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Isaboe Love Sun Review by Gary Hill I was originally going to put this CD into the non-prog category. The more I listen, though, the more I’m convinced that it’s closely related to the neo-prog of bands like Porcupine Tree and RPWL. I could see it fitting into either category, though. It’s very catchy and yet the arrangements have a lot of substance to them. There’s not a weak song to be found and it never seems samey or boring. All in all, it’s a great release. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2011 Volume 1 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Brightest Love There’s a retro rock texture to this in some ways, but overall it’s a modern AOR kind of song. It’s a tasty and quite accessible piece of music. It drops to a cool retro tinged slower moving section later. It actually turns a bit proggy towards the end.

Calling To You A decided prog bent leads this off. It has a more modern progressive rock texture, but is quite tasty. This isn’t all that far removed from a lot of the neo-prog out there. Sure, the arrangement is fairly straightforward, but there are plenty of progressive rock layers to this. It fires out into a more energized section later that is very tasty. The instrumental segment that takes this out is purely prog rock and purely tasty.

Future World Keyboards serve as the icing on the arrangement of this number. The vocals are among the strongest of the disc and this is a very dramatic and powerful tune, but remains fairly slow moving and mellow. It gets more energetic as it continues, but never loses the charm. This is one of the highlights of the set.

Love Sun While this is far more pop-oriented than the last couple tracks, there are still elements of progressive rock here. It’s not that far removed from something like RPWL.

Golden Year The vocals are the star of this arrangement, but there are some cool musical moments, too. This is another that has plenty of progressive rock in play, but is overall a solid pop-rock song.

Revelation This begins a bit mellower, but turns into one of the most rocking numbers on show. In some ways parts of this make me think of Yes, but a lot of it feels like Porcupine Tree.

Stellar Child A more energized arrangement, this one is the most varied track on show here. It’s still got a soaring modern prog element to it. Some of the vocals seem a bit “off” on this piece, though.

Home A gentle tune, this is pretty and quite sedate. It’s less progressive rock oriented than some of the other stuff, but still isn’t that far removed from the music of RPWL and Porcupine Tree.

For All Our Days There’s an extended introduction to this one and the cut moves out into cool energetic jam from there.

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