The latest disc from Riverside, this is a set of three tracks, the shortest of which is just under ten-minutes in length. The music here changes frequently but runs in the alternative rock meets Pink Floyd vein of progressive rock more often than any other place. It’s a strong disc, but a bit flat in terms of feeling, at times, like one long song. There’s not enough variety. That said, there are moments where they change it up quite a bit, but this mellower side of neo-prog tends to lack the overall contrast that keeps music varied and interesting. Still, it’s one of the better albums in the genre, and I like it a lot.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2011  Volume 4 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Mellow motifs open this and then a machine like pounding rises up, feeling a little like Pink Floyd’s “Welcome to the Machine.” It starts to get heavy, mostly with waves of noisy guitar over the top, but still remains largely understated. A little before the two minute mark a keyboard sound, again Floydian, rises up. Rather than take over, though, it gives way to some backwards tracked textures. Bass guitar comes up and that’s the main backing as the vocals join. There are layers of sound over the top and this seems to threaten to break into some real alternative rock sounds from there. It works out to alternative textured prog that’s quite cool. We’re taken through a series of changing textures as this piece grows and morphs. Quite a bit of that change is gradual and organic, but then we get a noisy jam that’s rather dissonant around the six and a half mark. From there it grows out into alternative rock meets prog and world music and jazz. A cool keyboard sound fires up over the top as this jam continues in complex power and magic. Eventually it works to a modified version of the previous sounds as it resolves into the next segment. Then around the ten minute mark it drops down to atmosphere to continue. That mode takes it into the next number.