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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Nosound

Afterthoughts

Review by Gary Hill

I really like everything here. The power and majesty of these songs is great. That said, in some ways it works better taken song by song than it does as a whole disc. Don’t get me wrong, if you put the disc in more as background music, it works better than as something to sit and intently listen to. That’s because there’s not a lot of variety in terms of tempo or intensity on the album. Still, there are some minor peaks and valleys and when it’s this strong, who cares. The second disc here is a DVD with different editions of the same album. That’s basically the icing on the cake as the album proper is the main meal – and it’s quite a good one, at that.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2013  Volume 6 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review
In My Fears

Tentative, atmospheric melody opens this. It builds gradually outward from there before expanding to some seriously lush and powerful music. As it continues on the arrangement gets an infusion of power and majesty. It drops back down further down the musical road, but then works back upward to continue. This is an extremely effective piece of music and a great opener.

I Miss the Ground
The arrangement that opens this is stripped back and rather quirky. The arrangement fills out from there and we get another powerhouse modern progressive rock number. I loved the first tune, but I think I like this one even more.
Two Monkeys
A mellower tune, the keyboard dominated section later is the real selling point here. That’s not to say that the rest of the piece is lacking. It’s just that it is a little understated other than that segment.
The Anger Song

With that title, I somewhat expected a harder rocking piece. Overall, this fits more into the same type of more or less atmospheric modern progressive rock that dominates the disc. It’s a good piece, but some more variety would have been welcome.

Encounter
Rather than rocking out more, this drops to even more sedate territory. With intricate melodies and some symphonic elements that really works well. This is one of the cooler pieces here and does manage to bring some variety to the table. I like this pretty piece of music a lot.
She

Arguably one of the most dynamic cuts here, there is really some passion and power to this awesome piece of music.

Wherever You Are

Coming in quite guitar oriented, but still quite mellow, this arrangement gets more layers of sound added as the piece continues. It’s lush and pretty. By this point, though, there is definitely a monolithic nature to the set. It kind of gets in the way of the full appreciation of each song.

Paralysed

Although in many ways this reinforces the monolithic nature of the set, it includes a scorching electric guitar dominated section that’s quite cool and a bit of variety. There is also a section later that really makes me think of the chaotic noisy kind of stuff early Pink Floyd would sometimes do (think of the screaming part of “Careful with That Axe, Eugene”).

Afterthought

Piano starts things here. That instrument remains the driving factor for a lot of the piece. Overall, it’s a mellow and atmospheric cut.

 
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