THE GREAT LIE

The Polish prog formation The Adekaem was founded in early 2013 by Andrzej Biełas (keyboards) and Krzysztof Wala (guitars ), a few months later joined by Marcin "Budda" Pękała on bass and Dariusz Goiński on drums. Band info. "Hence the name of the band was created from the first letters of the first four members written in Polish: A De Ka eM. From their start The Adekaem was going to create music that was the result of musical inspirations, namely progressive rock, psychedelic music and elements of classical rock and jazz-rock. At the beginning a large part of their work was based on team improvisations directed towards space rock." In 2015 the band released their eponymous first album The Adekaem and in 2017 the successor entitled Sound Coloring. Like so many good Polish prog bands, The Adekaem delivers very tastefully arranged, melodic and accessible progressive rock, with neo-prog hints. The emphasis in their music is on creating pleasant and compelling climates, rather than impressing with awesome skills on instruments or complex rhythms and climates. The vocals are in decent English, with a slight accent but not disturbing. Especially the often David Gilmour (but also Steve Rothery and Andy Latimer) inspired electric guitar soli deserve a special mention. And now, anno 2021, the new album The Great Lie, the cover art is amazing.

Like on the previous album The Adekaem operates here as a duo, featuring Andrzej Bielas (keyboards, synthesizers and vocal on 5 part 1) and Krzysztof Wala (guitars, guitar synthesizer, synthesizers and voice on 5 part 2), with additional guest musicans, including members from other Polish prog bands Moonrise and Millenium. The band presents nine melodic and harmonic compositions (between 5 and 14 minutes), with a remarkable variety of atmospheres, in comparison with the previous album.

Woodland Frolics At 3 AM (13:43) First a slow rhythm, in a bombastic climate, then senstitive electric guitar work joins, followed by a synthesizer solo. Now the moving guitar returns with a wonderful solo, halfway a spacey break, and finally the slow rhythm rhythm and bombastic climate of the start returns. This composition sounds as a pleasant blend of Seventies Symphonic rock and Neo-Prog, with hints from Pink Floyd, Camel and Pendragon.

The Tightrope Walker (10:51) starts with twanging acoustic guitar and tender acoustic guitar runs, dreamy English vocals, and a sultry sounding synthesizer solo. I like ethnic flavour (reminding me of Set The Controls For The Heart Of The Sun by Pink Floyd). Then music turns into a hypnotizing atmosphere featuring a sensitive, slightly psychedelic sounding electric guitar solo. In the final part mellow vocals and a delicate synthesizer solo with use of the sensational pitchbend button. This track showcases how The Adekaem has matured in writing.

In Fool And Death (7:37) The Adekaem rocks with fiery guitar and a flashy pitchbend driven synthesizer solo, but the English vocals are a bit average. Then a break with propulsive percussion and rock guitar riffs, very dynamic. Halfway the mood shifts to dreamy with soaring keyboards, tender acoustic guitar solo, in a slow rhythm featuring synthesizer soli (spacey and with an accordion sound).

And now the big surprise of this album: in The Fall of Phaeton (5:50), a swinging Latin-American rhythm, blended with rock guitar! The English vocals are OK, no more or less. Halfway a moving guitar solo, I love the variety that The Adekaem delivers on this album.

In the epic Spontaneous Combustion Of Ego (11:13) the atmosphere is dark and hypnotizing (evoking early King Crimson), with fiery agressive guitar runs and ominous synthesizer flights. In the second part a Mellotron choir sound reigns, and finally a short bombastic outburst. Another fine example how The Adekaem tries to present variety and creativity.

The final composition The Great Lie (7:05) delivers in the first part a slow rhythm that contains soaring keyboards, subtle moving volume pedal driven guitar runs and dreamy vocals. Halfway a slight accellaration with synthesizer flights, a tight beat and another beautiful moving guitar solo. The conclusion features a short sumptuous eruption, as the grand finale of the album.

In comparison with its previous effort The Adekaem sounds more varied, and more elaborate, but the focus is still on colouring the music with wonderful work on guitar and keyboards. Well done, this is a promising band, pretty underrated in my opinion.

My rating: 3,5 star.