ARCHITECTURAL METAPHOR

An interesting debut album. The early version of the band claimed influences by John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen and AMM. The experimental side is heavily on display as some songs wash in and out, barely hanging to a thread of structure. We've Come For Your Children and Waterwheel are the most 'normal' pieces here, drum machine driven with powerful guitar. Anu is a nice building piece, like a melodic Saucerful of Secrets filtered through Gong and several hits of acid. A cover of Hawkwind's Sonic Attack gives another point of reference. The final two tracks have the band down to a three piece and more in the Amon Duul side of space rock. Chaotic, but to a purpose, I'd recommend this for fans of really out there freak out bands of the late 60's and early 70's.

The newest Architectural Metaphor album is purely instrumental, and some other reviews of this say it is sort of a 'back to roots' album. I'm not sure what that is intended to mean, but perhaps it references a lack of a female vocalist, something the band has had since their debut album. In any event, Galactus Interruptum is a 77 minute blast of instrumental space rock that shows the band outgrowing the need for a vocalist so the listener can concentrate on the SOUND. Murph has never sounded this deft on any recording, like Terry Bozzio and Bill Bruford having a gentle conversation. One minute it's hypnotic motorik rhythms, one minute it's eye popping runs played with a hyper sensitivity and aggression-a punk rock Mahavishnu Orchestra percussion style? Eggleston brings his widest variety of synthesizer sounds to the table he has ever brought. Although there are no cover songs on this album, you will hear echoes of Tangerine Dream, Hawkwind and Heldon in here. Hypnogogia 0.5mg (a Spiritualized reference?) is one of my favorites. Played at the slowest tempo this band has ever come close to, each pass through finishes with a large sub bass explosion that signals either the death of your new speakers or another pass through the melody. Kozlowski does his best David Gilmour impersonation, straining for every last drop of colour and emotion out of each single note before it disappears back into its feedback cocoon. Other songs are sequencer based, and mellotrons, VCS3, Moogs and other vintage gear give this album a more unique feel. A bit of Tangerine Dream, a bit of Hawkwind-but overall it just has its own sound. Powerful space rock from synths, drums and guitar are the order of the day here. The final track Exegesis is a duet between Eggleston and Kozlowski, an upbeat Klaus Schulze style piece peppered with barely audible audio tapes of NASA talking to astronauts about UFOs just spotted in flight. Maybe that is the hidden theme of this album-listen closely, and you will discover unidentified sonic madness. Dig deep!

If I was going to have only one Architectural Metaphor CD, this would be it. All of their different sides are represented here sonically, from the nods to the chaotic instrumental jams of the early cassette years to some reworked material from when Deb Young was still singer and drummer to the current lineup with Murph from Dinosaur Jr on drums, and the fantastically talented Andrea Aguayo on vocals. Paul Eggleston on keyboards and Greg Kozlowski on guitar and effects are the mainstays. Murph joined in 2001 for Other Music, a live album. This 2013 release is Murph's second album with the band, and this thing is a journey in the spirit of old school albums-you feel like the whole thing took you on a ride. The opener, an 8 minute song called Apocalypse is the closest they have come to a real rock song, and a pretty definitively great one it is too. It chugs along Amon Duul style with Andrea wailing chilling warnings about the earth's imminent demise. Great guitar from Greg swirls throughout this, probably my favorite Architectural Metaphor song. Everything You Know is Wrong is an extremely out of character three minute pop tune that wouldn't be out of place on late night radio. An odd choice, but the band shows some strong pop sensibilities if they choose. For prog and krautrock fans though, this is only a short aberration. The Temple Song is also short-just over two minutes-but is a redone version of a song from the late 90's Paul-Deb-Greg trio. Quirky and lurching and pagan. Some longer instrumentals vary between heavy thumping drum driven prog to more delicate sequencer and vocal jams that stray to the ethereal edges of Ash Ra Tempel or later Gong. The album closer is the highlight though. A cover of Roxy Music's In Every Dreamhome a Heartache-a love song to an inflatable doll originally sung by Bryan Ferry is now slightly more sinister with the gender reversal as Andrea whispers her entreaties to her (vinyl) friend until the reveal-and the band explodes from silence into one of their most furious blasts of pure rock and roll. Andrea wails 'oh oh heartache' over Greg Kozlowski's phased, flanged and fricasseed guitar leads that are trying to rip the song and the universe literally apart. Murph throws down some of his best Zappa influenced drum rolls I'd ever heard from him. Eggleston provides the sonic glue with a hard charging Hammond clattering in and out of the madness. When this song rolls to a halt, you really feel like you've been on a carnival ride from the album's beginning to end. This band was in the Space Rock Bible that Shindig put out a few years ago called Interstellar Overdrive: The Shindig! Guide to Space Rock, highly recommended reading for fans of bands like this. Great stuff. Highly recommended for fans of Amon Duul 2, Ash Ra Tempel, Hawkwind, Ozric Tentacles. Nearly perfect- 4.5 stars

In hindsight, a mixed bag of crunching nuggets and maybe too much sauce. Some real potential classics like "Holographic Caves" stand the test of time. I know this because of new interest due to itunes. That song is timeless, and almost makes sense. It is a litlle-know fact that Rebecca Guay, a DC Comics illustrator of "Black Orchid" and "Magic, The Gathering" fame created the cover before she graduated from Pratt.

