P63: GIANTS UNDER THE SUN

I'm not sure if it's worth the trouble to have dozens and dozens of music magazines' supplementary compilation discs in the ProgArchives database. The page of Label Samplers is terribly crowded with such CD's of very minimal chance to reach new listeners on the long run, not to speak of getting ever reviewed here. But on the other hand, each sampler review increases the chance to find more informative search results for relatively unknown new artists that may not (yet) be on our database. So this is hardly my last time to review one.

"Giants Under the Sun" is from the issue # 86 of the PROG Magazine, 78½ minutes of new and upcoming artists, with one exception, as the editor Jerry Ewing says: "We open with a track from the late PETER BANKS, the original Yes guitarist. 'Endless Journey' comes from a new anthology of his work, and is a previously unheard mix of the track from his 1995 album Self- Contained. Given that we're celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Yes this issue, we thought it'd be a timely reminder of Banks' talent..." This track is perhaps not what a casual prog listener would expect from Banks and his ex-bands: a peaceful ambient instrumental.

The rest of the artists are mostly cases of "never heard" for me. FLUTATIONS sounds promising with their (almost-)instrumental piece featuring also violin. A bit like Mostly Autumn. JOHN HOLDEN is represented by a 9-minute track 'Tears from the Sun' that concentrates on delicate and melodic approach with a Floydian spaceyness and guitar sound. THE PIPE BROTHERS PROJECT have a regular-length instrumental 'XLV' with a light, melodic Symphonic /Neo Prog flavour. ENTRANSIENT has the second longest track here (11:15), but I find very little interesting in it, it's all-too-typical slice of contemporary, lower league prog rock with a slightly Metallic edge.

SONAR WITH DAVID TORN: a slowly evolving instrumental concentrating on a hypnotically repetitive sonic tapestry. RTFACT / WILL CHAMPLIN & NAD SYLVAN, such a messy moniker. Sylvan I naturally know from Hackett's Genesis Revisited, but this vocal oriented and poppy collaborative track doesn't sound much prog to me. ODDFICHE's 'My Train of Thought Derailed' (13:02) is another slow-evolving instrumental with a hint of sonic experimentalism. Yawn... MISGIVINGS FALL comes with a lengthy track that progresses between instrumental and vocal sections but sounds slightly lame. The worst (in my opinion) comes in the end: THE PHANTOM OF PHOBOS is a female-fronted Metal band.

This sampler is rather uneven, and funnily it contains pairs or threes that sound quite alike. But not a bad way of getting the first taste of several new bands.