Issue 2024-061
Age Of Distraction — A Game Of Whispers
Age Of Distraction are a collaboration between several artists originating from UK's progressive rock scene. The musicians are founder/guitar player John Cook (ex-This Winter Machine), vocalist Charlie Bramald (Ghost Of The Machine), bass player Mark Gatland (Hats Off Gentlemen It's Adequate, IT), and drummer Dom Bennison (Last Motion Picture and ex-This Winter Machine). With these members it is hardly any surprise that the sound of Age Of Distraction has quite a lot of resemblance with This Winter Machine's music. With two former members plus Charlie Bramald who is in Ghost Of The Machine, a band with several other This Winter Machine members, this for sure is obvious. There are a lot of influences from classic UK prog bands, but I can also notice an own identity in the sound. The music on A Game Of Whispers is (neo-)progressive rock ranging from some old Marillion influences ending with some contemporary Arena and IQ.
The Uninvited is a keyboard intro with some whispering voices. This opening song features Ruby Jones from The Exotic Ices Project. Next couple of song have a lot of classic neo-prog influences. Break My Bones sounds a lot like IQ, a pounding start and many keyboard layers, and Compromised has a lot of Porcupine Tree influences. Break My Bones is a song that has so much familiar neo-prog sounds, that it is an easily digestible song for many progressive rock fans. Compromise is a heavy rocker with a very nice riff — I like it. Protect Me is a mellow song followed by a mellow instrumental song The Plea. Take Me Down has more of poppy feel to it with an accessible chorus with some lovely piano. This one again features Ruby Jones and also Philip Stuckey from Stuckfish. Nice and relaxed song, one of my favourites on the album.
Title track A Game Of Whispers is heavier and reminds me a lot of Arena and Threshold. Nice, powerful riff supported by a layer of keyboard chords — just the way we like it! It is followed by the also heavier, instrumental song The Point Of No Return. The song begins and ends with a guitar riff that sounds like a practice riff. But a lot of different, interesting things happen in between, especially in the middle part of the song.
After the heavy songs the album takes a mellow turn with Oceans, again a very enjoyable song. After a small interlude with instrumental The Left Unsaid it is back to the heavier stuff. Sneak Attack starts slowly but evolves into an even heavier song with some more Threshold influences. With the ambient instrumental song My Peace, the album comes to an end. It sounds really earthy, with flute and violin sounds and such, I almost miss whale sounds.
Age Of Distraction is a very welcome addition to the UK progressive rock scene. Fans of several progressive rock styles will surely like this album a lot. Something new and something familiar, it is all is there on A Game Of Whispers. I can't wait for the next album.
Auro Control — The Harp
Equal parts heavy metal, power metal, and progressive metal, Auro Control shred, jam, and soar on multiple levels. Equally comfortable playing a galloping riff as they are riding the highs of Lucas de Ouro's stellar vocals, the band's debut album, The Harp, grinds harder than its title might suggest.
Founded by Lucas de Ouro, the band is also comprised of Lucas Barnery on guitar, Thiago Baumgarten on bass, Diego Pires on guitar, and Davi Britto on drums. Dream Theater is a strong influence on the band, with multiple members having played in Dream Theater cover bands in the past. With that said, they don't sound like a Dream Theater clone. The influence is there, but it isn't overdone.
The album opens with a short prelude of sorts, primarily on the softer side gradually building and layering until the album lets loose with the aptly named Feel The Fire. That track could best be described as power metal, with a pounding gallop of dueling guitars and slapping drums.
The album features a few guests, most notably Jeff Scott Soto on the third track. While not necessarily needed, his shared lead vocals do add a layer of complexity to the track. Lucas' and Soto's voices complement each other, and the track is very strong for it.
Well-known Brazilian metal drummer Aquiles Priester guests on Rise Of The Phoenix, adding a double-kick thrash element to the song, further diversifying Auro Control's sound on the record. The song itself builds and soars, particularly in the vocals, mimicking the rise and flight of a Phoenix.
