File One of These Days into the camp that believes music had no reason to go past 1975. You won't get much of an argument from me on that front. The all-analog instrumentation, composition style, and vinyl-only release - in a gatefold cover with lyrics and recording details of course - all point to 1971. Nektar's Journey to the Centre of the Eye or Pink Floyd's 'Atom Heart Mother' suite will certainly set your expectations correctly. The latter right down to the use of a Euphonium. Other modern day (lol) instrument call-outs include Farfisa Compact Duo, Vox Continental, Hammond Porta B, Minimoog D, fuzz bass, theremin, hurdy-gurdy... oh you get the idea. There is only one track, broken into 4 movements, split evenly across both sides of the vinyl with sub titles such as 'Nexus 2CBeautiful Things (including "Gurls & Chloroform")'. Peter Sinfield will be happy to know his legacy is secured. All the right ingredients are in play, and this is clearly a band with their atom heart in the right place. So it's perfect then? Well, no, but it's a great debut. I think the band could work more on the compositions themselves, and perhaps not rely solely on the same music that was created with these instruments 40 years ago. The beauty of the original early 70s movement is that it was way too short of a time frame to fully explore all the possibilities. And while numerous bands of the last 25 years have tried, there are still millions of possibilities. Especially when you load your studio up with only pre-1976 gear. In fact the biggest surprise came from the sequencer use on the 'Nexus...' track mentioned above - that seemed plucked more from Tangerine Dream's Phaedra rather than Dark Side of the Moon. It provided an excellent contrast to the full band performance and psychedelic guitar soloing. I think it's something Edgar Froese would have enjoyed (back then anyway).
So, in the end, we have a very exciting development. Let's see if they do more with the concept!
12/19/13 (new entry)
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