DIRECTION

"Protocol" for the introduction, in space, voice-over, solemn, grandiloquent music, it's pompous, good-natured, it looks like it for the launch, in short, I cling to my chair because that makes me vibrate. 'D'collage' follows and confirms that you are off to a good start, a space prog rock with voice-over confirming that you are not dreaming; it moves a little, it stabilizes and the prog rock of the 70s-80s takes off, melodic, floydian by the guitar; on NEMO and JPL; it's simplistic, a tad has-been. 'Contemplation' follows on the same line, cutesy melodic rock, the consensual ballad which is gently strung out with piano and acoustic guitar, all bathed in a small keyboard; beautiful and creative 30 to 40 years ago, soporific except for memories. "Alert" says it all, it wakes us up at least!

'Risker l'adieu' for the 30-minute piece which begins in a prog metal way with nasty riffs and tumbling synths; it gives pleasure; just for the 4-minute intro after a monolithic 'Wish You Were Here' riff; piece which gives pride of place to the text but which lacks breaks at least during the 1st third; after invading synth and metal riff that gives you goosebumps and it starts again on another used vocal rosary; a melodic break with backing vocals and rhythm guitar; 3rd third with solemn piano and a finally nervous guitar, the voice leaving a little more room for the instrumentation, the voice-overs come back, let us finally imagine instead of being glued to the story; a guitar solo worthy of a PINK FLOYD from 'The Wall' on the rise; short uneven but a beautiful end even if there is a crash. "Le Salut" final commemorative interlude, end of 'The Wall' with military horn, murmurs, the short piece that makes you say that you can create musical emotion in a short time too.

DIRECTION took the time to release their latest album, 12 years also shows for the sound, excellent 20 years ago or more, used and painfully aged. The voice gives melodic pop, not bad but unfortunately too predictable and too offbeat with respect to the instrumentation. Many lengths lacking in relief; an album for nostalgic sounds of yesterday, the day before yesterday, to dream and progress with the cruel lack of not having been able to really take off, frustration.

I really can't understand why the band did not follow the respectable and inspired sound of the sophomore album.With ''13'' the listener will have to face another stylistic turn by Direction, but I am afraid this won't be on the convincing side of things.First and foremost the tracks have become pretty short and simplistic regarding their structures.Then comes the presented sound, which has become extremely guitar-oriented, without any evident keyboard parts in most of the cuts, they now sound like a French-speaking version of RUSH, as the emphasis is on the guitar leads and solos with minor keyboard flashes.There are two multi-parted compositions in here, where the listener somewhat expects the turn of events.''Le chateau'' features a more epic and dramatic atmosphere, sporadically strengthened by the discreet keyboard orchestrations, but then again the Canadians refuse to move away from their love for RUSH.The two-part ''Intoxique'' is a bit more pleasant, the style is again fairly guitar-driven, but this time Direction have chosen to follow some more atmospheric lines with a slight PINK FLOYD/PORCUPINE TREE flavor, which sounds a bit more suitable to the French vocals and the sparse guitar melodies.The rest is generic Heavy/Hard/Neo Prog with good vocals, but the music fails to move away from the mass of average RUSH clones.

Certainly a stepback, after hearing the very good ''O''.RUSH-influenced Heavy/Neo Prog, which does not succeed to blend French poetic voices with harder, guitar-fronted material with comfort.Approach with caution...2.5 stars.

''R'' included the usual mistakes a junior band makes, but ''O'' simply heads to the right direction.The first couple of tracks though are a mix of prog and Alternative Rock with edgy guitars but also nice vocals and shifting climates.''Rien de Moins'' and ''La résurrection'' are quite a surprise.Simple-structured mellow numbers featuring excellent vocals and magnificent changing keyboard work by Serge Tremblay, including mellotron, organ and synths.''Je te Traverserai'' is another straightforward composition but still the vocals are passionate and the overall performance energetic.''De toute facon'' is possibly the less interesting number in ''O''.Too long and rather repetitive ballad with no particular inspiration and only some nice grandiose synths in the middle.But the huge bet for the band would be the 22-min. epic ''Coucher de Nuit'', which finally ends up as a very strong compositions.Crunchy guitars, both flashy and atmospheric synthesizers in the vein of PENDRAGON and ARENA, dreamy acoustic workouts, smooth string sections, expressive vocals and some good dose of mellotron produce a complete Classic Prog-inspired epic of many different soundscapes.''L'éclosion'' will close the album in a calm but good way.Soft piano/organ-driven ballad much led by Tremblay's vocals but with some nice guitar and synths' solos as well.

