ERIS

Nowadays i could say that the internet is one of the best tools that a band can use in order to let the world know about it's music, being here in ProgArchives has really an advantage since here we can discuss with a lot of prog lovers and connossieurs, even with some band members that are here. So i want to thank Richard Whitehurst from Baku Llama for letting me (us) know about their music which believe me is really interesting, so i suggest you to click in the thread where you can listen to Baku Llama's Eris.

Eris was their first of 2 albums so far and was released in 2007, they are a 3-member american band with trained and of course talented musicians, Ann Bernath on drums, piano in some tracks and vocals, David Bernath on guitars and bass, and Richard Whitehurst on keyboards.

Eris features 13 tracks and a total time of over 1 hour of excellent music. It opens with Discord which is kind of an introduction and lasts just a minute and a half, it is an instrumental passage with soft keyboard sound making a cool atmosphere.

Hamatsa has a dark feeling on it, it starts softer with piano introduction, a constant drumming and little by little it is progressing and becoming a little bit more aggressive due to the guitar sound, then the music goes in a rollercoaster where you will listen to different intensities, where you may think the song will explode, it suddenly calms down, and sounds very cool.

Betrayed starts with a soft acoustic guitar playing and it is the first song that features vocals and that gives the music a different flavour, the song goes basically with the same structure, that acoustic guitar, some keyboard tones here and there and a single but nice drumming.

Punch It starts with a kind of funky acoustic guitar and actually i think it follows the previous song style. But this is a shorter and non-lyric track, you will hear to vocals but as i said without vocals, some claps on the song that make me move my head and enjoy what im listening to. A pretty catchy song i may say.

Eris the title track has again that dark feeling that i found on song 2, a dark atmosphere this time accompanied with some vocals, at 1:30 we will listen to spoken words and during the whole song we will find an excellent progression in the music, i like a lot what they can do with their instruments, i don't mean they play something that sounds like a virtuoso, but they play with the sounds, the different sounds their instruments can do. I really like this song and it's atmosphere.

Six to Midnight starts with a delicate piano playing, some soft drumming and then an aggressive guitar playing, this is another great track, it is instrumental and i believe this track shows the eclecticism of the band, there are moments where the song slows down and the music it's about to dissapear, but then it raises again and becomes more powerful, like an stop and go, at the second half of the song where it becomes more aggressive, it reminds me a bit to a part of Pink Floyd's Echoes mainly due to the guitar and drums.

This Time returns with the nice acoustic guitar playing as well as the vocals, what i found cool in the album is the order of the songs, when you believe the next song will have the same dark atmosphere, they surprise you with a calm and softer one, like this track 7 which is a beautiful melody.

The Rite has again that dark feeling, but then is complemented with some keyboard notes that if you listen to it with nice headphones you will be caught by the music itself, and it will become a visual music song full of passages, there are moments where i think the band simply make an improvisation, they experiment a lot and the result is very cool.

Discord Resolved is the other shorter track, sounds alike to the first one, just a piano sound that will last over a minute.

Dreameater along with the provious song, it is like a flashback to the first two songs of the album, which in my opinion sound very alike, with the same form, which does not mean that is repetitive or boring, on the contrary, i believe it was done on purpose by the band in order to give the album a perfect structure, in this song we will listen again to a constant drumming, some guitars making progress, and the always accurate keyboard playing.

Torrential is a different and experimental track where the band uses a slit drum and recorder, a nano piano and keyboards, so you can imagine it is basically a keyboard oriented song, which sometimes sounds conventional but it is nice anyways.

Side Two, with this song we are almost reaching the end of the album, this is a 9-minute epic and probably one of the best tracks of the album. It is another experimental track where the music can be visual and where the band's members experiments with their instruments and sounds. The song has it's ups and downs, and what i really like in this albums i that sense of thinking that when the song is progressing and going up and up, it suddenly calms down and starts again, after all you dont know what will happen the next 10 seconds, so it is very nice.

Tragic Mask is the last song of this excellent album, and here it reminds me a bit to some King Crimson improv moments, the music is played softly and with a delicate sound, and it is a nice song to end the album, it has some melancholy on it, it is like their form of saying goodbye.

I am happy with this album, the music here is different from the classic or conventional style of prog, and as Richard Whitehurst himself told me, they are very proud of the album, and after listening to it i am sure they must be proud of it. Highly recommendable, a 4 solid star album.

Enjoy it!

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