IT REMINDS ME OF MACBETHIA

"Welcome back my friends to the show that never ends, ladies and gentlemen, .. Social Tension!". Altough SOCIAL TENSION sounds like an 'ELP fan's wet dream', they do not deserve to be described as just an ELP clone. Keyboard player Nobuo 'Kodomo' Endoh is a virtuosic but he has a more varied an refined sound than Keith EMERSON, using synthesizers, organ, piano, harpsichord, strings, classical orchestrations and ... Mellotron (Keith EMERSON refuses to play this instrument, it would cause unemployment for classical musicians he used to say). This CD is a compilation from the two albums "MacBethia" and "It reminds Me Of Those Days", fortunately the record company has deleted the lacklustre tracks from the second CD for this compilation. The result is a very impressive tribute to the wonderful "Pictures../Trilogy" years: seven spectacular and dynamic keyboard-driven symphonic rock compositions with bombastic keyboard play and a powerful, very propulsive rhythm-section. Highlights are the two 'epic' title tracks with lots of breaks, changing of atmospheres and amazing keyboards solos. Breathtaking!

social review comments | Review Permalink
Posted Monday, November 29, 2004 | Review this album | Report (Review #27853)

Edited 10/4/2005!

I can only say one thing to this record: cheesy and sounding absolutely like sob stuff. It's nothing else than a very cheap emulation of Emerson keyboard sound IMHO. Really awful, I could not stand more than 3 songs of this CD. I would just like to advice everybody looking for good progressive keyboard music to keep hands off this one. Save your money for something reasonable. I'm giving one star extra just to be fair since it might just be not my taste.

social review comments | Review Permalink
Posted Friday, February 4, 2005 | Review this album | Report (Review #27854)

The Japanese have a tendency to look cheesy sometimes, especially when they begin to emulate certain aspects of Western cultu culture. I sense that some critics get so envious of how well they do things that everything the Japanese touch must be brushed with the "cheesy" moniker. Social Tensio ... (read more)

Report this review (#2439417) | Posted by Squire Jaco | Wednesday, August 19, 2020 | Review Permanlink

If you really really really hate cheesy music then you can skip this review and this band. If you don't really mind heavy influences of other artists then this might be interesting for you. This is a compilation that contains the whole debut album of Social Tension and the two best tracks of t ... (read more)

Report this review (#112507) | Posted by Autoband | Saturday, February 17, 2007 | Review Permanlink

Yes, the album by Social Tension is indeed a cheesy one, but hey I love cheesy stuff.The band is a japanese band that is highly influenced by ELP, Trace, Ars Nova, Refugee, UK and so on. Although they are little cheesier than the names mentioned above, they certainly don't play prog pop stuff ... (read more)

Report this review (#44708) | Posted by Dan Yaron | Monday, August 29, 2005 | Review Permanlink

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