SERVANTS OF SCIENCE

1. "Another Day" (5:35) cymbal crashes and thick, multiple layers of Mellotron open this one. Things quiet down at 1:20 for the entrance of STEVE KILBEY/ROBERT SMITH-like voice to start singing over some spacey keys and delicate guitar picking/strumming. Each verse is bridged by return to full 'tron. Nice vintage sound--reminding me of Ft. Lauderdale band BABYLON's 1979 debut album. Simple yet impressive. (9/10)

2. "Kaleidoscope" (3:43) electric piano, spacey synth incidentals, and gentle electric guitar strums back the STEVE KILBEY/ROBERT SMITH-like singer for the first verse until Mellotron and synths and heavily-effected drums join in for the chorus. The second chorus flows into an instrumental section that incorporates recordings of human communications from space with eerie incidentals. Nice. (8.5/10)

3. "Tedium Infinitum" (4:08) setting up as a kind of FLAMING LIPS/80s pop song ("Hold Me Now" by the Thompson Twins) with an appropriate female lead vocal from Helena DeLuca. She sounds a lot like singer Malkah Spigel from the 1980s Belgium-based Israeli band MINIMAL COMPACT. Not enough surprises in the song development for my tastes. (7.5/10)

4. "Peripheral" (8:37) opens with slow chord bounces from electric piano and synth supporting a DANIEL ASH (Love and Rockets, Bauhaus)-like vocal. Overall it's a very FLAMING LIPS/ROGER WATERS-sounding song. The occasional appearance by a Robert-Fripp-like guitar note excites and draws attention but never really goes anywhere after its initial slide up the fretboard. There is a shift at 5:20 in which the band moves into an uptempo straight-time rock beat while multiple guitars, tuned percussion, and synths jam along until the "How will you fall from here" chorus returns around 6:40. Solid crossover prog song. The final minute has the music fall away as distorted electric guitar plays a few rounds of a single chord with arpeggios. (8/10)

5. "Servants of Science" (5:48) here--including the voice! Opens with chimes before "cello" synth sound enters and settles into the background while guitar notes are picked and eerie saw-like synth move into foreground. A multi- voiced Polyphonic Spree-like choral voices enter at the 1:15 mark, surprising me. Nice. At 1:50 the song bursts into a section that is pure ROGER WATERS/PINK FLOYD. The vocal is very forceful (and angry?) The music returns to calm between first and second Waters-like vocal verses. Screaming lead electric guitar and synth-generated orchestral strings enter to support an instrumental section. By 5:20, the anger and force is spent and guitar arpeggi and lead notes turn soft, somber, and sad. Cool song! Clever/creative. (9/10)

6. "Epilogue_Prologue" (3:57) kind of continues the spacious, soft, somber, thought-provoking section from the previous song as recorded voice from 1950s American radio/television broadcast RE birth of the Atomic Age plays. Neil's KILBEY-like voice takes a turn singing before exiting for cool human-voice-aided spacey section finished off with another old voice recording and "explosion"-like sound before radiowave sounds fill the sonicscape. Great song--truly in the same vein as THE FLAMING LIPS' Yoshimi. (9/10)

7. "Burning in the Cold" (10:00) opening with softly strummed electric guitar chords over which DOROCCAS-like voice eventually joins in during the beginning of the second minute. At 1:50 mark synth flute leads just before drums, bass, and rest of band join in. Band pauses mid-fourth minute for an interlude of organ, synth French horn, voice samples and other random industrial and post-apocalyptic incidental sounds. At 5:15 we're back to the opening sounds and pace. At 5:50 a cymbal crash leads into a Mellotron-drenched section with full rock band support over which Neil sings with the emotion of a pissed off Roger Waters. This is then followed by a solid rock guitar solo before we break into a very gentle, airy choral sing of "to the sun, come along" which then repeats to the final minute--which plays out like the droning hum of a large turbine engine. Perfect PINK FLOYD send off. (8.5/10)

So the question is: Is this album more similar to THE FLAMING LIPS, PINK FLOYD, or THE CHURCH? I have no vested opinion in any of the cited sound-alikes. I do, however, truly enjoy and appreciate the choice of album theme and the way it is presented. High marks for this. I will say that I think the sound engineering and production could have been of a higher quality--though I did enjoy the retro-sounds that this album harkens back to, my standards remain snobbishly high--especially with the technologies so readily available in this the 21st Century.

Four stars; a solid contribution to prog world and a welcome addition to the space/psychedelic subgenre.