SPACE KITCHEN

Sometimes I feel like a phony when it comes to my prog love. I mean, I neither have the education nor the patience for complex time changes and self idolizing virtuosity, and my preferred bands in the genre tend to be described as low to middling complexity. I don't coddle the big baker's half dozen groups enough and I loathe the ones who started off somewhat clean and ended up sullenly recycling the same supercilious orchestral riffs or whiny vocals until we helped fulfill their multi platinum aspirations in a perverse power grab capitulation. Well, we did have a lot of help there from the mainstream, but you hopefully don't quite get my point.

All that said in a labyrinthine way, I do have a soft spot for some of the most maligned works by our heroes who somehow remain unforgiven for a diversion or two while we green light demi catalogues of dreck among others. For instance, I would never say that CAMEL's "A Single Factor" is anything other than one of their weakest efforts, but I still find much to enjoy there and in STEVE HACKETT's "Cured", both demonstrating the artists' ability to implement a hook. I also felt more vindicated than sad when these guilty pleasures brought so little of the same to the general public, since it meant I could still discern quality fun from the dross that actually climbed the charts. No snickering! Even MIKE OLDFIELD's infectious poppier works from the 1980s, as successful as they were on the continent and widely ignored in most of North America, just made me feel smugger about my proxy Euro credentials and love of a dressed up jig. Then there was the ALAN PARSONS project which somehow threaded the needle and were both popular and at least tepidly entertaining into the 1980s.

When a band like new Canadian duo SPACE KITCHEN falls into my electronic lap, and calls to mind a peppy distillation of the named acts and career phases above, I am glad to indulge the pop fan in me while not abandoning the prog fan, if indeed they are at all distinct. This debut EP offers up crystalline keys, soaring guitar solos and appealing vocals that does more than strengthen my upstairs argument to explain why crossover prog is everyone's 3rd or 4th favourite sub genre. The first 3 numbers deliver toe tapping accessibility and pleasure. If the most attractive aspect of "Moving Picture" and "Sun Tower" is the sub two minute instrumental between them, the band roars back with a worthy closer to settle my nerves a bit. I realize that to many the two named tracks will probably the only salvation for this promising debut, but please see paragraphs 1 and 2.