CONSIDER THE SOURCE

THE STARE is a much more stripped down affair than the previous "Hybrid Vol 1 - Such As A Mule" which went batsh.i.t crazy with its expansive roster of ethnic world musical instruments. This album while still featuring the band's knack for incorporating Turkish folk and Indian classical influences into its smorgasbord of eclecticism this time around crafts all their creative mojo simply into the triumvirate possibilities of the Gabriel Marin's double neck guitar, John Ferrara's bass playing along with synthesizer moments as well as drummer Jeff Mann handling all the varying percussion duties. While tackling the usual motifs that merge the world of avant-prog and jazz fusion with the indie rock inspired prog like Thank You Scientist, CONSIDER THE SOURCE has added a new heaviness to its sound on THE STARE which finds heavy hitting guitar chugging a la Tool, King Crimson and even moments of Steve Vai like guitar wankery. Another development in the world of CTS is that THE STARE marks the very first time the band has worked with a real producer as so far this band as remained fairly independent.

The producer decision was actually quite accidental as the band was simply playing live in a small Colorado town one fateful night where Dream Theater producer David Prater just happened to recently move to and just happened to be at the show. Prater was impressed with the band's unique sound and musical skill and after hitting it off ended up working with the band. Despite emerging in 2024 THE STARE was recorded as far back as 2020 and was one of those victim of the pandemic releases where the band was forced off the road and sent home to sputter out any musical ideas that had been stirring about in the old noggins. CTS and Prater spent ten days in an Asheville, North Carolina for the recording process where Prater helped the band develop to the next level and just one listen to THE STARE and it's obvious how a professional producer took the band into the arenas of epic prog. The album features five tracks. three on the longer side over eight minutes and a couple between five and seven. The band's fusion abilities is off the charts unique and it's often hard to tell if the music is more inspired at times by prog, jazz, metal, ethnic music or spaghetti westerns!

The opening "Trial By Stone" balances an atmospheric psychedelic touch with melodic guitar riffs and bouncing Geddy Lee styled bass grooves along with the accompanying percussive drive. What sounds like wordless vocals is supposed to be coming from the guitar effects which Marin has a lot of. This 13-minute track maintains a basic melodic flow but picks up intensity and showcases nice prog moments such as a classical guitar interlude and nice time signature complexities in between the cracks of the fairly melodic musical flow. The tracks are fairly diverse with many rotating elements whether they come from the acoustic Spanish guitar intro of "I Can See My Eyes" which also features a feisty guitar solo towards the end or the more traditional Turkish folk track "New World Čoček" which at nearly 10 minutes in length effortlessly weaves the world of Turkish folk into a nice crafty prog composition. "Mouthbreather" features the heaviest sounds of the album but yet maintains that unique atmospheric backdrop. The ending "Preemptive Vengeance" provides an ethereal closer that somewhat resembles a psychedelic proggy version of a spaghetti western.

It's no easy task crafting unique instrumental prog in the 21st century but a few brave intrepid and talented musicians have taken on the tasks. The Aristocrats, Animals As Leaders, Scale The Summit, Russian Circles and many have taken this road and successfully crafted their own signature sounds. Add CONSIDER THE SOURCE to this list of amazingly talented musicians who sound no like other. Somehow the band manages to simultaneously create unique atmospheric backdrops while it blends together three common rock instruments in a multitude of clever idiosyncratic ways. The album provides nice calming mellowness as well as more energetic adrenalized heavy rock outbursts. The mix of influences ranging from diverse acts such as Ozric Tentacles, King Crimson, Wyclef Jean, Tool, Secret Chiefs 3, Mahavishnu Orchestra and a multitude of Turkish, Indian and other ethnic sources offer a true melting pot of planetary fusion dished out in a musical precision that makes this a most pleasing listening experience. While the album cover resembles more of an early 90s thrash metal act, the music is more on the uplifting side with light warm melodies keeping the technical wizardry churning along. Very nice album indeed.

