LIQUID SCARLET

Masquerade Gem!

In his short career Liquid Scarlet leaves a legacy that has faded quickly, apparently. However, first job is highly qualified and deserve good attention in progressive circles. The band has been accused of being an unoriginal copy of some giants of symphonic rock, mainly King Crimson and Genesis. Reality is that, while not completely original and supported by these pillars, contains good modern ideas and Scandinavian touch, so leave a good taste to progressive palate after a trial period.

Greyroom is a well-settled song in his five minutes and twenty-seconds with the necessary progression, like The Red Stairs and Hesitating in the Foyer. The three tracks over eight minutes are not masterpieces, but combine some delicacy and roughly in good measures. Maybe One Last Masquerade is the best and most interesting. Good underlying melodies in most of the songs that enhance the quality.

Deserves four stars for me. Apparently the group did not find enough good ideas to keep holding fast from what was done in this early work. Their second album is less progressive, though not completely ruled out because there are some good songs.

Following the steps of ANEKDOTEN and LANDBERK,LIQUID SCARLET are a new Swedish act,formed in mid-90's in the small city of Kalix in northern Sweden.Covering songs of famous artists,the band initially featured a female vocalist and a smooth sound,before getting more progressive on the way to the new millenium.2000 finally finds the band with a stable new line-up and after a great number of shows in their country and a few demo tapes,LIQUID SCARLET signed with Progress Records.2004 sees them releasing their eponymous debut after several delays.

STYLE: Contemporary progressive rock with strong roots in the 70's is the exact description for LIQUID SCARLET.I think an experienced ear could bet that they come from Sweden due to this strong Scandinavian flavor and sometimes dark atmosphere of the music.On the other side,the vocal lines are excellent,quite melodic yet very soft.The musicianship actually alternates between guitar-driven intricate instrumental parts,calmer electric passages with a symphonic taste and vocal-based acoustic stuff with Swedish Folk touches.All this material is supported by heavy mellotron waves,which are the band's biggest ace along with the alternating guitars.

INFLUENCES/SOUNDS LIKE: The tracks differ so much,but every one of them has a recognizable approach.So from the dominating ANEKDOTEN/KING CRIMSON adventure and the harmonic symphonicism of GENESIS/YES,the band jumps to the modern face of RADIOHEAD,the psychedelic nature of PINK FLOYD and the Scandinavian Folk tradition.

PLUS: Fantastic vintage use of mellotron with nostalgic undertones.Carefully arranged vocals with beautiful harmonies.Varied musicianship where the band succeeds to play well every style.Fine changing moods between more intricate/less melodic material and more relaxed arrangements with folk and jazzy touches.

MINUS: Not an obvious one actually.Only that all tracks are really great but I can't find a real stunner to make my day.

WILL APPEAL TO: Fans of contemporary progressive rock as well as old-fashioned lovers of KING CRIMSON (mainly),YES,GENESIS,PINK FLOYD.

CONCLUSION/RATING: When I listen to the term ''modern sounding prog'',I usually turn my back.But this time LIQUID SCARLET made me of thinking of it again.Despite the definite modern echoes,the band filtrated amazingly the old sound to toay's standards and came up with one of the best releases of 2004.4 solid stars and highly recommended!

Liquid Scarlet - Killer Couple strikes again

This 24-minutes long EP is my favourite Liquid Scarlet release. The music here is a mixture of psychedelic soundscapes and improvised rock passages.

The A-side of this mini-album is the song Killer Couple strikes again, which is taken from the band's second album, simply titled "II". This song is a 60s-influenced rock song, which has several surprisingly commercial hooks to it. Nice and catchy melodies, good to keep the listeners attention for the rest of the album.

What follows is my favourite Liquid Scarlet song: This might be the last Time. I just love to listen to this song on headphones when I'm trying to catch a bit of sleep for the night. Just lying there in my bed and letting the laidback drumming and the gentle vocals caress my ears and soothing me to sleep.

The songs Staden ramnar vid fagelns skri (whatever that means...) and All that is Grey are typical, rather King Crimson-inspired, Liquid Scarlet tracks and a more freeform and improvisational than the other songs on this mini album, especially the latter is, along with This might be the last Time, worth purchasing this EP!

The last remaining track, Heading for Golgata is just like the title track another poprock tune with a nice retro feeling to it.

Maybe not the world's longest album -it's still an EP, right?-, but what you get it pure quality!

The positives of this release are the guitar melodies and the KING CRIMSON moments, although this certainly is modern sounding in a sort of LANDBERK style.The mellotron is a nice touch, even if it is sampled throughout. The singer reminds me a little of Joe Jackson and I should mention that this is a much better release than the second one.

I really like "The Red Stairs" with the ANEKDOTEN-like mellotron that is so majestic. My other two favourites are "Hesitating In The Foyer" with the wondrous guitar melody throughout, and the instrumental "Molok" with the great combination of guitar, drums and mellotron drawing me in. In most of the other songs there are many shifting sands-like tempo changes and the music is quite complex.