Conception brings a ballad element to the album with a contemplative passage that has Lucas singing emotionally over mournful piano. This opens quickly into a towering wall of metal with Lucas' high notes leading the melody over the top. The guitars support the vocals, letting the melody and lyrics shine. The brief solo in the final third is just icing on the cake.
The Dream Theater influence most noticeable on the final track, Breaking Silence, which has a wonderful extended instrumental intro that ranges from quiet and contemplative to intense shredding. The distinct yet subtle bass-line reminds me of Connor Green from Haken — it has the jazz. The song mixes ethereal elements, with hints of harp and sparse female vocals in passages between towering walls of metal.
My favorite aspect of this record is each song is a little bit different while retaining elements that keep the album cohesive. Where Afterglow shreds, Feel The Fire gallops. Both songs are heavy, but in different ways. Throughout the album there are subtle inclusions of other instruments layered in the mix that reward the listener on repeated plays. The guitar shredding is enjoyable and interesting throughout. It's never overdone nor overpowering.
While I won't go so far as to call this a perfect record, I will say nothing stood out to me as being grating or annoying. I didn't find myself wanting to skip any songs. It is a solid album integrating multiple elements of metal with clean vocals. Its main drawback is it doesn't blaze a new trail musically or thematically, but no one said it had too. I'm satisfied with a killer metal album that promises to deliver again and again the more I listen.
Breaths — Breaths
Breaths — once again, I am here. Having been listening to him now over last few years, I've enjoyed all his works, from the albums such as Though Life… and Isolera to their split EP Seasons with Dimwind. So, I'll spare the introduction again and go straight into it.
This album is a follow-up from the EP Melt Away, and in actuality shares four of the same songs: Fade Apart, Barbarella (Melt Away), Waves and Shaken. As such, rather than repeating my previous words about them, I'll move forwards to the rest of the album.
In keeping with previous works, the “doomgaze” vibe is still heavily present. Skirting the line between the slow, harsh and melancholic nature of doom metal, but imbuing it with the vibe and structure of post-metal, the album is driven forwards by this sound.
Roberts continues to showcase his talents as a melodic vocalist, with his clean lyrics ebbing and flowing with the music. Either providing more atmospheric backing, or as the pilot for the emotions within the track. As well as the skill at switching between styles as evidenced by the difference between the ambience of Fade Apart, or the catchier moments through Shaken to the noised based disconnected vibe through Hide In Starlight.
Occasionally though, I feel some areas could do with a bit more variation. Such as during Sing To Me. Overall, a good number, but towards the end it is getting a bit too repetitive in the riffing. Aside from that, I think the only other real “criticism” would be that some of the guitar lines are a bit too fuzzy and could do with some polishing. Personally, I often enjoy the fuzzy and raw sound that comes with projects like this. However, the production values do sadly let this effort down. Maybe time to bring another to the fold to help add to the pool of ideas?
All in all though, a good continuation of the work of Breaths. For fans of Solstafir, Purterbator, Sunn O))) or Ahab.
Lunophone — Surroundings
Two multi-instrumentalists have collaborated away from their home projects to form Lunophone. Dario D'Alessandro of Homunculus Res, an Italian, and Irishman James Strain of Rascal Reporters. Each provides six songs, Dario the odd numbered and James the even ones, if you're interested. This does not affect the coherence of the album.
The music on Surroundings is a heady melodic mix of Canterbury Scene psyche, art-pop and prog rock, with touches of jazz fusion and experimental Rock In Opposition weirdness. So this is in the realms haunted by Syd Barrett, Robert Wyatt, Soft Machine, Matching Mole and so on.
The tracks are densely arranged, chock-full of synths, fuzz organ, guitars, bass, drums, and other tracks have some less common detailing such as the gamelan gangsa, sitar and electric oud on Dalbhdha. There is also on a couple of tracks an instrument new to me, the Nuvo DooD, look it up its quite fun. Given this instrumentation and the woozy, often complex Canterbury sounds it is to James Strain's credit that his mixing and mastering lets the ears follow exactly what is going on.
