MAN MADE MACHINE

Carptree continues its standing in the music style that blends elements of symphonic, modern rock, classic, orchestra and pop music into coherent composition wonderfully mixed with excellent sonic sounds. "Man Made Machine" is the band third effort in the form of studio album - released by InsideOut in late August for Europe market and September 2005 for USA market. This album confirms their music direction in the same vein with their two previous albums with more maturity in musicianship, songwriting and composition.

Carptree is basically a two-piece band comprising Niclas Flinck and Carl Westholm. Having known each other for 20 years and, now and then, playing together in different setups, they formed Carptree in 1997. Their debut album "Carptree" was released in 2001 and was well accepted throughout the world. The follow-up album "Superhero" was released in 2003 and received critical acclaim from the music industry and music critique. "Man Made Machine" is released with the same style but in a much darker nuance than its predecessors. Well, you might smell this from the cover artwork that seems very dark, doom and bleak? Beside Carl, Niclas and No Future Orchestra (come on guys, rename your orchestra! It's too pessimistic! Proggers should be very optimistic to see the future! No Future is not a good name at all.) , Trollhättans chamber choir appears on one song. No Future Orchestra (which should be renamed: Bright Future Orchestra - or something else which is optimistic) consists of musicians known from other, both small and big, Swedish acts.

The strong point of this album's composition is in the band's ability to write arrangements which have symphonic style, packaged with modern rock and great sonic quality. Superb voice quality of Niclas Flinck reminds me to the voice of Peter Gabriel or Johny Warman (once was popular in the early eighties, but I don't know where is he now?) or Rupert Hine. Carl Westholm's keyboard and piano work do not demonstrate his virtuosity. They sound simple and light but perfectly match with the music. Am sure that Westholm could play complicated notes but he's kind like hide it as the true aim of the band is probably how to create great music with simple notes but wonderful arrangements and catchy melodies. Westholm provides many piano textures during the stream of music offered here.

Don't expect that the music of Carptree is somewhat similar with Marillion, Pallas, Jadis or any other neo prog bands. It has its uniqueness that is not comparable to other bands, I think. However, the music reminds me to Peter Gabriel, Rupert Hine or Johny Warman, combined with Gary Wright (remember "Dream Weaver"?) but it's not exactly the same though. One thing for sure, the music is really rewarding. The opening track "Titans Clash Aggressively To Keep An Even Score" (5:30) blends nicely the elements of progressive pop with excellent piano touches. Right after lyrical verses the music brings out a colossal nuance through a combination of orchestra, keyboard, piano and effects. Really cool! "Sunshine Waters" (5:48) begins with an exploratory soundscapes followed with powerful low register notes vocal. Oh man . what a great vocal line entrance! The acoustic guitar augments at background. And what happen next? It's a stream of light, melodic and wonderful music flow that combines nice piano, drums, orchestra and later followed with vocal. It's really wonderful! It's hard for people for not liking this song as it has excellent composition.

"The Weakening Sound" (6:23) starts ambient with simple piano touch that accompanies voice line. The song is really dark. "Tilting The Scales" (6:52) has a combination of soft acoustic guitar and piano followed with an upbeat music when vocal enters the music. The music turns quieter with electric piano solo featuring energetic vocal. Yeah, it reminds me to Rupert Hine's music even though it's totally different melody. The interlude part contains simple guitar solo combined with nice keyboard work and orchestra. Niclas voice is powerful. The song also contains breaks with simple riffs featuring punctuated singing style.

In "The Man You Just Became" (5:17), the way keyboard is played at the background reminds me to keyboard style of Earth & Fire's "Fanfare" with different melody. The title track "Man Made Machine" (6:18) is another excellent composition with energetic singing and percussion based rhythm section and floating keyboards / piano. Beautifully composed. "Burn To Something New" (5:58) starts off colossal with percussion and keyboard work followed with vocal. Keyboard sounds like a mellotron. This song has a wonderful interlude which associates us to the beach and it's floating wonderfully with the sounds of keyboards. The rest three tracks share similar style with previous ones. "In The Centre Of An Empty Space" (5:34) is an upbeat song with some guitar work at background; "The Recipe" (2:32) is like an accordion based music with vocal; "This Is Home" (8:17) concludes the album with even a much darker style.

As far as I know this is not a concept album, however, enjoying this album is recommended in its entirety because you can see the cohesiveness of the album and also the music changes in terms of style and composition. Carptree's music has been crafted so thinly so that the listeners may have a perception that this band has made the vocal part takes front role and the music is played softly at the background. It's something different and it's a highly recommended album. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

PS. This review is dedicated to Ian Alterman, Andy Julias, Nirarta Samadhi and Hardiansyah Rizal. Enjoy!