This is modern music with a retro feel and is easily a four star essential record.

I tip my hat to these guys for doing things their way.

The first track is a mellow vocal led tune before we get into the aggressive "Carafe (part II)" where we have angular guitars and mellotron and i'm cheering ! This is fantastic ! But as I said they do it their way. So in this song they change directions to a more jazzy sound part way through with rough vocals that I don't like at all. "The Marriage Of Maria Braun" is another laid back tune with the focus on the vocals. "Rhododendron" has it's moments. I like the guitar that comes in at 2 1/2 minutes joined by chunky bass. The contrast between mellow and heavy continue. Good tune.

I feel like i'm being teased again on the song "Everywhere" with the fiery, angular, ANEKDOTEN style guitars that ends too quickly as it turns wimpy in a hurry. "Just Like You" is another mellow tune i'm not a fan of. "Killer Couple Strikes Again" is a catchy, commercial sounding song. "There's Got To Be A Way to Leave" is another laid back, commercial song. Yikes ! "The Thorn In Your Flesh" may be my favourite song. I really like the instrumental parts (and of course the mellotron). "Lines" is again another slow moving tune, but the mellotron is great 5 minutes in.

I think this is a pretty good release but I can't get past the vocals and the mellow tunes.

It's OK,but it's getting predictable and less interesting.Another Scandinavian prog band shows it's respect to ANEKDOTEN,GENESIS,KC,ANGLAGARD etc.The sound is dark and mellow - I like this kind of it!Nice short tracks,good longer ones,but it feels not unique anymore.On the other hand,when you get a Scandinavin Symphonic Album,you'll never get a BAD ONE - even if it's not so original,it's bloody good anyway.Scandinavian prog has become a synonym of flawless music for me.And for you?..

Highly recommended to all Dark Symph Prog lovers - an excellent addition you'll never regret of!!!

Hey, hello fellow ProgArchives readers! Yeah, it's me again! I'm back with another review. Thank you for emails from some of you that I received during the period when I rarely wrote any review for this wonderful prog site. Big apology if I could not reply in due time because I was totally swamped with work. But don't worry mates .. I always keep myself proggin' every time, wherever I breathe! You know what? About a month ago I started to roll-out a series of corporate culture workshops for my major client down here in "rest of the world" country (where some people call my country as a land of terrorist because of some bombs - oh pity me . but it's ok I still can prog my life and smile!) where I used prog music as background of the workshops that I designed and led! Oh .. what great enjoyment I got during the workshops because I played Genesis' "Firth of Fifth", "After The Ordeal", "Hairless Heart", Marillion's "Incommunicado", ABWH "The Meeting" and many more prog music. I didn't really care whether or not my participants knew the music but they enjoyed the workshop in its entirety. Prog music must be forced to others to listen to through prog education! Don't you think so? - Oh sorry for long intro but I always enjoy very much talking about prog music.

So, why I pick LIQUID SCARLET? Simple reason: Last October this year, our Indonesian prog band, Discus, did a successful European tour and shared the stage with Liquid Scarlet and The Watch in Swiss and Germany. According to Discus' bass player, Kiki Caloh, Sweden's Liquid Scarlet and Italian The Watch were both excellent bands. Yeah, no wonder with The Watch which I have been familiar with their Genesis-esque style . But Liquid Scarlet? Oh .. for heaven's sake I have no idea at all. So, I was so curious about the band until finally I got this CD through a friend. I fell in love with this album at first spin! Ghuzzz ...!!

So, how do I describe the music of Liquid Scarlet? It's a perfect marriage of early Crimson, early Genesis, and a bit of Van der Graff Generator. Well, to make a perfect match, their music is pretty similar with Anekdoten full stop. But, it's not a perfect description as well because there is song with Pink Floyd style like track 3 "Città Nuova". The album opener "Greyroom" (5:23) blasts off with mellotron sound in high volume followed with sudden silent which brings in voice line with nice "Is this just the beginning, will this be the end?" lyrical part. Oh man . I really love when this vocal line enters! It's so melodic and so 70s to the bone! Tell me, how can't I love this music? Of course I cannot afford to let this kind of music go. I even embrace the music and put it as part of me. Really great opener. I also love the Hackettian / Frippian guitar work which enters during right time.

"Hesitating in the Foyer" (4:39) is dominated with guitar as rhythm section and the music flows like Anekdoten's "From Within" album; excellently composed especially when it's combined with singing style of Markus Fagervall. The third track "Città Nuova" (8:32) is a nice ballad with a heavy influence from Pink Floyd with nice percussion work played softly. I recommend this tune being played during midnight - you would then find the joy of late night because it helps create excellent nuances.