Arcmet always needed a bass player, and it was a crime against humanity that one was never agreed upon.

When there is insight and vision, there is something magical to share with the world-and most of this recording is magic. Admittedly, it could have used more editing at times. Ultimately, I am pleased that younger listeners are reporting to me that they enjoy some of these tracks for reasons that have little to do with the normal tendencies of spacerock fans. They simply tell me that the music in "interesting" and "visionary" and that's good enough for me. Blessed be.

A corner in a forest is where I live right now far from the lights of Boston far from the madding crowd the flowers are all naked- and crooked stonewalls crumble after I climb over them to hear the cold stream rumble

I can't help myself (therefore I'm helpless), but this hangs in my mind on 2-3 star scale. First track's first minute was perfect love at first sight, but on a first though (I mean second) it became first pain in a long string of good/bad things about this album.

Whew, "Kairos", the second track is for example, third one also, but there is something I cannot describe, which is bad. This is maybe third time I've seen this in prog music and was not able to describe it, which annoys me quite a lot. Words are important for telling your opinion, so I'll try to find out what it is.

Maybe it's a fact that these tracks, this music don't flow easily. Psychedelic rock should be about relaxing, well, tripping. But this sounds like it's fully loaded truck which bumps on every hole on a road.

However, despite heavy sounds, which are not as pleasant as I would expect, there are light moments of relatively good music. And also ideas. And by that I mean a lot of ideas. It's whole bunch of unrealised quality. But from accepting it, you are blocked by weird sounding instruments. Woman vocals are great, she has hypnotic voice, which I suppose is ideal.

Well, three stars, it's probably good record and I didn't get it at all, but there's something bad about it. Balanced 3 stars by the way.

This band mixes melodic hard rock riff approach to the post-psychedelic improvisations strenghtened with a lady singer and quite dark, unclear sounds. These sounds do not please me much, and to be honest, the first impression of the album was a question are the instuments in same tune. I'm not usually very allergig to bad sounds (or tunes, tonedeaf...), but somehow this record sounds quite unbalanced and not very pleasing. Some moments offer quite nice improvisations, but they are accompanied also with unconvinging fade outs and slightly uncertain sounding performing.

"Kairos" and "March of Wooden Potatoes" have quite good sounding sonic landscapes, and resemble both "Richocet"-era Tangerine Dream and 1990's Hawkwind. Other association from the costructed songs and bolder psychedelic solutions is more stoned and less guitar-emphasizing version of Kingston Wall. "Holographic Caves" has also interesting stonlgy echo-treated approach. I prefer to hear these elements, but the composed melodic tunes like the opener and "All Tomorrow's Parties" are not very fun to listen. Also some experimental tunes like "Holy Ground" do not create a desire to listen them again. This being just my personal opinion ofcourse.

The album ends to a Hawkwind cover, which doesn't in my opinion bring much extra value to the record or to the original song, but certainly is a homage to an innovator. The improvisation following the composed part is very fine. So personally, I think I would enjoy this band more if they would focus more to creating improvisations and electronic soundrealms and do some little more qualitry control in the recordings. But most important is ofcourse that band follows the path the choose themselves. Great promise in the stuff, have to check out if the other records of the group are better.

— First review of this album —

This is the first (and so far only) release with new drummer Murph of Dinosaur Jr fame. Recorded live as a trio in CT, this is a blistering 45 minute instrumental assault. With Murph behind the drums, the band is able to go places they never have been able to go before. Somewhat like a krautrock version of Mahavishnu Orchestra on acid, Architectural Metaphor have never sounded so powerful before. Heavier than Ozric Tentacles, they lean here towards the Hawkwind side of space rock. Opening song, Overture establishes the mood with strong mellotron pulses. On the run is a furious take on the Pink Floyd synthesizer instrumental which is remarkably individual and faithful at the same time. Nuclear Sun is a slightly overlong instrumental featuring some excellent guitar from Kozlowski and a disturbing synth underpinning from Eggleston. Aftermath of a Pale Horse is a slower Floyd-like song, almost elegiac in style. The Sabbath Maker is a retake of the Maker from the rare Black Widow box Out of this World. Murph drives this song like a man possessed, and this is one of the dizziest roller coaster rides in rock, never mind space rock. Hassan i Sabbah, the Hawkwind song follows, and continues in the same vein, amping up the manic energy and actually improves on the Hawkwind version, if possible. These two songs really show the intuitive power the band can bring to songs in the right moment. The album finishes with set staple Kairos, a long (10 min) exploration that starts like a Tangerine Dream song circa 1972 and finishes with one of the most satisfying guitar melt downs in space rock. Welcome to the Future, the short Hawkwind speech rounds out the set, finishing a delirious example of seamless but quite varied space rock that is both authentically retro and uniquely modern simultaneously. Fantastic stuff! Four stars.