An obvious improvement over Direction's debut,''O'' is propably the place to start regarding the band's discography.Emotional, passionate and energetic Progressive Rock with even some stunning moments.Recommended.

The opening seconds of this album sounds like Rush in their prime...... Rush post 1990 to be more precise. Then the French lyrics kicks in and it becomes obvious that this is not Geddy Lee & co. But I was fooled for a moment !

I listed this album without knowing that this album in fact is a remastered and reworked version of their debut album R from 2002. The music here is therefore their first effort as recording artists. I just wanted to get this in before I continue......

.... With a review of an album which starts out with a Rush sound, but then branch out to include influences also from Yes and the French symphonic prog scene. That is, Yes anno Close To The Edge. The French lyrics also gives me some references to the likes of Pentacle. But most of all, this album is very much down the Rush direction. It is littered with Rush sound bites. I have listened to many bands in my life and Rush is my favorite band. Hence I am, whether I like it or not, trying to find bands which gives me the Rush vibe. Direction is the band which has come closest to Rush in sound........ and Yes.

The quality of the material is good throughout. The opener En avant toute is a great song. The rest is there about too. The reworking and the remastering of this album cannot hide the fact that this album is a debut album where ideas is tried out and then rejected. There is no doubting this band's talents though. The arrangements are good, although sailing very much up to the wind (Rush). Even the couple of ballads here is very good and tasteful. The use of saxophone on one of them are excellent. The musicians too is very good.

It is my understanding that the other Direction albums is more in the vein of Camel and Yes than this album. But this album is very Rush dominated and that pleases a Rush fan like myself. I will purchase the rest of this band's albums as a matter of priority as a result. I am keeping an eye on this band.......... watching their every move.

3.5 stars

In fact, most you'll hear on this latest by Direction is pretty main stream neo prog with several excellent instrumental passages. But what strikes me with those is that they are stronger compositionally than where the execution is concerned. And then I will have to be more specific because in my believe there is not much wrong at all with the keyboards but it's the guitar that is not really impressive to me. Also the vocals are almost a matter of taste and could be a love or hate thing to listeners.

First five songs have an average length of hardly over 5 minutes and that might give the impression they don't have much to offer but the songs are compact and all contain very good instrumental contributions. The fourth of this quintet, Touriste Urbain is clearly the weakest of these five and almost sounds like a pop song. The rest is somewhere between 3,25 and 3,5* in quality so pretty good that is. Two mini-epics at the end (Soldat and Dernier Issue) have even more to offer and are both compostions with very strong moments.

It makes the choice for the ultimate rating pretty hard, this is one of those obvious 3,5 star albums that almost give you a headache for the definitive fixation. I will have to make a choice and since the majority of songs don't reach the average I will have to round down to three. A very good album though and recommended to neo prog fans who don't mind French vocals.

The opening tracks on this production may lead many potential listeners to draw hasty conclusions though; with the opening number a Genesis clone and the following number exploring a symphonic rock tradition pretty close to Camel. Unoriginal, but very well made - compelling despite the many musical similarities to other acts.

The rest of this album is done following more of an art rock exploration though, maintaining some of the symphonic elements from the onset but now mixing them with stylistic leanings closer to Kansas at first, and then venturing into musical landscapes with greater similarities to acts like Trooper, Magnum and Rush; the latter in particular comes across as a strong influence for this outfit. Some riff patterns and quite a few bass lines could have been lifted from albums made by this Canadian trio; but they are placed in a context which makes them sound intriguing rather than poor replications; with symphonic art rock being the closest I can get in terms of describing the musical explorations.

Well worth checking out - with a particular recommendation for the epic tune Soldat.