LIQUID

I am a sucker for a good album cover. There was something very "classic science fiction" about the look, so I decided to listen to the sample track. I was very pleasantly surprised. In less than an hour I bought the whole album off iTunes. I've given it three or four complete run throughs since then (like 12am last night). This is a great album.

Not world shattering or incalculably mind blowing. The ideas here aren't the freshest, but they are well presented and engrossing. Liquid is an entirely instrumental album and judging by the song titles it is a concept album inspired by water. Instrumentals and Psychedelic tends to be the mood I'm in lately. I've picked up Vangelis' Heaven and Hell and Tangerine Dream's Rubycon and been revisiting my Ozric Tentacles. The thing I really like about Liquid, especially when put against Heaven and Hell and the Ozrics, is that it is very consistent all the way through. They even come full circle, the sounds that lead off the album show up again at the end. Not only consistent mind you, but consistently good.

On Tsunami (Water) I can really get the post rock influence on the bad. Walls of sound abound. This song has an interesting concept and when you listen to it, you'll know it's aptly named. Up next is Crystalline (Ice). Tsunami just slides right into it without so much as a hiccup. From there Crystalline is pounding heavily distorted drone, I guess that would likely qualify it as stoner rock. Now comes Evaporation (Steam). My personal favourite off the album and the reason I ran out and bought it ASAP. Sonically, Evaporation falls in with the loud drone of Crystalline, but tends to rock a little harder. It has an excellent riff. Finally we arrive at the Voyage Atomique (Plasma). In general it is less intense than the last two. It does do a lot of exploring over its 13 and a half minute course though. It actually reminds me somewhat of the rolling bass beat that drives up the middle of Rubycon. It stays mostly low key. Then again this album doesn't really reach for the stars with crawling solos. Good whole band effort.

Nothing about this album leaps off the page as an unstoppable masterpiece, but you know what? You can do a lot worse than picking up Liquid. I would qualify it most certainly as an excellent addition to any prog rock music collection. If you are interest go to the 35007 page and give Evaporation a listen and it will give you a real good idea of what this album is all about.

Liquid bats four for five.