KHATSATURJAN

This beautiful and fascinating band name belongs to a Finnish four piece formation, all members play keyboards and sing. The band released 3 albums between 2006 and 2015, this review is about their highly acclaimed debut CD.

The music Armed Forces Of Simantipak sounds melodic, varied and very pleasant, a kind of Art-Rock. Remarkable are the lush keyboard sound and the frequently changing climates, especially in the long tracks.

Oh, Cosmic Pearl: from bombastic and a mid-tempo with fluent synthesizer flights to dreamy with classical guitar and sensitive Grand piano.

Scenario Triangular: from slow with howling guitar and wailing cello to swinging with powerful vocals.

The Mass: wonderful Grand piano and a strong build-up wit houtstanding interplay between harpsichord, guitar and piano.

The strong English vocals have a slight accent and we can enjoy lots of vocal harmonies. And the music contains plenty of interesting mucical ideas, it sounds very tasteful and elaborate,and, last but not least, original.

A promising debut CD, but you have to be up to the huge variety and pretty original musical approach, but isn't that what genuine prog is about?!

My rating: 3,5 star.

"The classical influences still were an important starting point, and now we made bigger arrangemets, including also choir and strings", Atte Kurri told in his band biography. A prog magazine reviewer wrote of this nearly 68-minute work, that at times it sounds like early QUEEN, at times like FRANK ZAPPA, or ELP, Weather Report, Yes or Genesis. Yeah, the music is indeed bold and eclectic, loaded with delicious complexity and wide dynamics. The classically influenced details in both compositional structures and arrangements are skillfully stirred into the rock context. Listen to the harpsichord and violin in 'Advent Rise' for example. The massive epic titled 'The Mass' has a section in which harpsichord plays the tune of Georg Friedrich Händel, as if nodding to the band's beginnings when playing the classical music pieces was more central.

The vocals themselves (all four core members do them) may sound a bit amateurish, but the ambitious way they are used deserves applause. Khatsaturjan's adventurous prog combines some of the GENTLE GIANT eclectism, the playful wit of 10CC or KLAATU, and the pompousness of YES. [Sorry if I repeat myself from the earlier reviews.] The many-layered sound is quite keyboard oriented - but quite free of Emersonian bravado - and coated with vocal harmonies, but happily there are enough more peaceful and acoustic elements to avoid the sense of overload. Not a five-star masterpiece but an amazing and highly energetic prog album!

I applaud the spirit and adventurous approach Khatsaturjan applies to the art of creating progressive rock. There are mishaps and mistakes on this album, and there are details I find lacking in execution, but while one may focus on some weak points, this is also an album that, by and large, is mainly an intriguing one as well. While not a production that can be recommended to those seeking a flawless album, I'd say that those with a certain affection for an adventurous band that broadly fits into a symphonic progressive context might want to investigate this CD, and then especially those who enjoy listening to a band that does have some unexpected details in their repertoire.

The ambitious prog of this band is, in my honest opinion, very close to the highest international level when speaking of the more or less symphonic prog drawing influence from the 70's classics. The fact that all the three core members sing and play several instruments is actually very revealing. First, the vocal harmonies are an important part of the sound, and second, the music is very flexible in arrangement and in compositions. You can try and imagine a modern prog group in the vein of TRANSATLANTIC, BEARDFISH or UNITOPIA, with a pop-flirting, whimsical mentality of bands such as KLAATU and 10CC and the fast-turning eclectism of GENTLE GIANT.

Piano, organ and synths are all well present in the sound, which is coloured by cello and violin. The constant change between the acoustic and the electric concerns also the guitars. The individual vocals are good and clean, perhaps one reason for me to think of 10CC. They blend together marvelously, it's not the case of deep contrasts like with Gentle Giant's Derek Shulman vs. Kerry Minnear (of which the latter is happily closer to what you hear in Khatsaturjan).

The tracks are mostly around 6-8 minutes in length. The weakest song is without a doubt the shortest one, 'Wrong Kinda Socks', a rather banal rocker that could have been left out of the otherwise thoughful album. Nearly 12-minute 'In Pursuit of a Haunting Singalong' is a fine epic, but I feel that in the end it just fades out all of a sudden, making a slightly nuisant pause to the music's flow. Perhaps without these two negative remarks I'd be tempted to give this album a full rating.

