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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Sailor Free

A Spiritual Revolution

Review by Gary Hill

The mix of progressive rock sounds here is quite diverse. At times I hear Pink Floyd, at other points King Crimson. Still other sections are quite spacey. All in all, it works to create an effective album.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2012  Volume 5 at lulu.com/strangesound.
Track by Track Review
Spiritual Ouverture
Spacey atmospheric prog opens this and moves it forward. Eventually it powers out to a more rocking jam with some fusion in the mix. There’s a mellower, jazz meets space and world music section later in the track that works quite well.
A New World
After a short flourish of keyboards, this powers out into the hardest rocking music we’ve heard so far. It has vocals and seems to run somewhere between progressive rock and alternative rock.
The Run
A spoken bit starts this, then it works out into something like King Crimson meets fusion. It drops back for the dramatic and almost theatrical vocals. There really is a definite King Crimson-like feeling to a lot of this. They take it to some great, slow moving melodic progressive rock that’s quite modern in tone as it continues.
The Curse
Coming in mellow and melancholy, this moves slowly and has some deep vocals in keeping with the tone. This builds quite slowly and really has a lot of 1980s sound in the mix. Eventually it moves out to harder rocking territory as it continues. It turns out to a harder rocking jam that’s got some Pink Floyd in the mix before dropping way down for a mellow segment with female vocals. Then it shifts back to the earlier section to continue.
Daeron
Pretty, mellow, keyboard dominated progressive rock starts this off and the vocals come in with that motif. After a while this turns heavier, but the same general musical tones and concepts remain. It’s a powerful piece of modern progressive rock. It’s evocative and very effective. The guitar does become more prominent later when this starts to really rock out.
Spiritual Revolution
Hard rocking progressive rock with a lot of retro stylings is heard here. It works through a number of changes and almost gets into some world music sounds, and there’s a Santana like jam later in the number. They also give us a cool retro keyboard dominated section. A little bit of old time music ends it.
War
There’s sort of a garage band jam at the beginning of this, interrupted at points by a narrator. Then it works out to a cool rhythmically based jam that rocks out nicely along with progressive rock sounds. It works through a number of changes and alterations.
The Entropia
This powers out after a cool introduction into something a bit like Vanilla Fudge or Deep Purple with more of a pure prog slant to it. It goes through a number of changes, dropping down to keyboard based space to end.
Faithless
Seeming ready to fire out into hard rocking music early, instead this piece turns towards more proggy space sounds to continue. Then, a little before the one minute mark, it powers out into hard edged jamming and the vocals come in over the top of that arrangement. In a lot of ways, parts of this remind me of Captain Beyond. There is some seriously harder rocking jamming later, kind of like a proggy version of The Cult. It works through some killer melody as that section continues onward.
Beyond the Borders
Noisy guitar with Eastern tones opens this. Then, after that mode holding it for a while, it powers out to something a bit like surf music meets progressive rock. The vocals see a return of the 80s element as the music turns to more melodic (but modern) progressive rock. It’s quite an intriguing number working through several different sections. Comparisons to Tool might be appropriate at times, but at other points Hawkwind might work and still other fit neither of those acts. The chorus is among the most accessible of the set.
Break the Cycle
Sound effects start this before percussion with keyboard elements washing over becomes the mode of the cut. It’s a space rock jam as it develops, and it’s quite cool.
My Brain
There’s a lot of psychedelic music in this cut along with more of that 1980s vibe. It turns towards jam music at times and overall this rocker is perhaps more alternative rocker meets psychedelia and less prog, but it still fits in a modern progressive rock way. It drops later to a mellower section that’s atmospheric, quirky and very cool in a modern progressive rock way. It resolves out to some triumphant sounding melodic progressive rock to eventually end.
A Great Hope
A spoken bit opens this and then the jamming ensues running through space rock and fusion territory in a killer progression of sound. This is arguably one of the tastiest rockers of the set. It’s a melodic instrumental that really does a great job of closing the set in style.
 
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