TRICKS OF TIME

Grand Stand have changed both line-up and some of their musical direction on this follow-up to their debut album, 'In The Middle, On The Edge', which came out in 1998. While definitely a progressive rock band, they have added a more American rock flavour and vocals, something that was missing from the instrumental album with which they announced their presence to the world. That is not to say that they don't produce instrumentals any more, in fact two of the five songs do not contain lyrics (and one of these is nearly ten minutes long), but rather that now they have a singer they are making good use of him!

Opener "Jurassic Spark" shows an affinity to early Genesis, yet also brings in much more modern styles and while contains many progressive themes and styles there are also sections that are much more AOR-oriented. Contrast that to "Words Are Not Enough" that sounds at times as if Camel and Jadis have jumped into bed together while at others using much more jazz-influenced piano chords to create a totally different mood.

I found on playing this album the first few times that they do sound quite different on the songs, as if they haven't totally settled on their own style but want to encompass everything that they like listening to. Not a bad thing for a prog band in many ways. The closing number, "Old Man's Tale", is the longest at sixteen minutes, and contains both very delicate interludes and much more powerful pieces with some great guitar/keyboard interplay, as well as pieces that sound familiar but yet are not (especially if you are a Genesis fan).

An album that is bound to find a lot of favour among the progheads. For more details contact the label at www.progressrec.com.

Originally appeared in Feedback #68, Jun 02