AIRE

One thing about listening to so much new music is that even as the album starts I find myself starting to work out what I am going to say. Normally within the first few minutes of an album I can gauge whether or not I am going to like it. By now, you would have thought that I would know better. I first played this album while I was decorating which gave me the opportunity to play a lot of albums back to back very loudly to see what I felt about them. If I hadn't had a paint brush in my hand there is a good chance that I would have turned this off after the first few minutes as it sounded as if here was another laid back almost New Age album. But the gentle beginning gives no impression of the guitars that are going to break through, then gently drift out again.

I soon found that I was spending more time concentrating on the music than I was on the walls. Product are a new band to me, and are a duo of Arman Christoff Boyles (songs, vocals, guitars, keys) and Scott Rader (drums, bass) with some guest musicians. The comparison that one soon starts to make is with Pink Floyd, although there is much more going on in the way of guitars. It is fairly bleak and dark, but also intriguing and compelling. The vocals are there but are mixed so that they often take a back seat to what is going on, which in itself gives the band a sound that is quite different to many.

This is music that is restrained, even when the band are crunching as they do on "Age Of Reason", and is an album that works well on all levels. It certainly made my decorating go a lot better but it is also an album to be enjoyed in a darkened room, listening intently and drifting into their world. It was only on visiting their web site at www.flickertista.com that I discovered that this is a concept album based on the life of Galileo, and although this is only their second album they have been working together since 1990. Well worth investigation by progheads.

Originally appeared in Feedback #78, April 2004