ON THE BRINK

Lazleitt is a Neo-Progressive Project led by Alex Lazcano ( Lead/Rhythm Guitar, Bass Guitar, Keyboards, Piano & Vocals). Joining Lazcano are drummer Jorge Cortes Cuyas & special guests: John Pomeroy on Flute, and Eric Gillette (Neal Morse Band) on Lead Guitar. Eric Gillette also plays Lead Guitar on Tangential Wisdom, Beyond The Door There Is No Pain and The Second Flame. Eric Gillette also added mixing and production skills as well. Lazleitt is a portmanteau of Lazcano & Light.

This album is meant to be listened to as one continuous track.

The sweeping music of Intro: The Doorway hooks you immediately. The melody of the song and the music are dreamy. You clearly hear the transition to Tangential Wisdom a rocking song which feels like it comes out of nowhere. After this track fades out, it transitions into The First Trail and is not entirely smooth. But the transition into The Flame (On The Brink) is seamless. There is confidence and optimism in the words. The feel of the song and music is slightly angelic. The track speeds up and we arrive at Beyond The Door There Is No Pain. This song has sensational guitar playing. The changes in rhythm and melody are amazingly integrated. Again, the guitar playing is sensational and is aided by keys and drums. Suddenly there comes a peaceful musical passage, leading into The Second Flame. A breathtaking musical sentiment makes an appearance here. I'm not going to tell you what it is, you'll have to listen to find out. Slowly the rocking section builds up, and again everything is in harmony. In Spinning Clocks a gentle flute is heard on the second half of the song. The Eighth Paradigm starts with a multi-layered acoustic guitar parts. The rocking tempo and volume continue to rise as it transitions into The Riddle. The layered vocals on Parallel Dreams form a beautiful, and slightly captivating blend. Alex sings slightly emphatically in The Second Trail. This short, calm section flows beautifully into the instrumental Through The Gates Of Life. On the last track, titled Finale: Memories Of A Battle the drums sound like a military march. Again, there is imaginative guitar playing. This track is clearly the end of the story. A beautiful build-up finale to a great album

If Didn't know any better I swear I hear the familiar bass playing of Chris Squire from Yes and Geddy Lee from Rush. I also here a lot of IQ-like keyboards through out the album. Alex Lazcano you have a real gift. I also find the drumming of Jorge Cortes Cuyas to be very similar to Led Zeppelin's John Bonham.

My one and only issue I have with this album are The melodies. They are great, but they are repeated too often.

Get this album of pure progressive rock overtures and melodies. Listen to something different with some of the wonderful instrumentation and music you remember from the past.

An excellent addition to any prog rock music collection.

Lazleitt is a project put together by Washington DC based multi-instrumentalist Alex Lazcano, with the name being a combination of "Laz" and "light", just with an unusual spelling. On this album Alex provides lead, rhythm & 12-string acoustic guitars, keyboards, piano, bass, soundscapes and vocals as well as co-producing with Eric Gillette (Neal Morse). The other main player in the project is drummer Jorge Cortes Cuyas, and it was by working with him that Lazcano came up with the ideas for what is intended to be listened to as a single piece of music (and indeed was sent to me as such). The only other guest is flautist John Pomeroy, but to be honest this never sounds like a project and more of a well-oiled machine where the musicians have bene playing together for years.

This album was actually released in 2018, but I only came across it after I was contacted by Alex to see if I was interested in hearing both this and his most recent album. I had no idea what to expect, only that the band are in the neo-prog sub-genre but given that this in itself covers a multitude of sins and different sounding bands that didn't tell me much. I soon realised that what I was listening to was both quite different and strangely familiar. The reason for this is that in many ways the whole album is built on the rhythm section, and if someone had told me this was a lost recording from Chris Squire and Bill Bruford then I wouldn't have been surprised at all. The interaction between Cuyas and Lazcano is simply wonderful, with lots of power and diversity as both go off at tangents and have fun. There arrangements alone are complex and incredibly complicated, both showing they know their jazz as well as their progressive rock.

With a basis as strong as that I found myself sometimes concentrating on that, as opposed to the layers of music which appear over the top, which is a mistake in itself as there is also plenty there to enjoy. Heavily commercial progressive rock, this certainly has something in common with the simpler elements of Neal's style, which may have something to do with the influence of Gillette. Then just when I think I have a handle on what is going on a flute appears, and the music again takes a different direction. This is a progressive album which is incredibly easy to listen to on first hearing, and is also a grower.

I am somewhat surprised I hadn't come across this before now, but I am glad I am now in contact with Alex as this is very enjoyable indeed.