There are changes of tempo, sometimes into the frantic (Ametista), and the shortness of the songs leaves one wishing on occasion for a more expansive exploration of the tunes. The only thing that I find a little irritating is the use of wordless vocals (the vocals are good) in that it puts me in mind of the kind of music you used to get on soundtracks of cheaply made European B-movies and cinema adverts in my formative youth.
Lunophone's debut, Surroundings, is a recommended listen for fans of the Canterbury Scene, maybe not so much for the prog fan with less or only passing interest in that scene. But hats off to Lunophone for following and executing their vision with aplomb.
Reegonetti Band — Songs From The Raven's Nest
"Greetings from the dark woods of northern Sweden! You never heard of Reegonetti Band, so let me explain who we are. We are a duo from the north woods of Sweden. Think of us as a more cinematic version of UK or ELP, as we do our music with keyboards, drums, and vocals." This is how Reegonetti Band introduced themselves at our site, and that short statement caught my interest right away. Hence, I picked their second release Songs From The Raven's Nest, following Exploring The Unknown from 2021, for review, despite them being totally right in their assumption that I had never heard of them before. What a good decision it was!
The beginnings of Reegonetti Band date back to 1981, when Börje Reinholdsson (drums, vocals), and Ronald Vikström (keyboards) first met. Having tried various band formats with guitar and bass subsequently, they opted for realising their idea of progressive rock as a duo of drums and keyboards (only), with vocals, giving them a touch of originality right from the start. However, that start seems to have been rockier than expected, and their band project fell apart a few years later without a record having been released, and with Börje and Ronald pursuing different musical activities during the decades to come. Reegonetti Band never "officially" split up, though, and their friendship remained intact over time. In 2012, they relaunched their band activities, but it only was nine years later that their first album was released, and another three years for Songs From The Raven's Nest to follow.
In terms of the lyrics, the Songs From The Raven's Nest revolve around rather dark themes: paranormal activities occurring in a place called Skinwalker Ranch in the US, people being confronted with the ADHD disease, the best possible use of time allotted to us, feelings and emotions faced during the Covid pandemic, grappling with vanishing self-confidence, the life in a world with extreme politicians, racism, religion, and money, and the destruction of life on earth by the impact of a meteorite (Chicxulub is the crater caused some 65 million years ago by the meteorite impact in Yucatan responsible for the extinction of the dinosaurs). Hence, rather complex topics have to be expressed musically, and this is also reflected in the way the songs are arranged.
Upon foundation more than forty years ago, Reegonetti Band already were considered as "The Odd Ones", with their songs being too long, too complicated to be brought from studio to the live stage, and the exact opposite of an average and mainstream pop song. Four decades later, the band still claims the same about their music: it's fascinating how you can stay true to yourself and your music for so long. I also consider it as extraordinary that, despite just performing as a duo, the music of Reegonetti Band sounds very "complete". This requires a considerable degree of musical virtuosity, and ability, both elements being displayed on this album, without the two musicians allowing themselves to be tempted into merely demonstrating these skills.
The presence, not to say dominance, of the keyboards is self-evident. Bass lines sometimes are created by almost sequencer-sounding synthesizer loops. Ghost In The Crowd with its loop of eight notes being consistently repeated throughout the entire track and making for an almost hypnotic feeling, is the best example of this. On some occasions, such as in Liar's Ball, I had to conjure that there are no guitars in action on this release.
