UNIVERSAL MIGRATOR, PART 1: THE DREAM SEQUENCER

Having been satisfied with Ayreon's previous album "Into The Electric Castle" I then purchased this album - the soft side of The Universal Migrator. As Arjen has put it in the CD sleeve, his intention to have two parts with different style was because he wanted to satisfy the fans of both styles: the progressive rock fans with "The Dream Sequencer" and the metal fans with "Flight of The Migrator". Or, put it in a business buzzword, he wanted to do the "market segmentation" right and targeting each segment with different product. It seemed like he applied the principles of marketing proposed by Dr. Philip Kotler, I think. What happened then? The fans loved those two styles regardless their original musical taste, according to Arjen. That's why he released a double album Special Edition under Inside Out label - the version that I purchased.

It's slow moving! That's the first impression when I listened to the CD at first time. I almost lost my patience with the very very slow music I was listening to. The Dream Sequencer (5:08) begins with a soundscape and effects with some narrative greetings for Colonist by female voice and robotic talks, followed with keyboard work in a very slow tempo. The Floydian guitar work enters wonderfully augmented by spacey, long sustain keyboard work. [****]

My House On Mars (7:49) starts with a music loop / sequence with spacey keyboard work at the back that reminds me to a song in JEAN MICHELLE JARE (hmmm, if Tangerine Dream is featured in this site, Jare must be included here as well, I think) "Concerts in China" album. The vocal enters the music in very low register notes and slow tempo music. There are nice Floydian guitar work and nice keyboard solo - all are performed in spacey style. [****]

2084 (7:42). The title reminds me to Rick Wakeman's 1984 album that told the story about George Orwell. As for this album, I actually expected something heavy and energetic as the two previous tracks were truly mellow. But what I got is another mellow track with female voice and simple guitar fills and spacey keyboard. So sorry about the drummer - he cannot demonstrate his potential to the fullest as his role is purely as bar keeper for a very slow track like this, no challenging work for him really. It's a good track, anyhow. [*** ½ ]

One Small Step (8:46) is another nice outfit with simple acoustic guitar fills featuring lead singer that performs melodic lyrical part and good story. The way orchestration arranged reminds me to Royal Hunt's repertoire - even though it's not exactly similar. What I really enjoy with this track is the guitar solo - it's stunning. The keyboard solo that follows also excellent. All are performed in slow tempo. [****].

The Shooting Company Of Captain Frans B Cocq (7:57) is a keyboard-based tune with distant vocal singing style and excellent guitar work, good melody. With this kind of music, melodic and slow tempo, it would favor neo prog lovers. [****]

Well, I don't need to elaborate all songs as there are very little variations among them. All are performed in very slow tempo with similar style: spacey keyboards, Floydian guitar and very rare tempo changes. As colleague collaborator FloydWright has put it, the concept is excellent. For my personal taste, each song is excellent. However, I have trouble listening to the whole disc in its entirety as I tend to get bored right after track 6 because every single song is alike (tempo-wise), no hard driving track as variation. For those of you who love Pink Floyd or space progressive music or neo prog, you may like this album. I am not saying that this album is Pink Floyd-like but at least there are bits of it in some tracks. Recommended. Keep on proggin' ..!!

Progressively yours,

GW