Anyway, a truly recommendable album deserving international recognition. Check it in youTube or elsewhere, and be impressed!

The opening track is a tight, less than three minutes long version of Modest Mussorgsky's symphonic poem 'A Night on a Bare Mountain', a dramatic composition that inspired prog musicians already in the seventies (the American Fireballet). The vocals that arrive on the second track are shared by the whole group, and the harmonies sound good. Well, the pronunciation sometimes has some clumsiness but in a rather charming way. These musicians may not be excellent singers individually... The complexity and the vocal harmonies sometimes modestly approaches (the softer side of) Gentle Giant, but not in the manner of plagiarism. 'The Ultimate Nocturnal Transmissions' is a superb composition, comparable - with its vocal harmonies, classical elegance and jazzy flexibility - to the Irish FRUUPP (especially Modern Masquerades album). This atmospheric song clocks almost 8 minutes, only the slowed-down voice in the end is a bit unecessary.

'Cover Up the Overcup' is a playful little instrumental, very seventies sounding. The production by the band itself is not top-notch, but after all this is a demo release - amazingly brilliant as such. 'A Ballad of a Defector' features a minor role for cello played by the main keyboardist Ilkka Saarikivi. 'A March to the Scaffold' is again an instrumental with art music origins: a section of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. The final track is a four-part epic 'Astral Cycles in Motiongrace'. In it one hears most clearly the humorous aspect of this band. I wouldn't be surprised to hear that Frank Zappa is among their influences.

Wow. These musicians have really absorbed the great things of vintage prog - leaving the ELPish overblown grandiosity aside - and come up with a refreshing and beautiful work of art full of genius. Why and where they disappeared?!

Borrowing elements from the Classic Prog era and using the perfection of today's techniques, Khatsaturjan came up with a harmonic, melodious and demanding album with strong YES, GENESIS and GENTLE GIANT influences, reminding a lot of SPOCK'S BEARD and BRIGHTEYE BRISON.This is an album closer to the likes of the vintage Progressive Rock fan (though it sounds nothing close to Retro Prog) than the lover of heavier modern releases.The musicianship is strongly based on careful vocal harmonies, piano interludes and paces, atmospheric synths, elegant guitars and a solid rhythm section with constant changes between light interplays, heavy vocal contents and some easy-going tunes.And there is also a fair dose of vintage keyboards used like the harpsichord, church organ and Hammond organ, played with a tendency towards the fields of Classical Music.The compositions are definitely well-crafted with even some string sections added for good measure, balanced between atmospheric and more technical themes, and having a very strong symphonic mood throughout.

The final taste of this listening is positive but at the end there is a feeling that Khatsaturjan did not add anything new to a scene already stuffed with groups trying to capture this magical 70's feeling.Yet their music is damn good to just pass by and ''Aramed Forces of Simantipak'' will fill plenty of your time with decent old-school Progressive/Symphonic Rock.Recommended.

1. "A Rhyme of a Dime" (4:33) is a very theatric/Broadway-feeling song with multiple singers, many mood, instrumentation and tempo changes. Comparisons here to QUEEN are fitting and deserved. I like the flat, natural sounding NEKTAR/JAN AKKERMAN sounding electric guitar. The TERRY KATH-like vocalist takes a little getting used to, but overall, a decent song; "Bohemian Rhapsody"-like. 6/10

2. "Reality Escapade Saga" (6:07) begins like a very pretty STYX-song--guitars a bit simplistic, before they begin to show their true WISHBONE ASH-like fire at the 1:11 mark. Then to some post "Tormado", 90120-like YES vocal sections. So many shifts and changes! Yet, it still manages to come out a pretty decent song. I like the vocal harmony work here--as good as those of MOON SAFARI, IMO. Nice twin lead guitar work and bass solo. 7/10

3. "Herculean" (18:32) begins with soft piano arpeggios being gradually joined by several other instruments--some soloing--until the two minute mark introduces a complete shift in tempo and mood--very YES-like with its fast-paced melody lines, starts and stops, all being played by the band as a whole. Vocals don't enter until the fifth minute, while the song retains its YES-GENTLE GIANT pace and structures. Nice guitar and synth soli in the sixth and seventh minutes. Treated vocal adds to a frenzy feel before a SAGA-like rap introduces a shift into a jazzy interlude. 8:00 sees a return to GENTLE GIANTness, this time with some really melodic vocal lines. 9:10 sees the music drop out leaving a plaintive vocal playing over some slow minor key SATIE-like piano arpeggios. Things pick up again at 10:25. Nice music! A very cool, entertaining song--not unlike some of YES' early epics. 9/10

