DIMENSIONAUT

I had a hard time with this album. The brain child of drummer and vocalist Simon Collins, Matt Dorsey on bass and guitar, and (at the time of release) keyboardist Dave Kerzner, it was full of the promise of a modern progressive sound--and I have to say that the first half of the album is wonderful. It is a damned near perfect sequence of tracks that are united thematically and musically, with magnificent melodies, superb musicianship: it really does sound like a modern vision of classic progressive rock, reworked for our times. It nails all the elements that make prog great, and eschews the excesses--there is so much promise packed into that first 30 minutes...

...and then the album just loses its way. I find I have to struggle to get through the last six tracks. The songs begin to decline towards conventionality and pedestrian mediocrity, and frankly there are just too many of them. By the time the 19-minute "Mobius Slip" come along, I have almost zero interest in listening to it. It is too bad, because the first half truly is excellent, and would have made a great (if short) album on its own.