ORBITAL

Sometimes I´m lured into finding out about a band because of its name, or a nice cover. In this case, it was the name. Pig Farm On The Moon! What a name! It must be a very good band or a very bad one.I must confess I was not aware of Venezuela´s prog scene, so I had to get this CD. And it was a real nice surprise. First class keyboard driven symphonic rock with lots of 70´s influences. Orbital reminds of several Brazilian bands in terms of style and originality is not their forte, but I can live with that, as long as the music is good. And good it is!

Lush vintage sounding keyboards are all over the place, along with some good guitar lines. Although they have two guitarists, this is surely a keyboard dominated group, which is not bad, if you´re fan of symphonic rock, right? I found this CD to be extremely pleasant to the ears, with several terrific passages along with a few less interesting ones, but none are bad. The tracks are long, with many tempo and mood changes as one should expect. This group balances very well both british and american influences, the later are specially clear on the vocal parts. Nods to Rush, Yes, ELP and Genesis are evident, with a few fusion bits thrown in here and there. Singer Lidian is good, but not exceptional. The musicians are superb and the production is also first rate.

As for their debut album, this is really a very promising band. I´m really sorry nothing else came from them since Orbital. While not a masterpiece, this CD proves to be an excellent addition to any prog rock music collection. I think I´m gonna take a closer look now at the musical rock scene from Venezuela from now on.

If you like old fashioned symphonic prog, this is a nice pick. Four stars.