PICTURES

Prog newcomers from Vienna!

Today I would like to introduce a talented band from Vienna. I discovered them recently by chance and was immediately impressed by their musicality. What's more, the band members are still very young and therefore represent a whole new generation, which in this case more than impressively proves that prog is no longer just music for old, gray men.

The five-piece band "Mindspeak" released an emotional concept album called "Pictures" right at the start of their career (2014), which deals with the inner thoughts of a fragile coma patient. Thus, the themes of life and death are close to each other, which are skillfully handled in four versatile compositions. Despite their age, the band's sound is less oriented towards modern sound elements, but combines the musical aspects of neo- and retro- prog very skillfully and tastefully. But before neo-prog haters stop reading now, I would like to point out the extremely multi-faceted and powerful songwriting. Because here the band has done everything that makes the progressive heart beat faster. Short and long songs, loud and quiet guitars, warm keyboard pads and piano parts, time and rhythm changes, dynamic changes and the most important thing of all: passion and strong melodies. Lead singer Viktoria Simon floats over all the songs with her expressive and strikingly pleasant voice, garnishing the song structures with her melodic arcs and polyphonic vocal tracks and impressing with her authentic performance of the general album theme. The instrumental interplay is noticeable after repeated listens that the band members integrate various musical influences into the respective songs without blurring the spirit of the album and the identity of the band.

I would particularly like to emphasize the twenty-minute core song "The Big Sleep" at this point. It very convincingly represents the skills of the five young musicians, as all six parts of the song were composed conceptually outstanding. The melodies are immediately catchy, the neo-prog part alternates perfectly with the retro-prog feel, arcs of tension are built up, musical motifs are skillfully processed over time and, last but not least, the band creates a curiosity in the listener to keep listening until the end.

In the end, a clean, transparent and powerful production rounds off the progressive listening pleasure and leaves me with a lot of joy and curiosity about the second album "Eclipse Chaser", which I will also be reviewing soon. Until then, you should definitely listen to "Pictures" and immerse yourself in the musically diverse world of "Mindspeak". It's definitely worth it!