TALES FROM OUTER SPACE

RPWL is a Neo-prog band that has been releasing albums since 2000. Before this time, they existed as a Pink Floyd cover band, but matured in through their performances to the point that they started writing their own songs. March of 2019 give us another studio release called 'Tales from Outer Space'. There are two original members still with the band, Yogi Lang on vocals and keyboards and Karlheinz Wallner on guitars and bass. Originally, these two band members made up the WL portion of the band name RPWL. Since then, two others have been added to the band to replace the other original members, namely Markus Jehle on keyboards and Marc Turlaux on drums. This album consists of 7 tracks (or as the album cover notes '7 Episodes Beyond Belief!'. The entire run time is just under 50 minutes.

The album begins with the first single released from the album called 'A New World'. It is a good way to introduce their style of Pink Floyd inspired music, and the guitar accompaniment to the vocals sounds very Floydian. The song itself is similar to a space rock style, with nice effects, some great synths, and nice moderate beat. The music is quite accessible and Lang's vocals are very listenable. The guitar solo towards the last half is really nice. The moderate beat and feel continues through 'Welcome to the Freak Show'.

'Light of the World' is a bit more emotional and has a lusher melody, but features the mellow guitar of Wallner that echoes so much of Pink Floyds softer sounds. The instrumental break loses the percussion and is a nice atmospheric sound. After a soft vocal section, things intensify more and tension is built in the keyboard backing. But things don't really develop past the overall moderate sound that has been apparent throughout the album thus far. The music of Pink Floyd would have developed past this consistently medium sound by this time. Because of this, the music sounds more like 'Mostly Autumn' than it does 'Pink Floyd', just another band trying to capture the mellow side of another band that is actually much more dynamic than that.

The musicianship is good enough and the music is also, but it doesn't really progress past that slow and pensive sound, which was only just one aspect of Pink Floyd's music. It's okay that they wear that comparison on their sleeves, but wouldn't it be better to explore other aspects of PF's music than just playing one style, or at least making their own style. Anyway, it's good music, but there is nothing new or special about it, it's just accessible, medium tempo music in the end, that begins to sound too much alike from one track to another. Average rating.