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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Fischer’s Flicker

Open 28 Hours

Review by Gary Hill

These guys are considered a progressive rock band, and I've reviewed a couple other albums that fit pretty tightly under that heading. This one isn't as tight a fit, but it still fits as prog. This is a cool album with a lot of variety. It makes for an interesting ride, no matter where you land it stylistically.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2018  Volume 1 at  garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2018.

Track by Track Review
The In-Betweener
This comes in with an almost funk rock vibe to it. I dig the multi-layered vocal arrangement. There are healthy helpings of fusion here along with the funk and some more definite prog elements. I dig the sound of the guitar solo on this track.
You & Everybody
There is alternative rock and more in the mix here. This is a cool rocker that works quite well. It's perhaps not all that proggy, though.
No More Looking Back
The guitar that comes over the top of the introduction here brings the proggy elements. There is almost a blues rock vibe to the beginning of this in some ways. It works out to the first real progressive rock of the set, though.
3 6 9

The hard rocking sound on this makes me think of The Giraffes quite a bit, but with more prog in the mix. There is some screaming hot guitar work later in the track.

Spiders
This is a full on progressive rock cut. There are bits of funk in the mix, though. This is a fast paced and catchy number that works really well. The cut has a lot of different textures and styles in the mix.
Sensi-Mental

We're back into more of a bluesy rock zone here. This is a great tune, but not all that progressive rock like.

Smoke Signals

With a lot of middle eastern elements in the mix, this is a hard rocker that's definitely in the progressive rock zone. It's a strong number that works really well. In fact, this is one of the highlights of the set.

Farther to the Sun

Electronic percussive elements are a big part of this thing. With a weirdly processed spoken vocal and guitar that just keeps soaring around, this is odd, but quite cool. It's definitely prog rock, but also a bit noisy.

Mother of a Ship

This piece is an epic at over nine-and-a-half minutes of music. It comes in with a cool jam that makes me think of Parliament in a lot of ways.  This opening movement feels like a continuation of the previous cut to some degree. They turn it in other directions as they work through. There are some parts that are a bit more traditional prog. That said, they still have some of those Parliament elements in some of the backing vocal things. An extended instrumental section is cool stuff. There is a little "alien" sung section that feels a bit like someone doing helium before singing, but I'm thinking it's some form of processing. It really brings a Zappa sort of influence to this piece. I suppose it was always there, but that shines the light on it a bit more.

Zen
Trippy, rather psychedelic sounds make up the concepts to this mellower piece. There is a definite space rock element here.
 
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