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Shining Pyramid

Children of the Stones

Review by Gary Hill
This is an instrumental prog set. A lot of it is in the mellower zone, a bit like Tangerine Dream.  Yet, it manages to rock out at other times. There are all kinds of reference points here, from the aforementioned TD to Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, King Crimson, Yes and more. All in all, this is quite an interesting ride.

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
Hie Thee Sungates
Atmospheric textures bring this into being gradually rising upward. Bass guitar joins after a time and leads the piece into a mellow prog rock zone. The cut starts an evolution process from there. This doesn’t change quickly, but really does grow and move into other zones. It resembles something Tangerine Dream might do a lot of the time. It’s a classy instrumental with some particularly intriguing passages. This runs for close to ten minutes, but somehow it doesn’t feel that long.
Children of the Stones
A lush vibe is on display here. There are definite elements of space rock, but of the mellow variety. This is a classy cut with some great keyboard textures. It’s not far removed from the opener, but definitely has its own flavor. It’s more Pink Floyd and Hawkwind than it is Tangerine Dream. This song is less than half the length of the last one.
Horses
While not a huge change, this is more rocking than either of the first two songs. It’s another that lands over nine-minutes in length. There are some things here that make me think of Yes just a bit, but merge with Tangerine Dream and more. This turns seriously hard-edged about halfway through. It’s the hardest rocking passage so far and has some serious crunch built into it. This turns toward unsettling chaos near the end, but resolves back out into the previous rocking zone to finally finish.
Machinery of Myth
This is dense in terms of arrangement, but rather mellow. I’m reminded a bit of Synergy. It’s cool stuff, if a bit odd.
Sun Loose in the Sky
Now, this rocks out even more than “Horses” did. It makes me think of King Crimson to some degree. It’s a killer tune with a smoking hot riff at its heart. It still lands on the prog side of the equation, though. In some ways it seems like Red-era Crimson merged with Tangerine Dream and Led Zeppelin. At just over three minutes, this is the shortest piece here.
Raise the Stars
This grows very gradually in a mode that makes me think of the electronic side of Hawkwind. It works through a number of changes, but all of them come in slowly. There is a definite space rock edge to this thing. It gets fairly rocking further down the road, but then drops way down for a mellower motif that almost feels like a different number. It’s more purely electronic.
Meadows Starred with Flowers
This comes in quite mellow with a world music meets fusion type of approach. It grows gradually outward from there. After the minute mark it works out an insistent, rocking jam that really works so well. There are some killer melodic keyboard textures as this carries onward. It really has some soaring elements to it.
 
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