MORE GRAINS OF SAND

Second album by Swiss Neo Proggers is a real delight. Following the same pattern they set up with HOLOGRAM but this time with a better structure and more complex compositions and keeping (and enhacing) their Guitar/Keyboard based music. Gabriele 'Lele' Hoffman (guitar) and Philip Hubert (keys) really shine in this recording, reminding me a lot of Rothery and Kelly from Marillion.

The album begins with the instrumental intro "The First Grain", good guitar riffs to lead to the fantastic "Moonshine Of Heights", one of my favourites, great melody with fabulous scapes and synths along with the unique voice of Aluisio Maggini. The end of the song is connected to a beautiful piano intro to "Birthday Party" which reminds me the beginning of the Hoghat era Marillion (Seasons..., Holidays...). "Eagles" start a bit slow and weaker than the other songs but about in the half it explodes with excellent guitar solo and a good rhythmic section. The connection between songs is so smooth that you can barely notice that "Hold Me Tight" already started, a nice mellow track with ambient keys and the passion of Aluisio´s voice. "No Place For Flowers" is an excellent song with lush keyboards, powerful guitar,good drums and Fishy voice from time to time, another fave of mine. "The Outermost Bounds" is a very short piece, but beautifuly mellow and a perfect 'intermision' to begin with the 2nd half that starts with the poppy "Fly Man", not a bad track but not in the same level that the rest. "The River In Your Eyes" begins with acoustic guitar and Aluisio singing peacefully to suddenly break into a rhythmic part and then again slows down for a soundscape to continue in a very dynamic way. "Grain Dance" is another short instrumental that serves as prelude to "The Prisioners Victory" which begins with nice keys and percussions to welcome a solo by Lele and continue with the same 'relaxed' and atmospheric mood to finish with an excellet solo by ...guess who?...Yes, Mr. Lele Hoffman again. But actually is not finishing the song, the guitar works as the bridge to "Vienna" which is almost like the 1st part of the final song "The Last Grain" an excellent istrumental that closes the album perfectly.

With this band is very hard to say which album is the best because they were amazingly consistant in their last 3 releases, so i´ll rate them equally as all of them have the same level in quality and musicianship, although there were a few line-up changes in their following 2 discs, but they filled up the spaces smartly.

Excellent band, fantastic second effort. 4.5 stars

Share this CLEPSYDRA review

Social review comments () BETA

---

---

Review related links

• Send comments to FranMuzak
• Report this review (#131457)
• Buy CLEPSYDRA music online with PA partners
• Show all CLEPSYDRA MP3/Stream
• Go to CLEPSYDRA page for videos, full discography with ratings, reviews and much more
• Go to More Grains Of Sand page for more details, where to buy and ratings/reviews
• Search the Forum for CLEPSYDRA related discussions