1. "Sketches from a Blind Man" (7:29) great opening/opening song to lure listeners in: spacey eerie guitar-generated sound over chunky avant-garde bass and aggressive drums in an odd time signature. The eeirie lead guitar sound actually creates a repeatable melody that gets into your head and stays there. Lots of incidental computer-like sounds flitting in and out of the soundscapes. In the fourth minute, guitar sound drops an octave or two, tempo straightens out and bass sound and style also shift, as guitar melodies change, though also remaining engaging and interesting. The bass player is really good! Another sound change at 5:40 in guitar lead and drum-triggered bass before everybody kicks back into full octane to give one heck of a show for the final minute. (13.5/15)

2. "The One Who Knocks" (7:43) acoustic guitar (!) and high-end bass open this before drums kick in to signal shift into full song structure with chunky active bass and low-end guitar plucking. Around 0:50 there is another shift in sounds and structure with guitar producing more high end tremolo or e-bow solo melody-making. Some nice Latin chords and sounds in bridges and several sections. It's like being on a motorcycle taking a trip through some big city, witnessing the wide diversity in neighborhoods with each turn down different streets. "Trombone" sound generated by the guitar in scaled down fifth minute, shape-shifts into flugelhorn and then into MetalSantana for the sixth. Bass and drums go into wild frenzy at 6:15 to bridge to more melodic, high-powered final minute. (13.5/15)

3. "Unfulfilled and Alienated" (3:04) opens with launch into full-speed reminiscent of the classically-based power metal of Yngwie Malmsteen. The melodies are almost Gypsy/Eastern European/klezmer, the bass play just like Les Claypool. High skills on display here! (9/10)

4. "It is Known" (11:45) gentle two-note bass chord arpeggi and bare-bones drumming support another spacey guitar sound in the lead. The melodies played by the guitar in the first two minutes are very Hawaiian sounding. At the two minute mark a "chorus"/B section begins with more frenetic drum and bass play as guitar doubles up and plays a higher octave, more piercing sound for its voicing of the melody. The A-B cycle takes about 90 seconds to come around again, but then in the fifth minute the music drops into a spacious lounge-bluesy support mode as Jeff Beck-like guitar squeals and screams its slide-guitar-like swamp blues. The rhythm section intensifies a bit at the 6:00 mark before bridging into an all-out MAHAVISHNU jam. Wow! This guitarist can move! The bass player, too! Machine gun notes throughout the eighth minutes. I am totally caught by surprise and blown away! The eighth and ninth minutes see a trading off of rapid fire noodling between the bass player and the guitarist, the former at the high end of his instrument, the latter in the lower end of his. At 10:25 they come back together to support the recapitulation of the melody themes used in the first two sections to the finish. (22.5/25)

5. "They Call Him the Smiling Assassin" (7:29) opening like the introductory melding that occurs in a lot of Middle Eastern music, finally coming together at 0:35 to establish a very Middle Eastern sounding song. The instruments are playing in very syncopated, staccato, and unified fashion until a switch after 90 seconds in which the guitar begins to sound like a Middle Eastern violin. The pacing becomes almost a Wild West cadence as guitar changes and shifts his sound in ways that seem to mimic a variety of traditional Middle Eastern instruments--though, in the fourth minute he brings it all into the 21st Century with a highly synthetic sound. Then there is a quiet section in which guitar disappears and drums perform an interesting solo on "traditional" Middle Eastern percussion instruments. Then there is a wild and schizophrenic bass guitar solo in the sixth minute in which several lines (tracks?) are occurring simultaneously. More hand percussives in the seventh minute before an acoustic ME instrument rejoins and re-builds the comradery that the song opened with to the finish. (14/15)

6. "Misinterpretive Dance" (9:20) opens with an instrumental weave that displays some of the softer sounds and playing styles of the band members. Nice. Computer synth incidentals (from overdubs) begin making their appearances in the second minute as the second verse plays. Chorus in the third minute. The guitar sound and styling is quite reminiscent of some of AL DI MEOLA's Spanish-styled electric guitar sounds from early in his solo career. The music turns heavy with walls of sounds and PRIMUS-like humor in the music in third and fourth minutes before returning to a more steady jazz-metal sonic wall for the sixth. Odd rising guitar note in the seventh minute supports bass soloing before going bat-crazy in an Outer Limits synthesizer display while bass and drum frenzy. Things smooth out around 7:20 to return to the AL DI theme before shifting back into the SLEEPMAKESWAVES-like opening themes for the ninth minute and then going metal crazy in the final minute. (18/20)

7. "You Won a Goat!" (7:19) if Jeff Beck had been born in Harlem in the 1990s this is what he and his band may have sounded like. Again, Middle Easterns sounds, styles, and melodies seem prevalent here. It's as if the guitarist is trying to be both Jeff Beck, Jan Hammer, and Jean-Luc Ponty! (13.5/15)

8. "When You've Loved and Lost Like Frankie Has" (6:51) a This Is Spinal Tap reference (from the title)! The music opens like it's from a Hawaiian-Rastafarian ballad! So weird and surreal! (12/15)

9. "Enemies of magicK" (11:47) like a crazy ride inside a pinball machine! Definitely the song with the weirdest sound palette on the album. (21.75/25)

Total Time: 72:47

All stunningly performed songs with totally unpredictable flows and sound palettes, I'm just not sure I like it; I don't hate or dislike this music but my brain hurts!

