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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Latent Anxiety Perception Review by Gary Hill Yeah, I know the prog purists will certainly say this doesn’t belong under prog rock. For my money it’s close enough to Hawkwind and shares enough ground with Kraftwerk and the krautrock outfits to include it there. It’s a good disc and has a few incredible songs. I think I would have cut three or four of the lesser numbers from this just because there’s enough music without them. Mind you, they aren’t really weak, but they aren’t all that strong. Why keep them on there when it isn’t a short disc even if you pull them? This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2009 Volume 2 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Can You Feel Combining house music with Kraftwerk styled Krautrock, the vocals on this are powerfully prog rock.

Cold As Ice This definitely rocks out harder than the previous cut. There is more of a techno nature to this, but frankly there’s also a lot of prog rock in this mix in terms of the changes and some of the keyboard parts.

Come With Me Here’s another hard rocker. It’s got an almost Hawkwind feeling to some of the guitar and really there isn’t a lot of the techno kind of nature of the earlier tracks. In fact, it wouldn’t be a huge stretch of the imagination to hear 1980’s Hawkwind doing something similar to this.

Fading Away This seems to me like Spinal Tap meets Hawkwind – and that’s high praise indeed.

Go The mode is quite similar to what it’s been on the last couple songs. This is another strong one.

Home More keyboard oriented and moody this has more of that techno element and also calls to mind Kraftwerk a bit. It’s a cool song that’s a bit spacey and has a percussion break down. There are some awesome keyboard elements on this and the space nature of the track really makes it killer. It might be my favorite cut here (and possibly on any of the group’s discs). What I can make out of the lyrics this kind of reminds me of David Bowie’s “Space Oddity.”

Hot Blood Imagine mixing Porcupine Tree with Kraftwerk and Duran Duran. You’d probably have something very close to this. There’s an awesome rather funky jam that calls to mind Pink Floyd in the middle of this and then a smoking Eastern tinged guitar solo.

Island Dreams More of a straight-ahead rocker, this still gets some unusual bits here and there. This one’s OK, but just sort of average.

Loose You Now, this is a weird one. It’s got an operatic, old school dramatic, theatric vocal bit that feels tongue in cheek. The music that accompanies it is rock oriented. This is just a bit too odd for me.

Men of Steel With a bit of an echoey texture this is more Spinal Tap meets Hawkwind – with the emphasis falling at various sides of the equation depending on the portion of the track.

Movies Tell A more straightforward rocker, this is good, but not a standout.

Off the Line The average stuff continues with this hard rocker that’s pretty unspectacular.

Sorry This is a step back up just out the quirky hard-edged progression. The mellower section that comes in later and takes us in an expansive jam is also killer.

Trieb auf Trab Is it even possible to hear German lyrics and not think of Rammstein? I don’t think so. This is certainly more atmospheric than the crunchy sounds of Rammstein, but the vocals make me think of that band. That said there are Hawkwind-like elements when it gets more hard rocking. Also in the interest of full disclosure I have to admit that I’m not positive it’s German – but it sure sounds like it to me.

Turn Back Time Here we get a cover of the Cher song. OK, just kidding. This is another that’s quite Hawkwind-like in a lot of ways.

You Cannot Change It Here’s one of those songs I would have left off. It’s OK, but definitely not a highlight. I certainly would have closed the disc with this.

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