THE PHILOMATH

2015 has proven a great year for several genres, not so much prog but the muses have shone their light upon a multitude of bands and artists from disparate corners of the musical world to bring forth more great albums than can be easily counted. Much of this providence was quickly apparent as the year got under way, as successive better and better albums within short time spans quickly led to an embarrassment of riches, but I had no idea that this year would be so good to post rock too until this project came to my attention for evaluation.

Said project's debut, "The Philomath", is the most unique post record in a year that's also given us a The World Is A Beautiful Place... album, which says a lot right there, and also manages to be something intriguing and beautiful. The album is driven not by guitar but piano, sounding almost as much of a Bill Evans project as the Sam Morgan post rock project it is. The use of guitar is rather subtle and gentle, but unleashes beauty and power to rival an Explosions In The Sky release. And from soft rains and swirling waves of water comes spoken word foundations, the core of the record's structure and the prime source of its freshness. There is a strength all its own in the literary and poetic quotes used, and it completes an atmosphere of olden wonder and aquatic gorgeousness. And to connect everything, there is a solid and meaningful progression through the instruments to link together the vocals and the various points of textural excellence. Altogether this is a journey out to sea, back in time, and away from the troubles of life, towards a forgotten rest spot through philosophical musings and the power of good music.

Transmigrant's 2015, "The Philomath" moves along in this dirty Post Rock/Math Rock environments with a subtle and Jazzy grace by withholding the electric guitar's characteristic participation, most of the times, in favor of strings or piano (or even brass sections) based compositions.

Sam Morgan this one man project band plays all instruments with the addition of Grace Marsell (vocals on 2 tracks).

The concept of the album is enhanced by the contrast of very hard rocking Post Rock/Math Rock elements (noisy, lo-fi, bombastic, etc.) counterpointed by opposite elements as free-Jazz, Symphonic, progressive electronic and acoustic folk influences. The exercise of this blending of styles offers unique moments of beauty and kind of holds a strange quality of an old times Big Band without sounding like one.

If I could mention some kind of prog referential, Sparkle in Grey is a good example.

Above all the real deal is the daring, but clean, experimental singularity of its musical idiom, which promises future 4 or 5 stars projects.

As for now a very good ***3.5 PA stars release.

The Philomath is a 2015 album released by the creative and talented English musician Sam Morgan "Transmigrant", currently based in Indonesia. Certainly one of the greatest underground albums of the year, The Philomath is an instrumental album that flirts with neoclassical compositions, and also with lounge music, and it has on piano and violin the main components of its artistic power. One thing interesting about the album is the fact that, for the main part, its music is, to a great extent, indefinite in terms of musical categorization: its genre is very unique. Sam leads us through a personal realm of sound and sensibility, and, for almost an hour, you can swim through the great vastness of his creative musical endeavours, filled with an original input of passion and soul. In melancholic, but overwhelmingly beautiful sounds, permeated by the spoken word poetry of Charles Bukowski, Stanley Kunitz, Jean Binta Breeze, Adrian Henri and John Betjeman, as well as excerpts of speeches by Carl Sagan and Richard Feynman, you will certainly recognize a little of each sound deeply inside yourself. An eclectic musician, Sam's main inspirations for his work were, in his own words, Rock, Jazz, Classical, Electronica, and Ambient. Nevertheless, he managed to create something beautifully peculiar, with a profound degree of singularity that inspires wonder and admiration for his music. Without being pretentious, but sincere and meaningful, his originality should never go unnoticed. With an atmosphere of serenity and peace, the melodies will captivate the listener, giving birth to an ethereal journey of different elements and perceptions, hard to name at first. A cool sense of nostalgia for classical Jazz and old radio songs will certainly invade your soul, and as soon as the album finishes, you will certainly feel the need to hear it again. Nevertheless, this is an album you have to hear, and drawn into your own conclusions, since it takes you onto a very personal journey of sensorial transcendence and reflexive wisdom.

This great album certainly deserves no less than five stars, for its ground-breaking musical artistry.