DESERT DREAMS

The debut offering from Dutch symphonic prog band Fusonic is, in many ways, a bit of a mixed bag in my opinion. Although there are plenty of high points contained throughout Desert Dreams, a decent amount of these standout aspects are also accompanied by a few nagging flaws and shortcomings. Fusonic's greatest strength prehaps lies in their ability to deliver a 'retro' instrumental progressive rock style that manages to sound vastly different from most of the genre's current followers, but the delivery of this style is often less than ideal. While the heavily atmospheric and new age-influenced progressive rock compositions are a refreshing break from the endless technicality runs from many other modern progressive rock acts, I can't say that all of Fusonic's potential has been lived up to the fullest on this debut.

Musically, Desert Dreams sounds somewhere in-between Pink Floyd, Camel, Focus, and new age music - this is generally a very relaxed album, and most of Fusonic's compositions are focused around creating lush atmospheres with beautiful melodies. At over 74 minutes long, Desert Dreams' instrumental compositions do began to lose a bit of steam towards the middle of the album, but generally the songwriting here is pretty solid, if a bit on the uneventful side. These are pleasant and enjoyable songs for sure; still, I can't say that any of them are particularly memorable. Desert Dreams tends to lack any sort of musical 'climaxes', and while it can provide as pretty good background music, I'm afraid that it's not something that will stick with many listeners for an extended period of time.

The production is also less than stellar, and the drums especially sound pretty mediocre in certain spots. Whilst the production on Desert Dreams isn't a crippling flaw, it isn't likely to impress most sound purists. All in all, Desert Dreams is a pretty uneventful album, and while it does offer plenty of promise for the future of Fusonic, I can't recommend this to anybody who isn't a big fan of atmospheric instrumental prog. If Fusonic can hone in a bit on their compositions and hire a professional producer, they definitely have the ability to be quite a unique asset to the modern progressive rock scene.