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Alan J. Bound

Deep Space: The Alan J. Bound Retrospective 2005 to 2014

Review by Gary Hill

This CD features guitar heavy instrumental music. It’s often near to space rock, but perhaps closer to either jam band sounds or guitar hero type stuff. Still, it’s close enough to land it under “progressive rock” here. There is some solid stuff here. Still, it has a tendency towards both noodly territory and being monolithic in sound. All that said, it is overall quite effective. Plus, I love how the CD itself looks like a vinyl record.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2015  Volume 6 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review
N365

This comes in heavy, like we’re about to move out into some serious metal music. Then it shifts through a transitional movement. From there we are taken into some cool space meets fusion jamming.

Solaris 2014 remix

Another space jam, this is more on the melodic, less hard rocking side. It seems rather devoid of the fusion we heard in the previous piece. Instead, this is more pure space.

Elephant
Now, this is different. It’s part Kraftwerk, part fusion and part space rock. It’s one of my favorite pieces here. It has a lot of great instrumental work and a lot energy built into its spacey tapestry.
Delightful Changes 2014 remix
Somehow this seems to have a bit of Americana in the space rock mix. Retro fusion is heard here, too. This is another classy piece of music, but not a huge change. Still, it does have some more pure prog built into it, too.
Dune
Starting with fairly mellow space, this powers out into a crunchy jam from there. It’s a good background for the guitar soloing that ensues.
Ikarus
This space rocker definitely leans toward heavy metal in some ways. It’s one of the more effective pieces here, though.
Eta Carina Part II 2014 remix
Some trippy sounds start this. It works out from there to some space rock that’s not far removed from much of the music here. Eventually, though, it shifts to a more standard progressive rock type arrangement.
Moonglider 2014 remix
A mellower cut, with a lot of keyboards in the mix, this has almost a Booker T. and the MGs vibe at times. It’s also got a good helping of Pink Floyd like sound.
Float 2014 remastered
Here’s a nine and a half minute (almost) song that’s got some crunchy space rock jamming. It’s not a huge change, but still pretty successful.
 
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