RELOCATOR

If you are looking for a balanced blend between progressive metal and jazz rock / fusion, while being a new record by young promising musicians, this year you have Relocator's debut album. Devoted listeners of artists like McLaughlin, Ponty, Holdsworth and, on the other hand, Dream Theater et alli, will enjoy this record very much.

As a fan of this kind of music myself, I was very surprised concerning the diversity and inventivity the record has. The rhythm here has a double personality: on one hand a heavy "bluesy"-rock-inspired dancing on odd time signatures, on the other hand we have those juicy jazz rock grooves we all know and love. Frank Tinge's obvious preferences for progressive music have led him to create a distinct voice in fusion drumming. Meanwhile, Michael Pruchnicki in another fine example that shows us that the bass guitar does not have to be a strictly rhythm instrument. Sometimes he likes to break away from the pack and do a little extra magic. My feeling is that the drummer-bassist combo is an excellent evershaping sonic blast, just like Inque from Batman Beyond was with fluids.

On the upper levels we have two distinct voices that give the impression that there is Meeting of the Spirits thing going on.Guitarist Stefan Artwin and violinist Bartek Strycharski know how to combine countless tunes in order to create a new feeling for this kind of music. Our Music Man oriented musician knows his style and plays with great confidence all over the record, and it's wonderful that he does it. Also, we all remember how good Mahavishnu or King Crimson sounded with a violonist in the band. Well, this is no exception. Bartek is a great player and he certainly helped the overall feel of the record with his prowess. And it looks like Derek Sherinian joined the fun and added his keybs to create extra textures, very cool unison runs and solo voice variations.

I will not round up all the songs, put them against the wall and dissect them. I feel that would be unfair. This record is a standalone experience. There are some albums that you listen to a to z because they have an underlying natural continuity between other traits. Non- concept albums (at least not declared so) like "Islands" by King Crimson or "The Inner Mounting Flame" by Mahavishnu McLaughlin have this feeling of a particular musical comunication method. It goes beyond what you commonly call "sound of the band" but it's no a concept as in ideas. It is not a type of album that deals with, let's say, insanity like "Dark Side of the Moon" does. I would say that Relocator's debut manages to become a record like this. It's main sonical themes deal with darkness, manic twists and airy landscapes. Not having an intellectually bordered concept behind but having a unique feeling, the album is certainly one to listen to again and again. As you pay attention more to the depth of the instruments you might get into it's core.

My brief interpretation would be that, even tough i do not know if the musicians wanted to achieve it, the album creates a portrait of modern humanistic regression compared to long gone golden ages. But interpretation may be infinite and I do not wish to suggest subjective information, thus it would be fair that I encourage every listener to have a wonderful personal experience while sinking into this one of a kind album. Enjoy!

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