A TIME OF DAY

I couldn't help noticing the scarcity of reviews for such a major prog act's long awaited new recording, A Time of Day being released almost two months ago. Intrigued, I enlisted a certified Prog Doctor to supply his august diagnosis on such a puzzling patient! Putting down his stereo stethoscope and after numerous trebly symptom tests, he prescribed the following three possible scenarios: 1- Anekdoten fans are quiet due to a severe allergy towards the mellower strain initiated by the From Within and Gravity viruses and "dying" for a return to the metallic infections from the Nucleus (hint! hint!) era. 2- Anekdoten fans are stunned into a state of acute torpor because of their incapacity to properly put to ink the swell of emotions emanating from this latest sample and are still in the recovery room. 3- Or waiting for their birthday in order to religiously rip open the plastic and dive into the lush euphoria.(Hello Sinkadotentree!)

Well, I decided to look into this myself with a bit more maturity than before , having respected this Swedish band enough to purchase all their main albums but never really getting into their craft with any gusto and never really understanding why ( the Quark, Strangeness and Charm syndrome )Wake up call! I am floored by my own stupidity. I wanted to wait a bit before getting Time of Day but I was compelled to accept the advice of my prog store owner who branded this CD as prog from the gut (les tripes, en francais), a monument of stark, heartfelt and passionate music. He sold me and sold me the record too. From the opening strands of lead track "The Great Unknown", the anticipation is rewarded with a massive wave of all those elements that make Anekdoten special: a rumbling Rickenbacker bass, tight fisted drumming, swirling trons galore, gritty guitar ramblings and that flute-propelled Scandinavian mist that can only come from our northern friends .With evocative lyrics such as: "All the forces of the cosmos lead me on as we shoot through the galaxy, I'm coming home!", you get the message! "30 Pieces" is more angular, requiring a few obedient auditions before coming to appreciate this rather mordant piece, where guitar, bass and drums waltz in unison , egged on by a meandering flute lead. By the third track, the stunning "King Oblivion", the band "Emerils" it by kicking it up a notch, (yeah! Cliché, I know!), keeping the blistering pace all the way to the moody finale, as the fabled mellotron really gets all warmed up, purring like a savage cat, scouring through the thunder with tectonic abandon, proving conclusively that this much maligned instrument deserves its mythical place in prog history but also demonstrating its potential to enthuse for many more decades to come. "A Sky about to Rain" is another fragrant slice of irate melancholia, with gale-force mellotron sweeps, "burning a hole into my soul" where simple rhythm guitar meshes with ornate Moog leads, emitting a quasi Space-Rock feel that is very tantalizing segueing effortlessly into "Every Step I Take", an short instrumental outro that has nothing to do with The Police. "Stardust & Sand" features some more Floydian synths, somewhat reminiscent of "Welcome to the Machine" and an overall ambient feel, drowsy percussion, male and female vocals and acoustic guitar. The calm before the storm: "In For a Ride" is aptly titled, a gloomy, somewhat opiate delivery propelled by some blistering bass married to a relentless beat with a neat Niklas Barker (Ex-Berg) guitar solo, a great voyage indeed. The disc ends its run with a delightful closer "Prince of the Ocean", a perfect companion to "Stardust & Sand", with a scintillating cello\tron that gently lullabies you into pressing restart , back to the top, again and again. I am somewhat in need of returning to the back catalogue and have a smorgasbord orgy of Anekdoten, this time paying a little more attention. So, is it masterpiece or the wall paper behind it? The doctor waits... 5 cellos