Dazed #20: Tales From Sheepfather´s Grove is a beautiful Yes fan album

Musicians are usually fans as well, each with their own idols. Often fandom becomes audible in the wrong way, either as probably unconscious but still uncomfortable plagiarism or outright ripoffs. But there are a few - very few, to be exact - nice fan projects where a musician openly pays his/her debt to the admired artist and does it with disarming skill and style. An older case in point is Todd Rundgren´s Utopia with their deliberate Beatles soundalike album Deface The Music back in 1980 (great fun, but not as brilliant as Eric Idle and Neil Inness´ The Rutles). And more recently Robert Reed did the same in the Oldfied territory with his "more Mike than Mike" album Sanctuary.

Johannes Luley, the driving force behind the short-lived US cult prog band Moth Vellum, released in 2013 the perfect fan album that I recently heard for the first time. Tales From Sheepfather´s Grove is a beautifully constructed Yes love letter from the title to the cover art to the music itself. His cards are so openly on the table there´s no point in yapping about copying a style - not when it´s done this well, anyway.

Luley takes the pastoral/acoustic side of Yes (Wonderous Stories, And You And I etc etc - you know that stuff) and uses it as a stylistic platform for the entire album. The result is a vibrant, warm and utterly charming soundscape of Jon-esque chants and bells and drones (thankfully, Johannes does not sound like Jon), Howe-ish guitars and very Rick-y synths circa 1977-78. 

This arsenal would be a moot point without the high quality of the songs themselves; they effortlessly carry on the form and the spirit of a certain period and style in the arc of another artist. In most places, it leaves some later Yes band and solo efforts staring at its tail lights. 

Some might call this a useless exercise; I call this immensely enjoyable and fun. If you´re a Yes fan, do not by any means pass The Sheepfather by.

My rating: 4,5 / 5

Listen to Tales From Sheepfather´s Grove on Spotify:

http://open.spotify.com/album/0lvUNkohWqlm173PdE5diK

Dazed #19: "Defragments" is a classy 2nd album for Parzival's Eye

Germany's RPWL are one of my favorites in the current prog scene with their "gentle art of music". The bass player, Chris Postl, released a nice solo project under the moniker Parzival´s Eye back in 2009 and has now gone for a second round with the same brand.

Defragments stays close to the RPWL home base. The musical style is an amalgam of (very roughly) Floyd, Beatles and indie guitar rock, with that hard-to-define RPWL spicing. It's warm, friendly, human and open and I like it a lot.

Sometimes deceptively simple, the songs are very well crafted and arranged. They are usually unhurried, sometimes even langurous exercises in nuance. The album does have two longer and proggier pieces, both solid and controlled. 

The surprise of the album is a nice acoustic cover of Yes' Long Distance Runaround - the version may not bring all that much new to the original but it's honest and fresh. Much the same can be said for Defragments as a whole: it's one of the year's most pleasant prog releases.

My rating: 4/5

Listen to Defragments on Spotify:

http://open.spotify.com/album/0ypMKwHXMCCPwKkImddKqr

Dazed #18: Neural Code's dose of jazz/Latin/metal fusion

Fusion jazz is usually not my premium cup of tea. The genre reminds me of Lee Ritenour and other 80s quick-fingered guys with expensive instruments making music best suited for Macy's perfume department. Or something.

But, then again, you can fuse all kinds of things together, should you choose to do so. The Brazilian virtuoso trio of Cuca Teixeira (drs), Kiko Loureiro (gtr) and Thiago Santo (bs) are a wonderful case in point. Their 2009 album Neural Code seamlessly blends Latin grooves, jazz, funk and metal (Loureiro usually plays with Angra). 

There_s nothing forced here; the elements interact nicely and the overall experience is organic. The production may sound less than top notch to some ears but I found the slightly rough around the edges sound very alive and warm. The trio lineup does not need too many aural enhancements anyway; all the better if it sounds like a gig.

The playing is of the highest calibre and the grooves are always dynamic and varied - I found myself happily bouncing along as I listened to this on my iPhone on a nice summer day. For a while, Finland felt like a much more southern place - thanks guys :)

Listen to Neural Code on Spotify

Dazed #17: Box Of Shamans is more than a quirky name for a prog band

Not too long ago, I discovered a US prog band called Heliopolis (more about them later in a separate entry). They made a very positive impression and when I learned the hilariously named Box Of Shamans is more or less a Heliopolis side project, I wasted no time in getting to hear their recent debut Belief and Illusion.

And it was a good call, too. The album is stylistically varied and yet retains the band's own identity throughout. We get moments of slightly crimsonesque math rock, occasional heavy riffing, pastoral sequences echoing classic 70´s British prog, and even a radio friendly tune in the middle of it all. A lesser band would have made a royal mess of it but B.O.S. keep things under control and somehow manage to build a coherent album that keeps you intrigued and entertained.

The guys in the band are no beginners and the experience shows in not just the high class of playing but also in the willingness to push their musical borders. Belief And Illusion may not be an all-time classic but it's very good prog finely executed. And it comes with cool cover art, too :)

My rating: 4 / 5

Listen to Belief And Illusion on Spotify

Dazed #16: "In Vaults" takes District 97 to the next level

District 97 have been a truly bright spot in the current prog scene from their debut on. Adventurous, fierce, high level musicians with a unique vision that takes certain cues from older masters but has flowered into something quite different.

