the band breaks into one of its steadier time signatures —which remains for a good portion of the entire song — and it seems that Happy Family is about to play a song that would be accessible to the masses, or at least a larger portion of the enlightened. This song even has recognizable sections! That’s when Miyano brings his bass guitar out front and the Magma-esque tendencies become clear. Janik Top himself would be proud, because the power that emits from the bass, while present throughout the whole album, really comes through and shines on this track, and it truly is inspiring. He swoops, he soars, he crunches. If you yourself play the four-string or any derivation of it, this song needs to be in your collection.

There are so many good things that could be said about this album, but it can all be summed up into one thing: This is a great album. If you like your music energetic, fast, noisy and intense — this is an album for you. — CH

Hinn Islenzki Thursaflokkur
Hinn Islenzki Thursaflokkur
Steinar
1978
a gift from a friend

Prog rock from Scandinavia is not unusual. Sweden alone has produced numerous top-notch acts, and Denmark, Finland and Norway have produced a few as well. But how many prog bands have you ever heard from Iceland? How many bands have you heard from Iceland at all? Well, here’s your chance to expand your musical knowledge of Iceland beyond Björk and the Sugar Cubes. Allow us to present to you a relatively unknown band called Hinn Islenzki Thursaflokkur. The name translates to something along the lines of “The Icelandic Hobgoblins,” and it is pronounced something like “HIN ish-LON-skee thur-sa-FLOCK-oor.” There is some confusion with this name for a couple of reasons. First, the letter thorn, which is unique to the Icelandic language, is not a P, but it looks similar. The Synphonic catalog spells it that way. Here I have chosen to spell it with the closest-sounding English letters TH for the same reason that Synphonic chose a P — I can’t make a thorn on my computer! (And Geocities seems to be incapable of displaying one despite the fact that there is an HTML code for it.) The second reason for the confusion is that this band shortened their name to Thursaflokkurinn after their first album. (Pursaflokkurinn in the Synphonic catalog!)

What makes this album special is not the band’s name nor the way it is supposed to be spelled. This music is very unique and very good in its own right. This album is mostly a collection of Icelandic folk songs, some of which are several hundred years old. Hinn Islenzki Thursaflokkur took these old melodies and stories and gave them their own unique twist. These songs appear to retain a strong connection to their folk roots, but rock and classical motifs are also added liberally to the mix. The result is deliciously progressive, but it seems that “prog rock” was not necessarily what the band was aiming for. Not all the songs fit into the common conception of progressive rock, but by the same token, all of the music sounds quite original.

Probably the closest comparison this writer can make to a better known progressive rock band is to Von Zamla, the last revision of the original Samla Mamas Manna name. This is largely due to the presence of bassoon in both bands, but a general vibe of Nordic folk weirdness is also a common thread. Unlike Von Zamla, however, Hinn Islenzki Thursaflokkur’s music is less experimental, more traditional and incorporates a vocalist. At times the vocals can be quite upbeat and even a little goofy, but vocalist Egill Ólafsson is quite talented and very pleasant to listen to. All songs are sung in Icelandic, but lyrics are printed in the CD booklet in English and Icelandic, as are the stories behind the songs — providing an educational read while listening to the music. Piano, electric guitar, bass guitar drums round out the rest of the instrumentation. Probably the best track is the mostly instrumental “Búnatharbálkur.” This is the most progressive track and features quite a range of moods and melodies. The track begins with a slightly melancholy melody for piano, bassoon and mellow electric guitar. The spirit of Camel is evoked here, but this theme ends abruptly, as a very short transitional theme replaces it. This second theme is highly reminscent of classic Genesis, calling to mind “The Battle of Epping Forest.” The rest of the song is sort of a pseudo-sinister motif that may remind some of Von Zamla or even Univers Zero, but any dark elements are kept in check by some cartoonish vocals. It’s a track with some surprises and it’s a fun listen. Another great piece is “Grafskrift,” a really evocative musical epitaph of a man named Saemundur Klemensson. Here Ólafsson puts his voice to really good use. Instrumentation is sparse, but a harmonium, or maybe a hurdy gurdy, grinds out some somber chords as the sound of a cold North Atlantic wind blowing across the Icelandic landscape can be heard.

This album is not extremely avant-garde or even very similar to more common forms of progressive rock. One could probably play this for one’s parents or girlfriend without too many complaints. Unless you’re from Iceland, however, Hinn Islenzki Thrusaflokkur is far from all the well-worn paths of pop, rock, folk, so-called world music and even progressive rock you may have ever traveled. This remarkable album is strongly recommended to anyone wanting to expand their musical horizons far beyond the norm. — SH

Odessa
Stazione Getsemani
Mellow Records
2000
promotional copy from the band

It goes without much argument that Italy has always had a special place in its heart for progressive rock. When British bands like Genesis and Van Der Graaf Generator were struggling for acceptance in their own country, there was already fervant support among the Italians for the new music they were creating. Italy itself certainly has also contributed some of prog's finest musicians, including bands like PFM, Area, and Deus Ex Machina, a trend which still continues to this day.

