A BILLION YEARS OF SOLITUDE

When I first came across this Dutch band and their 2010 debut I was incredibly impressed, feeling that they were taking me back to the days when SI Music was consistently releasing great albums. But now they have stepped it up a notch and are moving quite a way from where they were before. There are still the swathes of keyboards that give a strong Seventies feel as a backdrop to much of what they are doing, but they have obviously been paying attention much more to Dream Theater and have definitely increased the note density. There are times when this is a much more metallic album than they have produced before, but they can just as easily drop into a funk groove or provide us some Riverside or Porcupine Tree touches before going off in yet another direction.

The only term that could ever be used for these guys is "progressive" as they are pushing boundaries in what they are doing, although not exactly King Crimson in approach there are definitely some similarities with their outlook. And whenever you see a flugelhorn listed in the instruments you can pretty much guarantee that you are in for something quite out of the ordinary. When Tom is singing then one wonders why they don't use him in that facility much more, then when they are in full blast as instrumentalists one wonders why they bother with vocals at all. They seem able to put their mind and skills to anything that they want to do, but also manage to keep it reigned in so that the music always still makes sense and doesn't go off onto long meaningless tangents as is always the risk.

Somehow they manage to keep this open and free, not constraining what is going on but letting the music take flight: where some prog bands want to be insular and controlling, these guys act more as conduits and move wherever they are driven. Yet another great release from the flying Dutchmen.