That's why I got a bit alarmed when In Vaults began. The first track, Snow Country, sounded curiously careful and compromising - still does to me - but fear not: already the next track, Death By A Thousand Cuts, truly sets the scene and blasts the dust off the table with huge guitars and an intricate web of time signatures.

What follows may be the band's finest hour yet. I hear more nuances than before, I admire the way they have subtly expanded their musical palette while not giving up any of their high intensity bite, and Leslie Hunt has never been this good, bless her.

This is an album that may take a turn or two before you really get into it, but once you're in, it's useless trying to get out.

My rating: 4,5 / 5

In Vaults on Spotify

Dazed #15: Barock Project's "Skyline" shines brightly

Well now. I'm amazed. Seriously.

I had a hunch something interesting was going down when the band began to push the new album on their FB page way before the release date. They clearly seemed genuinely excited about what they had created, and that's always a strong signal. I just loved Coffee In Neukölln, an album that took me totally by surprise and bowled me over, so I tuned my radar to the BP frequency with high hopes.

The news: Skyline goes and exceeds its predecessor. Kudos, guys, congratulazioni!

The two things I found most remarkable about Coffee... are very much present here as well: the band's strong own identity (they sound like no one else, which is a medium sized miracle these days) and the stunning self- assurance in their musicianship. This is not a flashy prog metal virtuoso stance, it's more a steady "yes we can - and we will" kind of attitude.

So, during the course of the album we're treated to myriads of moods and styles, and I absolutely love the way they can shift from classic prog to hard rock to classical to piano jazz within a song and still keep the song coherent and together all the way. Sometimes they take conscious risks of going overboard with this multi-genre approach, but those moments (e.g. "Overture") are so joyous and in-your-face bold that I cannot but be delighted with every musical logic defying stunt. Waiter, I'll have what they're having, please...

The entire effort is so focused and so well produced (the soundscape is alive and vibrant enough to please even the analogue enthusiasts) I get a sense I'm listening to a concert instead of an album. And that's a compliment, a very strong one.

To summarize: Skyline continues where Coffee... left off. The basic style is pretty much the same but there's much more variation, the band's confidence has gone through the ceiling, the string arrangements are simply gorgeous and the distinctly Italian melodic sense is the icing on the cake.

If this is not a classic-to-be, I have pretty much misunderstood prog.

"Skyline" at bandcamp.com

Dazed #14: Fractal Mirror, Dave Kerzner, Simon Collins

I gave praise to Schizoid Lloyd in a previous posting and now I have to give big thumbs up to another Dutch act, one very different from Lloyd's xtreme prog metal. Fractal Mirror's debut caused next to no stir (and rightly so) a few years ago, but their 2014 release, Garden of Ghosts, is as if another band had made it.

Crossover prog is not as simple an art as one would think. Combining prog's ambitions with pop hooks and choruses more often than not leads to bland FM mediocrity - there's a reason why an It Bites has little competition in the genre. On Garden of Ghosts, Fractal Mirror have reached a point of perfect balance between mostly melancholy pop and truly grand, at times downright majestic/visionary melodic prog - see if you can hear the opening track without taking the wistful chorus with you. There's no displays of technical overkill here; instead the focus is on excellent songs and their meticulous execution. The recording budget was probably on the leaner side, but every cent has been used wisely (and if I've understood correctly, Echolyn's Brett Kull helped out with the production). In its genre, this is nearly transcendent and much recommended.

My rating: 4,5 / 5

Frequent collaborator with a number of prog artists (Sound Of Contact most recently), Dave Kerzner's solo debut New World has probably been the talk of the prog community in the winter of 2014-15. And why not: Dave is a visible figure in the American prog scene and the list of people he has previously worked with and those who have worked with him on this album is amazing.

I find New World very entertaining and... well, nice. It's a skilled display of musical capabilities from a guy who's been around the scene long enough to know the only way to approach your solo effort is just to play what you really like. Unlike some other proggers, I don't find the album revelatory or "wow!" in any way. What I hear is music made in good spirits, with its classic prog influences shining proudly through (the blatantly pinkfloydish opening of the album is actually refreshingly honest in its tribute) and the positive atmosphere is catching; it's the kind of album I like to put on when brewing coffee on unhurried Saturday mornings. And that's a compliment, mind you :)

My rating: 4 / 5

As I checked out Dave Kernzer's earlier feats, I learned he and Simon Collins had collaborated already in 2008, way before Sound Of Contact, on Simon's solo album U Catastrophe. Let me just note that this is a well serviceable dish of modern prog-tinged rock. I especially appreciate young Simon's willingness not to follow daddy's mannerisms in either singing or drumming (well there's one drum-driven track that's all about the Phil Drum Sound, but we'll allow that). Dynamic, self-assured, not terribly original but great music for driving and home repairs. Hey, you need that once in a while, too!

My rating: 3,5 / 5