CENTER OF THE SUN

Eye is a space rock/prog band from Ohio. Upon listening to their music you get the impression they were were a stoner metal group who decided to go prog on us. So you get some elements of that genre in a Hawkwind/Pink Floyd manner, with some reminders of various 1970s Krautrock groups, the type that tend towards space rock like Ash Ra Tempel, for example. The title track is a great example, I love how the band goes through contrasts, with more heavy passages and mellower Pink Floyd-like passages. I also love their choice of instruments, and they're not afraid to use vintage instruments, including the Mellotron and even vintage synths like the ARP 2600 and MiniMoog. The rest of the album consists of relatively shorter pieces that are much in the same vein and quality. I have ran across too many recent space rock bands that drone on the same guitar chord endlessly with the same tired feedback and distortion, these guys avoid those pitfalls. Also they take on a prog rock approach to their music so progheads would love them too. The album is also kept short, which is very welcomed by me, given I got sick and tired of all these new prog bands having to cram in nearly 80 minutes onto one CD. I mean look at the Flower Kings or Ayreon, modesty is a foreign word to them, and one CD that's almost 80 minutes long is too modest for them (so they often clog their discography with 2-CD sets that are over two hours long). At least Diagonal, Purson, Tusmørke, and this group Eye know to keep it reasonable length (OK so Tusmørke CDs are around an hour long, only because they consisted of bonus cuts consisting of EPs and singles not included on the LP editions, but the main meat and potatoes of both their LPs were around 45 minutes). Anyways, I'm glad for Eye, they produced some great space/rock prog you should check out. Don't forget to check out their other releases two!