4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive rock music that I'm rating up for the fact that it truly lives up to the "progressive" aspect of our celebrated musical genre; Consider The Source is definitely pushing boundaries!

"Consider the Source" is an Eclectic Prog band from New York and was formed in 2003. They utilize some interesting sounds including micro-tonal scales including Indian and middle-Eastern influences. They have released 6 full length albums since their formation, including "You Are Literally a Metaphor", released in 2019. The band currently consists of Gabriel Marin on guitars, John Ferrara on bass and Jeff Mann on drums and percussion.

"Sketches from a Blind Man" hits the strange and eclectic sound right off the top with a funky and upbeat bass line with the unique sound of the eastern influences in the guitar. There are many electronic and synth sounds in this also, including some of the percussion, but the drums themselves are organic. The micro-tonal sounds mesh in an interesting sound when combined with the standard rock bass line. The melody is quite interesting and goes through several variations with many different sounds and meter/tempo changes. "The One Who Knocks" moves to a jazz sound with a nice strummed guitar and more effects created from looping. The unique sounds continue as the three talented musicians continue their unique style. The bass is heavy in these tracks and the guitar is sometimes recognizable and others, completely unique and strange, but the music is excellent, interesting and quite catchy. Halfway through, the drum established a clunky tango rhythm and the guitar plays along with an almost trumpet like sound. It is hard to believe 3 people can create this sound. Tempo changes, textural changes and lots of progressive traits, this album is full of them.

"Unfulfilled and Alienated" is the only track on the album that is less than 6 minutes. It is a very fast, speed rock track with those mid-East influences quite obvious and a complex bass and rhythm section going on underneath. This one will get your head swirling with its amount of notes in both guitar and bass and the crazy drumming. So much packed in a small space. "It is Known" slows things down a bit with an atmospheric guitar and simple bassline. This is very spacey and psychedelic with some nice effects, almost similar to Ozric Tentacles. Its not too long before things get more complex, especially with the bass line, but the theme keeps things anchored. The whining guitar that plays the melody is a cool sound. At 4 minutes, everything abates and the guitar almost sings a new melody at first against a minimal background, but things intensify as it goes along. After 6 minutes, we reach a new level of complexity as things go wild. And then, OMG that bass issues some rapid fire notes along with the guitar. Awesome! Hold on a minute while I pick my jaw up off the floor. Finally at 10 minutes, the craziness returns to the original theme.

"They Call Him the Smiling Assassin" finds a danceable, mid-Eastern style in the middle of a chaotic beginning. The bass is quite heavy and it follows the traditional sounding guitar. Adding in some funk, the bass makes it all relevant while the guitar keeps it traditional at the same time. The track is dark, fast and fun all at the same time, with a wildness that makes you want to get up and dance like a chicken. Later, it takes on a Primus style craziness as the bass and guitar fight for prominence. It's like there is no time for a breath here. The theme returns at the end of the track. "Misinterpretive Dance" is a bit more sane as far as the melodies are concerned, but the ever changing meters give the track its title. It's complex and melodic at the same time. Eclectic is definitely the right word for this amazing music and yes, it does get totally crazier as it continues. Finally, after 7 minutes, things become more grounded as the main theme returns but the tricky meter changes are still there.

"You Won a Goat!" is the next track. It starts with drums only before rapid fire bass and guitar play an obvious Indian inspired melody very fast and lots of humor mixed in. Later, things calm a bit while a moaning micro-tonal guitar solo comes in and things build back up again. Soon, craziness ensues as you have come to expect by now. Excuse me, I have to pick up my jaw again. "When You've Loved and Lost Like Frankie Has" is a lot slower, but with a sneaky rhythm. Amazing guitar effects again with that unique micro-tonal sound and a chunky bass line that sounds like a soundtrack to a off-beat spy movie. The guitar sounds just like a synthesizer because it is so smooth as it slides between notes. The last track is another 11+ minute closer called "Enemies of MagicK". It begins very ominously with crazy dark guitar effects. Then we go into rapid fire mode again with almost djent style drumming and bass, but a slow vocal effect played by the microtonal guitar keeps things from total chaos. I'm not even going to try to give you a play by play on this one, it is constantly changing and returning to different melodies throughout. Textures, meters, styles keep changing, yet it is still coherent and amazing.

