WINDOW DRESSING

This is the fourth studio album from Tiles, and any band that starts with a song that is over seventeen minutes long is obviously full of confidence. That is the title cut, and it shows the many sides of Tiles as they mix melodic rock with loads of other forms to create a type of music which has obviously been heavily influenced by Rush. But although they have a guest keyboard player in Hugh Syme (who also provided the artwork) this is a four-piece rock band (they also have a guest violinist in Matthew Parmenter (Discipline), and a guest guitarist in Kim Mitchell ? surely not the Kim Mitchell from Max Webster?), one that uses extra instruments to colour and flavour the proceedings, but not to take it over.

The music is extremely melodic, and even crunchy when they require it, and the production of Terry Brown (Rush, IQ, Fates Warning etc) has given the music an extra polish. It may not be pure progressive in the normal sense, but it has taken a hefty chunk of that genre and placed it with melodic rock to create an album that is very accessible on first listen yet also contains depths to enjoy and investigate. Yet another strong album from the Detroit based band.

Originally appeared in Feedback #79, June 2004