4. "Present Here and Now" (4:11) begins with a very MARC ALMOND-like sound and, yes, has a definite pop structure and orientation--a lot like early TEARS FOR FEARS. KEN HENSLEY-like organ work unfolds into a song that could have come from any early URIAH HEEP album. 7/10

5. "Dusk" (5:46) is a very nice song that begins in another early TEARS FOR FEARS feel before unfolding into more of a MOODY BLUES and YES song--all the while retaining some kind of originality. 7/10

6. "Claims of 'No Can Do'" (4:02) uses a very interesting unusual vocalist--kind of like PETER HAMMILL. At first he sings over some pretty piano arpeggios but when the band joins in it makes for a very pleasant, cohesive, if short, progressive rock song. 8/10

7. "The Tunnel" (16:02) is a little syrupy and simple (kind of STYX-ish)--again quite theatric as if meant for a Broadway musical--but is still a good song. Nice harmonized vocals to open the second section at the 2:45 mark. Guitar leads are much more interesting when doubled (two guitars soloing at the same time). Section 3 begins at the 4:05 with several layers of unusually combined themes and sounds: chant-like choral vocals, snaking minimoog, galloping electric guitar bass chords, electric lead soli. Reprise section 1 before the a very unpredictable and constantly shifting GENESIS section beginning in the seventh minute. Upon repeated listenings I get the feel as if this song is almost a mini-opera version of "The Lamb Lies Down on Broadway"! (Not lyrically but musically.) Interesting! And, in the end, intricate. Just not cohesive or engaging enough to warrant more praise. 6/10

8. "Travels Led by Chance" (4:19) is a beautiful little pop song--almost JIMMY WEBB-CHICAGO style. Lovely! 8/10

Overall, a very nice collection of songs--one whose idiosyncracies and subtleties bring me back for repeated listenings and which makes me want togo back to check out the band's back catalog. 4 stars: not essential, but really an excellent addition to any prog music collection. One of the most interesting albums of the year; in my top 10 for 2010.

On these 60 minutes, they have enough space to do so. There is small, few seconds long jazz interlude. There are Eclectic parts (referring to how Ecl. Prog groups sounds like).

There will be again long compositions (two even 16 & 18 minutes long, so it's quite impressive) and you can expect many changes of moods + long guitar solos.

But most of all, this good old melody element is here still (I call it Symphonic, because it reminds me Vintage groups from 70's, but as I was told, it actually isn't Symphonic Prog at all, only some elements).

This album is almost classical music experience, but for better understanding of this, please read previous review. These Swedish guys were being inspired again and it works, it works quite well and brings fruits of their labour. I can't even spell their names, but they're making music that takes breath on its own.

4(+), I'm not the only one here who loses breath, this album is becoming slightly worse towards the end, but nothing extremely bad, first let's say half is perfect.

Or should I say Symphonic, as this is big concept project intended to be homage to 20th century composer, Aram Khachaturian and it is recommended to read his biography, listen to some of his works, but it's not compulsory. His story is quite sad, one of those underrated and banned persons in mankind history. It helps me to understand the music better.

However, music here is more complex than those of Queen. Of course, they weren't trying to be complex, band difficult to "understand", but they've been making good music anyway.

Aramed Forces of Simantipak is album that I dare to say will address almost everyone, but mostly those who enjoy listening orchestrated music. Even most of classical instruments are simulated, it's really mostly just feeling of orchestra, nothing real, because there are just standard Prog rock instruments.

Singing is good, language is English and this fact makes interesting analogy, when we assume that they are Swedish band singing about Armenian composer, who was at time part of Soviet realm, while singing it all in English.

Album is long and I'm glad for that, because the more of this music, the better. I don't think that there is one particular single strong track, they all are composition which can be separated, but when together, it makes solid block (no, not Soviet block please).

5(-), because after so many hours of listening, I still feel good when listening it. And of course, because of mentioned reasons.

Unique experience.