My lesser known and unknown new prog bands thread

GALLEON – Engines Of Creation (****)

- I remember vividly that I listened to Galleon their just released debut CD entitled Lynx in the early Nineties. Their simple but tasteful sound appealed to me, especially the compelling parts featuring fat synthesizer flights, deep Moog Taurus bass pedals and dramatic vocals with a bit melancholical undertone.

- After many years this new album is my first musical meeting with Galleon and I notice that they have matured in all ways. Remarkably is the amount of fluent songs with bombastic climates, fiery guitar solos, propulsive guitar riffs and flashy synthesizer runs like in A.I. (wonderful bass pedal sound), The Assemblers (from sparkling piano to blistering wah-wah guitar), Signals, the titletrack (howling guitar and intense Mellotron waves), Machine Mother (flashy synthesizer solo) and Lightworks. My highlight on this CD is the Men And Monsters (almost 10 minutes), it contains lots of shifting moods and breaks, howling guitar, pleasant keyboard variety (organ, synthesizers and Mellotron) and a great final part with a bombastic atmosphere, the biting guitar solo and the slow synthesizer make it a progrock party!

I am sure this new Galleon album will appeal to many progheads, it sounds both accessible as pleasant and dynamic with good work on guitar and keyboards and the vocals add an extra dimension.

The Kinetics Of Sound

The third band from the Altr0ck house of progressive rock is another Italian band, but this one is not at all like the first release on this label by country mates Yugen.

Accordo Dei Contrari (AdC henceforth) are a dynamic group of (changing lineup of) musicians (drums, guitar, keyboards and bass; reinforced by guests on violin and sax) and their comfort zone is in the instrumental fusion territory. No need to go into biographical details as those can be read on their Myspace, but I will quite to you what their promo material says about their influences and sound:

“The album “Kinesis” is the result of two days of live-recording in studio in june 2006, with short overdubs of violin and sax in october-november 2006. “Accordo dei Contrari”’s influences range from rock progressive music and rock-jazz of seventies, to contemporary jazz and classic music of 20th century (Strawinsky, Messiaen). Influences : Area, Mahavishnu Orchestra, King Crimson, Cherry Five, Deus ex Machina, Premiata Forneria Marconi, Frank Zappa, Soft Machine and many others."

Of all those, I’d say the jazz-rock influences are the most prominent and obvious, but those other names do come to mind and their overall sound is quite varied and rich. I heard references to some Italian and other prog bands of the past (pay attention to the keyboards, violin and the occasional guitar riffs in the various tracks).

What a great and intense ride AdC deliver in this album. They are as entertaining and melodic as they are energetic and upbeat. AdC’s sound comes from various styles as jazz-rock but bringing in a variety of other sounds to spice up the affairs with great keyboard playing (reminiscing some past prog days and bands) and a fierce guitar emphasizing the rock edge among others.

The listening experience with this album is great as it conjures up memories of other bands and yet doesn’t feel like they are a retro-prog sort of band, but one that relies on certain roots and uses them to make their own fresh sound.

With this album, I kept discovering new intricacies and small features in the music with each further listen. I could suddenly notice a particular movement I didn’t realize was there before. A link to one of their influences suddenly became clear (for instance, King Crimson which at first wasn’t clear to me where they draw from them, all of a sudden became clear). This can be said about many prog albums, and for this one it is veyr much the case in particular since as I listened more and more, the melodies sank in, leaving an imprint on my listening area in my brain, making me want to listen to it again, which is exactly what I expect from an album.

For a great thrill of an album; an album that mixes fusion with prog-rock characteristics of the past and present; for good musicianship; for a rich and enveloping sound; for a well-balanced mix of melody and technicality – this album will satisfy your needs and more. This album is a highlight in this year’s releases and another excellent release from Altr0ck.

http://www.myspace.com/accordodeicontrari