THE ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS

But that's about my only complaint on The Underground Railroad's second cd "The Origin of Consciousness". I mean, I almost expect to hear some derivative sounds on any new prog cd these days, and these guys are all clearly talented enough to pull off some complex polyrhythmic ELP stuff mixed with fusion. But I thought they went to that well just a few too many times here; I will concede that the final track ("Julian II") contains some themes from the first track ("Julian Ur"), so some repetition is expected there I guess . Not that this is a bad cd - I did give it 4 stars! I enjoy the Porcupine Tree-like vocals, and I'll listen to any guitarist who emulates Allan Holdsworth. The sounds of Spock's Beard and Echolyn also come to mind on a few tracks. But one of my other difficulties with this cd is that I can't take quite this much of the dissonant vocals and song structures - I need more frequent breaks of harmony and melody to resolve the tension, especially when the lyrics are obtuse and delivered somewhat darkly. (Actually, much of the art on the cd booklet is representative of the music.) And there are certainly many stretches of virtuosity displayed throughout the cd, but sometimes the solos don't seem to go anywhere - it's sort of like watching continuous one-minute snippets of great chase scenes from different movies, but never getting to see the outcome of the chase. Maybe they're trying to put too much into a limited space?

Favorites for me are the 11-minute instrumental "Love is a Vagabond King" (which really is excellent!), "The Canal at Sunset" and the 8-minute opener "Julian Ur"...in that order. This is complex music played well; but it's not an easy listen, and may require multiple listens to fully appreciate. I'm intrigued enough to concede that this kind of talent deserves at least that much of an opportunity.

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