LONG EARTH

Here we have the third album from Long Earth, a band who piqued the curiosity of many old-time proggers given it contained three musicians from the early Scottish scene, but I notice that since the last release the old Abel Ganz rhythm section has departed with neither Gordon Mackie nor Ken Weir still involved. David McLachlan (bass) and Alex Smith (drums, triangle) have been brought into the fill those gaps, with the rest of the line-up still Martin Haggarty (lead & backing vocals), Renaldo McKim (electric, acoustic & ambient guitars) and Mike Baxter (piano, synthesizers, Hammond C3).

It never ceases to amaze me that different progheads can listen to the same album and come up with quite different ideas on what it sounds like, but I have been following my own path for more than three decades so am not going to change how I write now. This is quite a basic neo prog album, which is okay but is never more than that, and there are large parts where I find my attention wandering and starting to check how much more there is until it ends which is never a good thing. It really feels like a band going through the motions as opposed to being dynamic and trying to create something vital and exciting. I really enjoyed the last release but there is something missing from this one, that spark of inspiration which engages both the listener and the band, and it made me think of Rick Wakeman ordering an Indian feast as he was so bored during a performance of 'Tales From Topographic Oceans'. There are plenty of people who think this is amazing, but I am not one of them.

The Scottish band Long Earth has something with shadows. For instance, their third album, "An Ordinary Life," features the nearly eleven-minute epic Shadows, and the promotional material for the new CD includes a band photo with huge silhouettes. You could infer from this that the band has a significant history, and that's correct. Long Earth has been in the making for forty years. The group creates music deeply rooted in the (neo-) progressive rock of the 80s and 90s. Their sound clearly aligns with bands like Comedy Of Errors, Abel Ganz, Egdon Heath, and Final Conflict, for example. Well, when you talk about shadows?

Long Earth meticulously crafts their songs. We are treated to extensive texts and intricately detailed compositions, and that's necessary. "An Ordinary Life" is, after all, a concept album about life itself, from birth to death. It also addresses topics like war and politics. So, plenty of words are needed. It helps enormously that singer Martin Haggarty has a pleasant voice that doesn't quickly bore. He has a slightly theatrical edge, reminiscent of Jens van der Stempel on the Egdon Heath CD "The Killing Silence." What really enhances his vocal performance is that he often surrounds himself with his own background vocals. Haggarty joined the band last in 2018, and the other band members must have been thrilled about that. Listening to the band's sound, you hear a lot of homogeneity. Especially guitarist Renaldo McKim and keyboardist Mike Baxter play as Haggarty sings, controlled and tasteful.

Long Earth presents eight songs on their new album, ranging in duration from 5:26 to 10:56. The energetic Fight The Hand That Bleeds You opens the work in a way that leaves you wanting more. The vocal part is catchy with a nod to the 80s new wave, combined with the control of a prog song. What truly makes the song immortal are the alternating passages. The keyboards excel with a delightful theme that really should never stop. An excellent change of atmosphere occurs when the song shifts to something somber, where a piercing guitar theme and calm vocal blocks alternate. My favorite moment is the chord progression leading back to the chorus. Compositional mastery.

It's quite surprising that the next two songs are ballads. Morpheus is an intoxicating song based on a gently flowing guitar arpeggio. An evocative text about your dream world and future does the rest. The piano-starting Life is one of the three pillars of the album's concept. Life is a beautifully constructed song with a dignified atmosphere best described as Spandau Ballet goes prog. The synth-pop of that era is also fully present here.

At that point, Long Earth decides to add some energy to the album. Sand is the most rhythmic song of "An Ordinary Life," with a nice bass riff and a fiery guitar solo halfway through. The track provides a pleasant change, especially since Shadows is also back in calm waters. The song has a lovely build-up with sliding bass tones and acoustic guitar, culminating in a majestic prog finale.

Long Earth then comes with The Arc, the second part of the Life cycle. While the first part is about youth, The Arc can be seen as an ode to adulthood. The band delivers a sparkling mid-tempo song that enhances the album. Moscow is another standout track. The lyrics are impressive, as is the eight minutes of music of the song. The album closes with Empty Shore, the third part of the cycle. The subject here is, of course, old age. This is wrapped in a fairly average song, which is remarkable.

With "An Ordinary Life," Long Earth has delivered an excellent album. It's a true grower, which always results in a pleasant experience.

Originally posted on www.progenrock.com

These Scottish veteran musicians released "The Source" in 2017, an excellent debut album that set the foundation for a huge upgrade on their sophomore 2023 work "Once Around the Sun" , a thoroughly engaging set of songs that did the rounds in the progressive circles, with both radio and critical praise. The arrival of Martin Haggerty on that second album certainly elevated the overall sound and this July 5th release should put the band over the top with well deserved recognition. With guitarist Renaldo McKim, keyboardist Mike Baxter, David McLachlan and Alex Smith on the drum kit, this quintet will impress the often fickle prog collective. Thank you, Anne-Claire Rallo of Bad Dog Promotions, for the heads-up copy!

Proof lies in that quintessential bold step of kicking off a new recording with a nice juicy epic "Fight the Hand That Bleeds You" , a brave 10 minute plus concoction that sets the ground rules for the next hour of sonic entertainment. The unmistakable throttle of the Hammond boosts the pulsating acceleration as Martin bemoans the current political plague of ineptitude in both the UK and the EU, elitist leaders who have little regard for common sense. McKim and Baxter fill out the aural canvas with colourful add-ons without resorting to ostentatious technical pirouettes, as exemplified in the sombre mid-section dripping with pathos and despair, profound melancholia and tired frustration. The bass takes a little romp around the neighbourhood, deepening the sorrowful atmosphere. When will peaceful coexistence prevail? Ad nauseam, we all hope for some kind of resolution! The right is never right and the left veered into the same silliness, they are sadly now undistinguishable.

