RITES AT DAWN

I don't frequent this site much any more; this is partly because I feel PA has turned into a sort of parody of itself. The new favourites are just rehashes of the old favourites, and most seem bent on defining the great sound instead of understanding what made it great.

When I look through the top albums of 2011 - ignoring the tech and post-metal - I see remakes of the 70's stretched to their very boundaries in an attempt to make them more edgy than their predecessors.The Psych and Symph prog in particular seem like bland and painful to the ears.

So why give 4 stars to a blatant Yes ripoff?

Well, it's obvious when you listen to this album. This isn't just an imitation of the 70's, this IS the 70's. All the frenetic energy and excitement of the very best parts of prog history. In the rush to capture a sound long dead, we've forgotten what made the sound magical.

It wasn't the 10/8 solo, or the atonal tertian harmonies.

It was how the music was played.

So no, it's not a masterpiece, because there's not a new idea on the album. But it's getting back to the roots of what progressive music was, before we got swamped with prog.