Architectural Metaphor are true, modern day psychedelic trippers - I was fortunate enough to acquire an LP of this 'Creature of the Velvet Void', of which it is, and a strange creature at that. This USA band consists of 3 members ; Deb Young (lead vox, Drums/Perc. sundries) Paul Eggleston (synths, voice) and Greg Kozlowski (all manner of guitars - gliss, backwards, spatial, leslie, e-bow and a barrage of effects) and in their thanks list you can find the names Hawkwind, Nik Turner, Ozrics, Monster Magnet and Gong mentioned. Also, there is this line inside the gatefold 'When the everywhere eye asks you Who is the Emperor of the Sky ? Call the Archangels Thunderbird' - Mama Duul. Obviously, this album sports a Krautrock vibe, it can be quite stoner, at times the mix is a mess (intentionally, I hope), and it is quite dark. Highlights are 'Kairos' - a lengthy, electronic dominated piece with echoes of TANGERINE DREAM and during the rockier 2nd half, the classic Kraut sound of AMON DUUL II is there 100%. Not plagiarism, but passionately emulated. 'Holy Ground' is darker than dark - they've manipulated the vocals to produce this truly f***ed up result, something I've never heard before, and it works. 'March Of The Wooden Potatoes' is another nod to HAWKWIND/TANGERINE DREAM's electronic space-rock. On this album you will also find 2 cover-versions, 1 is Lou Reed's (Velvet Underground) 'All Tomorrow's Parties' and a 12 minute version of Hawkwind's 'Golden Void'. Admittedly, one has to be in the mood to enjoy this album - sometimes it repulses me, but most times it's rewarding. 3.5 stars.

Odysseum Galacti, Architectural Metaphor's debut release is really a snapshot of a band in transition. The main part of this Cd was recorded by their original lineup, fronted by founding members Paul Eggleston and Bill Buitenhuys. The first 6 songs are from 1988, and feature most of the original quintet. Anu and We've Come for Your Children are the highlights, the first a trippy marimba driven miasma vaguely influenced by Pink Floyd. The second is a more driven guitar oriented piece where Buitenhuys exhibits some muscular guitar playing. Cascading Foliage is vaguely Tangerine Dream-ish. Waterwheel, the opener is fairly slick for this lineup, but perhaps a bit too long. A cover of Hawkwind's Sonic Attack is frightening and unsettling.

The second part is the more familiar lineup of 1994-2000, featuring the first recordings of the trio of Eggleston, Greg Kozlowski and Deb Young. In Between Dunes has a nice pulse to it, and some interesting vocals. The second newer piece, Brainticket, is the treasure. Wailing guitar from Kozlowski dance over a pounding sequence. Both newer tracks were recorded live. As it says on the back: 'this is a headphone album'. Space never sounded this deep. Recommended for fans of both 'out there' krautrock and severely acid damaged euro bands.

Odysseum Galacti is made up of six songs (first six tracks) recorded in the studio in 1988 and two live songs (tracks 7 and 8) recorded live in Massachusetts. Architectural Metaphor is influenced by early Pink Floyd, Hawkwind, and maybe a little Gong. The eighth track, Brainticket, shows some Ozric Tentacles influences. Nice bands to be influenced by, but influences aren't always what they're cracked up to be.

The recordings on Odysseum Galacti have a strong demo feel to them. Poor recordings are always a problem for me. They distract too much from the music. But here, the music, too, is sorely lacking any direction. Architectural Metaphor could really use a rhythm section and sorely needs a bass player. Barely heard percussion just doesn't cut it and the noodling on the synthesizers just leads nowhere. The vocals are very poor and are not very clear at all. The live recordings are better than the studio recordings. Unfortunately, it isn't enough to save this disc.

I forced myself to listen to this whole disc, fortunately without totally losing my mind. I had this persistent urge to skip to the next track on every single song. A very mediocre work I can only recommend to fans/collectors of this band or those interested in a complete psychedelic/space rock discography. Two stars. Apparently, Creature of the Velvet Void is much better.