PERFECT BEINGS

Perfect Beings is a new band formed by Ryan Hurtgen (vocals), Dicki Fliszar (drums), Chris Tristram (bass) and Johannes Luley (guitars) that already has the very interesting album Tales From Sheepfather's Grove (2013) under his name. Thir first album Perfect Beings (2014) was released in February and caused a bit of a hype amongst the Prog community.

The album opens with the track 'Canyon Hill', a pretty piece, but completewly Pop. The second track 'Helicopter' comes in the same page and soon gets clear what is the kind of music Perfect Beings is trying to do in the third track 'Bees And Wasps' (that is a very good track indeed). The band is going in the way I like to call Post Prog.

But despite being brilliantly produced by the band itself and with excellent musicians (especially the bass player Chris Tristram), Perfect Beings (2014) falls in a path that do not please me a single bit. Echoes of Porcupine Tree, Anathema and Blackfield are easily identifiable in this North American act, making the musical crossover they play hang to the Pop side, a fashion that haunts the latest years in the Progressive Rock scene.

What I just explained in the last paragraph doesn't change absolutely nothing in 'Walkabout' and 'Removal Of The Identity Chip' (the latter with its Indie influences and vocals completely Pop). 'Program Kid' is somewhat evocative, but the tone of the voice extremely Pop (almost equal do Coldplay's Chris Martin) from Ryan Hurtgen never lets us forget that the intent here is to mix Pop music with pinches of Prog, fact exemplified in the instrumental part in the middle of 'Program Kid', completely out of place here.

The album continues with the acoustic and Ambient 'Remnants Of Shields' and its silly lyrics and it follows with 'Fictions', an almost Space Rocki track, in fact I would resume this track as if Coldplay tried to play something more 'profound'. 'Primary Colors' is a good track on the record, a bit Neo Prog with a constant rhythm of the hi-hat. To close the album the band chose the dreamer 'One Of Your Kind', but as other tracks in the album after a great intro the Indie Pop assumes it with total force and for me... it's really the end.

Perfect Beings (2014) is an album with an astonishing graphic material (Digipack and booklet), very well produced and, as I said before, with excellent musicianship, but this is not Progressive Rock. This album fit in a category I like to call Post Prog where bands that wanted to play Prog Rock actually play Pop to try to make some audience and with that, money. For me this is a kind of music that kills a bit of Prog. Take a close look to the bands that play this kind of music and you'll see the high amount of bands trying to pull this out.

Don't get me wrong, I'm not a proghead that thinks that true Prog is the one done in the 70's, I love Pop music and bands like The Cardigans and even Hason are among my all time favorites but this is something that is just not for me. One thing, though, is certain, fans of the style should listen to Perfect Beings (2014) for sure.

(Originally posted on progshine.net)