INFUSION

3.5 stars. "Infusion" is the debut album of RUBBER TEA, a young five piece band out of Bremen, Germany. And I feel that having them listed under Neo Prog just isn't right. We get about ten musicians in total, including the guests who add horns and vibes. A lot of FX pedals in play from the band, in fact there's a long list of instruments credited here. I understand the bassist and keyboardist started writing material in 2017. They formed the band that year, and it took from 2018 to 2020 to complete this recording, production and all.

As you might expect with a bunch of University students, they drink a lot of tea and coffee. And the name RUBBER TEA came when they discovered this neglected cup of brew that had been there so long, the liquid had turned rubbery. And so RUBBER TEA became their band name, and a constant reference to their beginnings. The bass player did the cover art. And it's very detailed and colourful, just like their music. RYM tags this with Neo Canterbury which to my ears is as much a stretch as Neo prog.

This band has so much potential. I feel that this first experience of making an album was a big learning curve. And so there are things here that in my opinion just don't work so well. I understand their followup album "From A Fading World" from 2023 is better than this one on a few levels. And I'm not surprised. I really don't like the processed vocals on "Storm Glass" which sound robotic. I also am not into that final so called instrumental called "American Dream" where they use audio clips throughout to cast America in a bad light. Those are the two most glaring mistakes, in my opinion of course.

One of the cool things they did was to put some art work beside the lyrics for each track in the liner notes. And that final tune "American Dream" has a picture of the statue of liberty in psychedelic colours with monkeys hanging off of it. Again I guess they don't like the USA. Tracks one, three and six have lyrics adapted from literature. And on "Storm Glass" they note that the bass line was inspired by Frank Zappa. Hmmm. We get male and female vocals and while I've spent some time on some of my issues, how about some positives?

That opening track has me excited for the gorgeous melodies this band can produce. It's called "On Misty Mountains" and it has some moving sections. It blends into the next one "Downstream" which is a short instrumental. Could have been one tune. We get those guest vibes on "In Weeping Waters" a tune that is fairly laid back but with a lot of different flavours. I do like "The Traitor", the mood, the melancholy, the determined female vocals. Some soaring guitar as the passion rises. I'm not big on when it turns brighter before 4 minutes though.

"Plastic Scream" and "The Drought" are both done really well. I like the mellotron on the latter, plus there's male vocals and female. The organ as well adds some power as this plays out. I think on this site Crossover might have made more sense for this band, but regardless, the sky is the limit for this talented young group. And I'm curious about the followup to this one, to see what changes were made etc.

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