Although I would have preferred the drums to be given a little more punch and dynamics compared to the keyboards with respect to the mixing, I find that the duties among the two musicians are distributed rather evenly, nonetheless. This also comes from the fact Börje's vocals are an important element of Reegonetti Band's music. Here and there, for instance on The Dark, I asked myself: "Where have you heard such expressive and melodramatic singing before?" Searching the deeper layers of my brain made me remember the voice of Mark Trueack from Unitopia. This also makes it clear: finding peers to compare Reegonetti Band's music with is not an easy task. A pure drums/keys duo even prog rock wise is a rare bird and a proof of originality. The only similar band who acted as a duo that came to my mind is Sixty-Nine, a nearly forgotten German prog/krautrock band who released two albums in the seventies. Of course, besides ELP, there are other keyboard-driven bands such as Triumvirat, and Tritonus with comparable sounding songs, but acting as trios with a real bass player. Among the solo albums, The Raven by German keyboarder Aliènor and Sursum Corda by Quill have things in common.
Note from the editor: there are two more examples with a similar line-up. They are both from Sweden as well and hardly made an impression abroad, so our reviewer is forgiven for not knowing them. The first is also from a long time ago: the late 1960, and were a duo named Hansson & Karlsson (famous for jamming with Jimi Hendrix and having their song Tax Free covered by him) which included Bo Hansson, who did leave a more international mark in the prog scene. The other one is a much more recent act called Trummor & Orgel, which actually translates to "Drums And Organ".
The more often I listened to this album, the more I appreciated it. Having played (and still very occasionally playing) keyboards myself, I have a strong bias towards keyboard-driven prog, although it is of the more conventional kind with additional guitar(s) and bass. But I acknowledge, with respect, the achievement of Reegonetti Band to come up with a mature and fully-fledged sounding release "just" made up of keyboards and drums (plus vocals). Keyboards afficionados should therefore feel concerned, but also prog lovers looking for music which is varied, versatile, melodic, virtuosic without showmanship, and demanding but very accessible. I am glad that I no longer belong to the (unknowing) people mentioned in the opening statement. Given that Into Oblivion, of which The Dark figures as part two, is conceived as a trilogy, I look forward to what comes next from Reegonetti Band. Moreover, Börje and Ronald are considering another attempt to create versions of their songs suitable to be played live as a duo, so let's wait and see how that develops.
Sykofant — Sykofant
I definitely need to visit Norway. I don't know what's going on there, but the number of interesting bands making really good progressive music keeps growing. I could name over 20 top bands without thinking too hard. Sykofant has just become one of them, with a very good debut album.
There is one thing that doesn't happen to me when I discover music as a simple listener, that does happen to me when I have to review an album. I don't know if it happens to my colleagues at DPRP, but when I receive an album without knowing anything about the group, I usually look for information on the web and I almost always come across a description of their sound on the band's Bandcmap site. That description tends to condition my musical discovery. Sometimes for the worse and sometimes for the better.
In this case, I think Sykofant describes their sound very well. It has made me really think about that description when listening to the album.
Sykofant offers groove, distortion, hair, and sweat. A playful blend of crooked beats, pace changes, dissonance and genre mixing, while simultaneously providing the listener with an aftertaste of acoustic simplicity. The band thus evokes associations to another, perhaps lost, time, but at the same time injects a burst of freshness into the well-known soundscape of classic rock music. -- Sykophant
The important thing here is the last sentence. Sykofant really takes elements from the past and classic bands like Pink Floyd, Deep Purple, Rush and give them a modern and complex twist, adding some jazzy parts and even with a stoner atmosphere here and there. Can they even pour some funky parts? Listen to Between The Moments and you will see.
We have only six songs here but three of them are over ten minutes long with many things happening. The shorts songs are also interesting and have several time changes and great structures. Opener song Pavement Of Color marks somehow the mood of the album and presents quite an interesting singer. Not a virtuoso but he adds a lot of character to the songs and fits perfectly with the type of music on the album.
I have to mention that I received the CD version of the album and some documents showing the art on the LP version. It looks great so go for it if you're one of those vinyl lovers. Look no further if you're missing those old-school sounds and have already listened to too many of the classics. Check out this promising new band. Let's see what they have planned for future releases because I have the feeling that they can improve this debut given how interesting their proposal is.