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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Blast Unicorn Van Halo Review by Gary Hill This is quite experimental. