THE MAN LEFT IN SPACE

'The Man Left In Space' is the fourth album from Comsograf, which is actually a solo project by multi- instrumentalist Robin Armstrong who provides guitars, keyboards bass and vocals and utilises additional guests to fill in the sound. So for this album, the guests are Nick D'Virgilio (Spock's Beard/Big Big Train), Dave Meros (Spock's Beard), Matt Stevens, Greg Spawton (Big Big Train), Simon Rogers, Steve Dunn (Also Eden), Lee Abraham (The Lee Abraham Band), Luke Machin ( Ex- The Tangent) and Dave Ware. It is a concept album that explores the themes of aspirations, achievement and travails that the quest for success sometimes brings by depicting these within the constructs of a failed space mission.

It is an ambitious project in many ways, and one that took me a long time to warm to. There are times when the music is just too polished, too sanitised, that I found myself drifting away and it took some effort to keep coming back. But the more I played it, the more I discovered the underlying layers and the complexity that is intriguing and not nearly as clinical as I first imagined. At times it is very Floydian, at others Muse and at yet others RPWL, yet there is a deftness in some of the lead guitar and keyboard lines that definitely lift this out of the ordinary. If I had written about this having only played it once or twice it would have received just 2/5, but although I do have some issues with having a song called "Beautiful Treadmill" this album has moved up to be 4/5. There is a clarity and crispness in the production that belies the fact that it was recorded at a home studio, with the guitar and bass on "The Vacuum That I Fly" being a case in point.

If you enjoy strong neo-prog with powerful guitar lines then this is definitely worth further investigation at www.cosmograf.com.