Going into this album, I did not expect this at all. Eclectic is definitely the word for this, and so is unique and amazing. As crazy as things get sometimes, it always keeps your interest as you want to hear what happens next. The effects are excellent, the musicianship is out of this world. There are many times throughout this album I was just speechless. This is definitely a contender for the best album, and it is a strong one. If you don't listen to a lot of new music, then this should be one of the few that you listen to. How could you not praise this amazing music? How could it be that only 3 people can make a sound as full as this? How could this band be ignored for so long? I'm telling you, this is one of the most awesome things I have heard this year and maybe even this decade. You must listen to this, it is crazy good! Huge bass, guitar, drums and effects all the way through.

The second two albums are completely instrumental, while this one has a few snippets of voice (on "The Great Circuiting" and "You Go Squish Now") though in both cases it is spoken-word vocals and these may just be some sort of recorded samples. Otherwise this is all about guitars, drums and bass just like the others, though guitarist Gabriel Marin was still using his funky fretless chaturangui here. Not as much as on the second album, but enough to notice and to give an added dimension to his heavily-massaged guitar playing.

'Esperanto' sounds more like the band's second album than the third, meaning that despite heavier use of sampling and digital sound manipulation these songs have a slightly earthier and artsy feel to them, while the band's latest offering 'That's What's Up' heads off into neo-prog/math rock territory. "Constantly Nostalgic" for example sounds just like its title, a flowing, playful number with lazy percussion and guitar riffs that explore chord progressions rather than try to overpower the listener with building crescendos and spine- tingling arpeggios. That stuff turns neo and metal fans on I suppose, but the more laid- back sounds generally have a little more mass-appeal to those of us who are neither music theory experts nor primo musicians (hail to mass appeal).

I can't tell for sure on "Between the Teeth of Trouble" but it sounds like this is an acoustic guitar being amped by microphone rather than a bridge pickup. I'm probably wrong (remember that 'not a musician' comment), but the softer guitar sound on this song along with the heavy use of the weird chaturangui-thingy gives this tune a completely different and more nostalgic feel than anything else on the album. If the band were ever to hand off a single song for inclusion in some sort of V/A compilation I would highly recommend they use this one. Hopefully they'll read this and jump right on my useful suggestion.

"Patterns" starts off slowly as well and includes what sounds like a Fender Rhodes or some sort of electric piano, but once again this is Marin plucking away on his chaturangui. Rather than Eastern though, the song has a Latin mood to it despite the odd chords, embellished at times with some sort of hand drums and not much else. This is a beautiful tune that also deserves more attention. Maybe someone will discover it and include it on a podcast that leads to the band being more widely discovered and appreciated. Seems I'm full of great ideas today.

Finally "Tihai for the Straight Guy" (funny title) reveals the band's rocking side in a very Eastern way with a funky, polyrhythmic blast of bass and wailing guitar that will spin your head around if you try to follow to tempo shifts. These guys obviously spent a fair amount of time studying music the rest of us only read about, and I'm left a little disappointed that they didn't develop this sort of sound further on their subsequent albums, and especially on their latest. This sort of stuff is what really has the potential to set these guys far apart from anything else on the prog scene today. Outstanding!

I started listening to this album expecting it to be a slightly less mature version of the band's later work, but came away thinking they started with the best and have been trying to match it ever since. I really dig this band and am looking forward to hearing whatever they come up with next, but for now I have to say this is their best work and this is an album I would recommend without hesitation to any prog music fan. So four stars it is and I'll close by encouraging you to check these guys out.

peace

Once again these are all instrumentals since apparently nobody in the band can sing, or maybe they just aren't interested in words. They don't say a hell of a lot on their website either so maybe it's the latter.

The songs tend toward a little more length here than with their prior work as well, with only "I Never Played a Jewel Thief" coming in under seven minutes. I'm not sure if that's a good or bad thing since the comparative lack of percussion and various taped sounds makes the music sound a bit more pedestrian than the stuff on 'Are You Watching Cloesly?', their 2007 studio release. The group seems to be aiming for more of a guitar arpeggio with weird timings sort of thing this time around, and although the guitar sounds mostly the same but a little heavier, the arrangements are less eclectic with a few exceptions such as the mystical "No Easy Answer" and truly weird riffs and tempo of "How am I not Myself" which includes a bit of guitar work that sounds all the world like it was passed through Peter Frampton's talk box. Pretty cool actually.