"Morpheus " offers a gentler lilt, ringing guitars, piano twinkling and a heroic vocal, with generous doses of backing voices, and Martin displaying a charming tone that is most appealing, with a slight hint of Tony Hadley (Spandau Ballet), filled out by a fluttering jazzy guitar that swirls with aplomb. A superb piece of melancholic beauty. That overall feel of sadness continues on the piano-led innocence of " Life" , a 'seeking solace'kind of tune, with clever lyrics and straightforward instrumental accompaniment, the focus clearly on the melody and the passionate vocal expression. As the arrangement progresses, the tempo expands into a higher level of urgency, the piano expressing the theme with majestic insistence, driving the emotion deep into the soul.

Titanic swaths of raunchy guitar, pushed with a thumping beat and a lurking bass undertone, "Sand" ratchets up the crackle with a rocking display, bombastic and overpoweringly epic, with a sense of 'too late to slow the hands of time', as everything seems to be spiralling out of control, an ovine cell-phone centric humanity that relies on depression and insomnia to get by each and every day, a constant struggle.

The massive "Shadows" is a well planned 11-minute pivotal behemoth, not as a countermeasure to the preceding folly, but rather a reminder how relationships continue to fail under all the constant pressure. A sad song, with reflective memories at the forefront, with poignant lyrics such as 'even though the fire burns low, the embers of our love still glow' . Gulp! Bass flutter not withstanding, the candles shiver in the wind. This has an almost classic the Strawbs feel, particularly when the symphonics kick in, the electric guitars glitter like gilded dust and the voice exalts in utter manifestation. Absolutely genius!

This segues nicely into "The Arc (Life part 2)", a timeless lament on 'where have the years gone', a blink of an eye and all has passed, a wholeheartedly sung chorus with tingling guitar and a woozy synth motif, a little hint of vintage China Crisis (I know, this 80s focus is alarming but quite true nevertheless).

The brooding, doom-laden "Moscow" is a devastating condemnation of the ongoing folly of one man's unacceptable desire to rebuild an empire that he witnessed collapsing in Dresden in 1989, a year when rejoicing in freedom was the common currency for those tearing the metal curtain apart. The music is assuredly dense and threatening, synthesized missiles and riff artillery pummeling their 'own' people into fiery submission. Young Russians and Ukrainians shoved fanatically into the meat grinding war machine, 'a world in flames, torched in your name'. Immediate cease fire, please.

"Empty Shore (Life part 3)" certainly espouses a sense of finality, not just for this album's run but also for the current state of global affairs with the human condition in peril. The lyrical content mirrors the fatigued vocals. Aren't we better than this? Can we not learn to live together respectfully? Must we compete constantly with aggressive ignorance? Is apathy and endless opinion mongering the new religion? Love once prevailed, it can do so again! The repetitive melodic message is there for us to follow. We all need and deserve to live an ordinary life. Easily among the very top albums of 2024 up to now!

5 persistent grounds

A few months ago, I was sent this album to review, the second release from a band I must confess I had not previously heard of. While I was playing it, I kept being reminded of music from quite a long time ago, so in the end I turned to the biography which came with it (I generally play music without reading bios so that I can form an opinion without necessarily knowing who is involved or what happened in the recording). That was the point when I stared at what I was reading and went 'really?'. I quickly grabbed my copy of TPU Vol 1 and started re-reading the Abel Ganz reviews I wrote back in 1994, and there you have it ' drummer Ken Weir was there right at the beginning, appearing on 'Gratuitous Flash', and he was joined by bassist Gordon Mackie in time for 'Gullible's Travels'. Apparently newest member singer Martin Haggarty (Field of Vision, Lost Weekends, Masque) was a member of Abel Ganz for five or six gigs in 1985, while none other than Hew Montgomery (Abel Ganz, Comedy Of Errors, Grand Tour) took on the role of producer for both this and the previous album. The other members of the band are Mike Baxter (keyboards), who was a feature of the Glasgow music scene during the 1970's and 1980's, with the likes of Shoot The Moon, Glas Clas and Identity Crisis, playing with Gordon in those days as well, while guitarist Renaldo McKim (Suicide Underground) joined during the final stages of recording the debut. By strange coincidence, Mike, Ken, Gordon, Renaldo and Hew apparently all played at the same Glasgow Festival in the Eighties, in three different bands!

I have been playing quite a lot of 'lost' prog music from back then recently, and if the recording quality was far worse, then it would be easy to say this had just been discovered in the back of someone's drawer on a rapidly disintegrating cassette. This doesn't sound as if it comes from the neo-prog scene of the 90's, but is earlier, and given who is involved then that isn't surprising at all. I guess for many people Abel Ganz will always be remembered as the band who had Alan Reed singing for them until he joined Pallas, but I have always felt that to be incredibly unfair, and while they suffered a great deal from line-up changes they consistently delivered some really nice albums. This is the first album with Haggarty, and he has a relaxed style which goes well with the music, which often has a fairly straightforward rhythm section, with the guitar and keyboards rarely in your face. The introduction to 'The Man In The Mirror' has some very Hackett-like guitar, but given most of these guys were involved in the scene more than 35 years ago they are going to have that sort of influence, as did early Pallas, Comedy of Errors, Abel Ganz and others. This really does feel like a time warp, and for someone like me who remembers listening to and reviewing these bands all those years ago this is great, not just for the nostalgia but also as there are so few bands performing prog like this anymore. By the 90's a lot of the innocence had gone from the scene, and neo-prog bands were often performing with much harder and rockier guitar, but here it is often much more in the background providing the support for the vocals, which are pure, clean, and never strained. Overall this is a really enjoyable release.