THE SI MUSIC SAMPLER VOL. 1

In my occasional reviews I referred to the illusive SI Samplers. Well here they are, the label has vanished for over 10 years now due to lack of sales. A pity because it also meant that progressive music was obviously not breaking through, at least in The Netherlands. Surprisingly enough SI also had many foreign bands, at least from all over Europe.

This was their first sampler. I don't know if there were 3 in total or maybe even one or two more. I bought three of them back then, they were cheap and (as goes for all samplers) were an ideal way to promote bands. Unfortunately it didn't have the effect progbands and SI were hoping for. Fortunately prog in general survived anyway (indestructible isn't it ?) and is almost thriving more and more nowadays, that's the good news. I will give a rating for each song again to give an idea.

1. No Second Faust - Egdon Heath: 4 stars. Interesting track from The Killing Silence. 2. From Ignorance to Ecstasy - Tracy Hitchings: 3 stars. 3. Attitude - For Absent Friends: 3,25 stars. 4. A Star - Differences: 3 stars. Dutch band. Bit of mellow neo prog. 5. Ring of Roses - Shadowland: 4,25 stars. With a brilliant guitar solo by Karl Groom at the end. 6. Apethetic & here, I ... - Geoff Mann: 3 stars. Short acoustic track by the late master. 7. Terracotta Army - Landmarq: 3,25 stars. Good band of course Landmarq but not really my thing. 8. Beyond that Door - Casino: 4,25 stars. Another one with Geoff Mann, he was very active in these days. 9. Tugging at the Heartstrings - Aragon: 3 stars. The man has a voice you either love or hate (I guess). 10. Close your eyes - Winter: 2,75 stars. Least track of the sampler. Never heard of them actually. 11. Living on a dream - Wings of Steel: 3,5 stars. Nice, typical neo progsong. 12. Louise Brooks - Timelock: 4,25 stars. Probably the best track of the sampler. Also with great guitar at the end.

I have to say this is a sampler with a few highlights and the rest .... Also a matter of taste of course. 3,45 on average so have to round down to 3.