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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

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Parallel Worlds

Review by Gary Hill

This album is quite strong. It’s an instrumental set that lands somewhere in the vicinity shared by fusion and 1970s progressive rock. It’s a classy album that works very well. I should say that a lot of this sounds like Yes, but the band literally thank that band for the inspiration on the liner notes.

This review is available in book (paperback and hardcover) in Music Street Journal: 2019  Volume 5. More information and purchase links can be found at: garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2019.
Track by Track Review
Parallel Worlds
The killer jam that opens this really calls to mind Yes in a lot of ways. This is classic prog rock of the old-school variety with some hints of fusion built into it. This instrumental has some killer shifts and changes. A keyboard-dominated movement later calls to mind Keith Emerson. When the guitar screams out from there, it has a bit of a Flash like texture. After a short drum break, they bring things back out into Yesish territory, but they keep shifting and changing things as it goes along. This is really a killer opening jam.
Fourth Passage
This powerhouse number has plenty of that classic progressive rock sound built into it. There is some particularly hot guitar soloing, bringing it more into fusion zones. This doesn’t necessarily sound like any other act, but it does have a lot of that classic 70s progressive rock sound to it. This thing has a bit more of a rocking groove built into it, too.
Solara (Intro to New Galaxy)
Intricate and pretty piano work is on the menu for this piece. In fact, this is strictly a keyboard solo.
New Galaxy
This powers out of the previous number with hard-edged prog that holds it for the opening flourish. It drops down after a time and works out from there into a melodic prog meets fusion jam. This works through some cool twists, running through some smoking hot instrumental zones. The cut is quite a powerful and effective one. It has some great melodic electric guitar soloing, too.
Night Changes
Mellower modes begin this thing. The cut shifts to fusion jamming from there. It works to some faster paced jamming that has more pure progressive rock at its heart. It continues to evolve from there in a fast paced way. It has some quirky shifts, though, coming rather abruptly at times. It gets into some seriously King Crimson-like zones in some of the later moments of the piece.
A Walk in the Park
A change of pace, this is an acoustic guitar solo. The cut has a real jazzy motif to it. It’s a powerhouse number that really works through some great modes and moods along the journey.
Five Pieces of Six
While there are a lot of other things at play, too, this has plenty of Yes built into it. A lot of the guitar fills really make me think of Steve Howe. This is a powerhouse prog instrumental with great changes and plenty of impressive musicianship. There are some really potent sections to this.
She Flies
The sounds of birds (or so it seems) open this. The cut moves out from there to a cool fusion styled jam that has a great guitar rocking edge. This works through for a couple minutes, and then shifts into something different from there. It has more of a mainstream melodic prog texture to it. This instrumental is another strong one.
Augmented Reality
Fusion and prog are merged in the almost tentative opening movement. There are some fast-paced and tastefully quirky lines of melody built into it. Around the one-minute mark this thing explodes into harder rocking prog jamming that’s so tasty. This has some cool twists, really landing as one of the most dynamic pieces of the whole disc. It makes for a great closer, too, as it has some particularly powerful moments. A section near the end where the cut sort of gets reborn makes me think of Al Di Meola.
 
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