"Molok" (5:16) combines the early Genesis with early Crimson music with dynamic drumming and Frippian guitar work. The music turns a bit complex with dynamic drumwork, guitar solo and soft mellotron sounds. "Talking in Ashes" (6:42) is an acoustic outfit exploring guitar, soft keyboard and vocals. The later part is a full music in the vein of Anekdoten - and it's very nice, especially with the soaring mellotron sound combined with organ!

"Comes Near, Linger Far" (8:25) is relatively a complex composition as well as structure featuring improvisation of guitar, mellotron and drum. In some segments the combined sound of guitar, bass, organ and drums provide good harmony. "The Red Stairs" (5:52) explores acoustic / electric guitar, xylophone, good vocal line in melodic opening. The high volume sounds of mellotron that follow, augmented with dynamic bass line and guitar, make the music more dynamic. The album concludes with "One Last Mascarade" (8:13) which start mellow and silent using simple guitar fills and vocal. What follows is a melodic music in the vein of Genesis-Crimson. I like the ending part of this track where organ solo give its way to conclude the album Excellent.

Well, I'm impressed with the band and as far as music concern it's tightly composed with strong songwriting and excellent musicianship. I'm inclined to give a full four star rating for this album: an excellent addition to any prog music collection. If you are into the kind of Crimson, Genesis or Anekdoten, I'm sure you would enjoy this album. I look forward to buying their next albums. Recommended. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

The band released this EP in parallel to their second album for whatever reason. The music presented here is as on "II" quite different to the one on their debut. Some songs are using a more alternative or psychedelic pop approach, others are showing influences from both sixties and seventies music. The title track is a very catchy tune in an alternative rock vein and obviously intended for some commercial success. At least it contains some nice bass and keyboard playing, but else very simple with a quite stupid choral in fact. This one together with "Heading For Golgotha" which is a very pop-ish, trippy and relaxed but not very exciting song is the weakest one of the five tracks. "This might be the last time" is a very quiet and melancholic one with some obscure dark choral singing at its end. A bit strange and nice but not very interesting as well. Best songs are "Staden ramnar vid fagelns skri" and "All that is grey" having the closest similarity with the stuff on their debut. First mentioned one is a rather curious instrumental moving forth and back from relaxed swinging 60's Latin jazz to quite hard edged retro prog. Last one could be a leftover one from the recordings sessions for the first album. Retro prog dominated by keyboards starting rather quiet with relaxed vocals and background strings but then moving to jazzy staccato guitar riffing exposing their Crimso-esque style known from the first album.

Overall this EP is not really essential, but maybe interesting for those liking both of their albums to have two additional excellent tracks.

Here is the new, second album from the promissing Swedish band Liquid Scarlet.

1. Lines are drawn ones more (5.14) : First mellow piano play and soft vocals, then gradually a more lush and bombastic sound, very compelling!

2. The carafe (part II) (10.07): This song starts with echoes from early King Crimson featuring fiery electric guitar and pleasant violin-Mellotron waves. The raw and expressive vocals reminds me of Syd Barrett solo, very moving. After some jazzy piano, the final part contains eruptions with duo vocals and great Mellotron.

3. The marriage of Maria Brown (4.33) : The violin and cello evoke a classical undertone. The slow rhythm and dreamy climate turns into more and more bombastic featuring vocal harmonies and fluent piano work, again very compelling.

4. Rhododendron (9.30) : First dreamy with vocals and accordeon, then a mid-tempo delivering a bombastic atmosphere and fiery, Fripperian guitarplay. The final part has a sensational synthesizer solo.

5. Everywhere (4.05) : This songs features fiery electric guitar and a slow rhythm, tastefully blended with vibraphone and piano.

6. Just like you (4.19 : A strong classical undertone, again due to the presence of violin and cello. The vocals sound melancholical.

7. Killer couple strikes again (3.51) : A mid-tempo with propulsive guitar riffs, expressive vocals and a slow synthesizer solo.

8. There's got to be a way to leave (4.26) : Another dreamy song that contains accordeon, violin and cello, the atmosphere is very melancholical.

9. The thorn in your flesh (3.56) : This is straight rock with fiery, R&R inspired guitar, sparkling piano and powerful vocals. The final part delivers a bombastic climate with majestic choir-Mellotron, this is my prog!

10. Lines (7.09) : This one is in the vein of Anekdoten featuring first tender piano and vocals, then a slow rhythm with fine vocals and piano and finally a dynamic sound with lush violin- Mellotron.

I'm impressed by this new album from Liquid Scarlet. During my first session I had some doubts but gradually the music grows, this is simly a wonderful progrock CD!

www.progwalhalla.com

Very good debut album from this young northern Swedish band. Maybe not as excellent and original as Änglagård, Anekoten and Valinors Tree and some others, but well worth a listen. Influences come from King Crimson, Genesis, Björk and many others, but they have developed their own sound. The opening track is a masterpiece and a treat for mellotron lovers.