In keeping with Italy's tradition of fine progressive rock comes a new band called Odessa. This group consists of four solid musicians who obviously know a thing or two about progressive rock and Italy's place in its history. From the first few notes lead vocalist Lorenzo Giovagnoli sings, it is hard not to miss the obvious parallels between his voice and that of Demetrio Stratos, the late singer for Area. While there are parallels, that is not to say thatit is just a rip-off. Indeed, Lorenzo's voice has much in common with that of Stratos — not only does his range and sound copy Stratos, but there is also a similar, very charismatic element which demands the attention of the listener. However, there is enough of Giovagnoli’s own style and voice to make it unique. Giovagnoli is definitely not afraid of the microphone, and that shows.

The whole of Odessa's jazz-based sound has much in common with Area’s. The album is full of varying styles, from the more swing-based "Esilio" which features a very bluesy keyboard solo done on Hammond organ (also courtesy of Mr. Giovagnoli) to the harder-edged sound of tracks like "La Sfera".

Indeed, Lorenzo Giovagnoli is all over the album, as most of the solos and group playing tend to feature the keyboard to some degree, with the guitar, bass, and drums playing support to his melodies. This is not altogether a bad thing, as he is a very competent player. The album would have benefitted from more from the rest of the players, though. Probably the best track on the album is track 7, "L'Incontro (Stratosfera, L'Angelo)", which begins with a two-minute or so intro of a very different sound from the rest of the album — including a flute, some extra percussive sounds, a wailing reed instrument of some sort, and vocal moans, hums, and wails, before the song kicks in. This song features a great guitar solo by Boris Bartoletti before going into a blues-oriented keyboard solo (quite a few of those on the album), and as the end approaches, the energy level rises and rises as the whole band plays some really good stuff.

Although there is a definite Area influence to Odessa’s sound, it is fair to say that they lack the out-and-out experimentation and energy that is produced on Area albums such as "Crac!". Most of the album stays in pretty straight-forward time signatures, and even though they are not afraid to put some original ideas into their music, there is still the impression that they don't want to wander "too far from home." To listen to this album expecting to hear the next Area or PFM would probably set you up for a disappointment, but it would also do Odessa a disservice. A few listens to this album shows a young band striving to find their own place, building on what has come before them, but not relying on it. While some of the changes and sections of music may lack a little bit of luster or "oomph," there is enough here to make for a very fine listen indeed. — CH

Sonus Umbra
Snapshots From Limbo
Moonchild
2000
promotional CD from the band

Sonus Umbra is a band comprised mostly of Mexican members who emigrated to the United States to persue a career in progressive rock. They wisely located themselves in the prog capital of America, Baltimore, MD. Snapshots From Limbo is their first album under the Sonus Umbra name, though one album was also released a few years ago under the name Radio Silence with a different drummer. Snapshots From Limbo represents for these musicians a renewed commitment to successfully persue their musical interests.

At very first glance, Sonus Umbra may sound like just another one of the many “progressive metal” bands out there these days, but resting on that asessment would be unfair. A closer listen reveals a more sensitive, subtle touch that puts them more in the field of true progressive rock, albeit with a hard, modern edge.

The band includes the typical instrumentation of vocals, keyboards, guitar, bass and drums. The keyboards (Korgs Trinity and 01W) are used to good effect, but guitar is the dominant instrument throughout most of the album. Ricardo Gomez’s guitar style is more or less in the vein of typical metal, but he also manges to bring classical accoustic guitar into the arena. Sometimes his Mexican roots are evident in the melodies, such as on “Homo Homini Lupus,” thus bringing a welcome element of depth and musical diversity not usually found among the ranks of metal or prog metal bands. Andres Aullet’s vocals also do a great deal to balance out the band’s metallic tendencies. His velvety soft voice and Mexican accent are among the band’s best assets and are reminicent of something one might find on an early PFM album. (With acknowledgements to the fact that PFM’s English-language albums featured an Italian accent, not a Mexican one.)

Snapshots From Limbo is apparently a concept album based on one man’s struggle and ultimate failure to come to grips with modern society and all its ills. It’s a gloomy and ultimately pessimistic view, which makes this album a little hard to listen to on a regular basis for anyone who pays attention to the words. (Unless you enjoy dwelling on that sort of thing.) The music proceeds to get darker and heavier as the concept unfolds, but there are plenty of good moments along the way. “Doppelganger” is an instrumental that stays interesting by undergoing several changes, including a heavy unison riff that sounds like it came from a Primus album. “Erich Zann” is an even better instrumental which makes excellent use of a guest player on real Indian tabla drums (a very nice touch) and a slippery, eastern sounding guitar melody, making it one of the highest points of the album.

Snapshots From Limbo’s strength is in its interesting diversity of influences as well as a good balance of masculine/feminine (heavy electric vs. softer acoustic) motifs within each song. These are some of the most important and compelling hallmarks of true progressive rock, and characteristics which make Snapshots From Limbo a worthwhile and better-than-average debut release from a modern prog band. — SH