DIFFERENT POINT OF YOU

A Different Point of You is Alias Eye's–a southern Germany band–second full-fledged studio album. Although not near excellence, A Different Point of You is definitely a very interesting recording, mainly because you don’t get to hear too many bands playing similar to what Alias Eye shows here. Or maybe I haven’t heard too much crossover prog so far… Nonetheless, what I really like about this album is the gathering of other than typical rock sounds: a saxophone (one of my favorite instruments), contrabass and couple of interesting keyboards effects, including my second favorite piano.

Although Phillip Griffiths–son of Martin Griffiths of Beggar’s Opera–voice is quite interesting and fits into the album style quite neatly and he’s operating it well, the vocals are not enchanting. So, what really captivates me here is the instrumental layer. The CD begins with a great oriental saxophone line backed up by the keyboard, which resembles the opening theme for the Rome TV series, followed shortly by the rest of instruments and Philip’s voice. Indeed A Clown’s Tale shines as the best track of the album due to the oriental style and of course sax. Fake the Right on the other hand is based on a wacky slightly distorted guitar riff that resembles Les Claypool style so much that I would have said that’s him playing if it would be the bass at work here, while the vocals sounds quite like early 90s Tom Jones, especially refrains. That’s pretty much how I imagined crossover prog to sound like when I first read about it. I’ve also seen this song described as a pop-prog on the Web. The third track, Your Other Way, is also a pretty nice pop-like song with an interesting Spanish guitar and an accordion sound– keyboard effect I suppose.

Unfortunately, starting from the fourth song Icarus Unworded the CD is getting less interesting and, although the songs are well played, there’s nothing there to get excited about. There’s again Tom Jones-like The Usual Routine, a bit boring ballad Drifting and simply mediocre On the Fringe. With The Great Open the band tries some more rock-like playing, featuring quite interesting guitar solo in the middle, but the lack of variety of instruments puts me off here, as the unobtrusive presence of brass instruments and wacky keyboard effects is what I originally liked in this album and all this song features are sparse piano parts. The album closes Too Much Toulouse, a slow although interesting lounge, that would be great for an ending if only the tracks leading towards it would bear a bit more energy, because when I finally got to it I was already half asleep half bored.

To sum it up, this is a good recording with a handful of interesting songs fitting nicely into the crossover prog definition. The album begins with couple of really great tracks and ends with two good songs, but the middle part is quite ordinary and easily slips by. Nevertheless, I’d say A Different Point of You is definitely worth listening to as long as you keep your expectations at a moderate level.