"Ol' Chomper" has some riffs that remind me alternately of Dream Theater and Steve Howe (try and reconcile that in your brain!), while "Complex Complex" doesn't sound like it is but knowing the guy playing guitar doesn't have any frets to help him with the non-stop chord changes makes me think it was a bit tougher to pull off than it sounds.

And the closing "The H is O" comes off as a compilation of everything else on the album including wailing guitar and staccato, frenzied drum with a bass line that borders on psychotic. The song starts out a bit slow but by the end I'm thinking something akin to 'Bolero' with amps. Very wickedly tight.

This isn't really my kind of music to tell the truth, and in a lot of ways I preferred the more eclectic and earthy stuff the band cranked out on their second album. But prog fans of all stripes (including metalheads) should find this one appealing, and for that the band deserves a high three stars with at least some consideration for four. Well recommended.

peace

As far as I know all three of the band's albums are only available on some self-released label, and the best way to get them is in the form of downloads. In fact I've never actually seen a physical CD of any of their records, but according to their website store you can actually buy a hard copy of you're so inclined.

The instrumentation for this trio is pretty interesting, consisting of a fretless guitar (pretentious, but well-played I must admit); something called a "chaturangui" that is also fretless and looks like a Rickenbacker guitar that got tricked out by some guy from India; a rhythm section of sorts consisting of drums and electric bass; and various recorded music and sound samples. That's about it. So not generally the sort of instruments that would make you think of prog folk except that the chaturangui keeps drawing me back to that connection, along with some of the recorded samples like what sounds to be a tortured violin midway through "Prophet for Profit" and what comes off all the world like the soundtrack to an English folktale titled "Order of the Triad". So in the end I'm left a bit confused and thinking there may be more of a connection between post-rock and prog folk than I ever assumed before. Note to self to check that out.

Anyway this is a pretty cool album, although after listening to it like five times I still can't quite figure out what these guys are all about. Clearly they have a focused direction to their music which sounds at times like embellished math rock and at other times like jazz students who finally realized that jazz is boring. Regardless, the music is engaging, energetic, modern and dynamic and I'm not sure what more you could want in a contemporary prog rock band. I'm still picking my way through their latest album so don't quite have a solid picture of the band yet, but hope to soon. In the meantime I'll say this is a very solid three star effort and something I suspect almost any modern prog-rock fan would appreciate, with the possible exception of folks who only like their prog-rock of the metal variety; otherwise, check these guys out and I doubt you'll be disappointed.

peace

So... here I am. Where to start when trying to describe CTS and the music they create? They're a jam band, true, but limiting the description to that statement would be unfair. Typical jam bands create music that becomes boring and redundant after a while, this is definitely not the case here. I can also state that they're very talented musicians... but again, most of the bands listed on this site are very talented too. So?

Let's say that Consider the Source is a power trio using typical instruments (drums, bass, and guitar) to create complex, lush and original instrumental music. Amateurs of brilliant musicianship won't be disappointed. Each instrument is played with brio. One should note the unusual 12 string guitar combining both fretted and fretless parts. The fretless guitar produces atypical sounds of great beauty that can fool many listeners because it replaces the keyboards with great effect.

Their music is a blend of hard-rock with a good part of psych and another significant part of Middle-Eastern influence. Add lots of energy, humour, positivism and a strong sense of melody, stir well. You'll obtain a cohesive music that is anything but plain. And I want to reaffirm that it is c-o-h-e-s-i-v-e. Contrary to most jam bands, some of their songs will stick in your head for hours. That's why, even if they're filed under the eclectic prog etiquette (for good reason), many Neo-prog listeners might be appealed. Most of the songs are multi faceted with sometimes very slow, spacey parts and other time fast paced rythms.

I won't go through a song by song review but let's have a look at Abdiel, the first song. It's one of the few songs recorded live. Intro from outer-space. Heavy reference to middle- eastern sounds. An excellent example of how the fretless guitar may sound. This guy has very agile fingers. Some exceptional jazzy bass parts near the end too. Highly melodic. This is a good example of what these guys can do although not the most complex song of the album.

And a few words on Ol'Chomper: not to be missed. Multi-part song. Awesome melody created by the guitar. One of the highlight of the album although there's not a weak song on it.

Conclusion: If you like complex but melodic music you'll be pleased. I'll restrain myself not to give 5 stars and being referred as a fan boy (although I'm really tempted). 4 stars for this very fresh and inspired music. Do yourself a pleasure, try it at least once, these guys deserve it. The two other albums are also excellent.