TICK TOCK

"Tick Tock" is another little gem of 2009.

Gazpacho is a Norwegian Progressive Rock band that has been around for fifteen years now, but have released albums since 2002. "Tick Tock" is the band's sixth studio album, following the acclaimed "Night". This being my first Gazpacho album, I can't be too opinionated about this band. But so far, I enjoy what I hear.

The production of the album is good, and the mixing is great, with perfect balance between all the instruments. In all the songs the instruments are played without one being the more used than the others; there is a lot of guitar, but also keyboards and mellotron, and of course the vocals are always present. The best and most comfortable label to attribute to the music in this album is prog rock, with a lot of alt-rock tendencies and even some post-rock here and there. Not to forget the pretty noticeable Arabic music influences on the track "The Walk". Gazpacho reminds me a lot of times of Phideaux Xavier, especially on the vocals, but I also hear a lot of electronic, and some times it gets almost ambient.

The album has a solid structure: four songs, the two in the center are extremely long ones. All the songs here have a very progressive structure too, having a countless amount of hook variations, that just extend in a way that post-rock is very familiar to. There is some building, but mostly, the songs just constantly change in melody and hooks, slowly and without changing abruptly the mood, which is almost always chilled out and relaxed but somewhat warm. Think of it like a special kaleidoscope where the color remains the same and the shapes change slowly. This of course can be said especially of the two longest songs, "The Walk" and the twenty two minute title track. This song, I don't know why, is the reason why I didn't fully appreciate "Tick Tock": maybe some parts had some flaws, like the church like chorus in the first half of the track, which sounds really cool but seems a little out of place to me. Plus, it isn't always haunting like it intended to be, in my opinion. However, "The Walk" is nearly flawless, and I enjoy almost everything about it, especially the Arabesque parts and the keyboards. The remaining songs are fantastic as well: the opener "Desert Flight" is the heaviest song, with tons of guitar, but it's another haunting and delightful episode, especially when it gets to the second half of the song, where there's an amazing hook change. The track that contains the most beauty has to be the last song, "Winter Is Never", with great keys and vocals, a very moving and touching piece of music.

An album that has some weaker points, some points that I simply wasn't crazy for, but I enjoyed it anyways, in almost all the fifty minute lesson. If you're into modern prog and want to hear something a little different from the usual Porcupine Tree, Flower Kings, Anathema of whatever, this is a way to go.

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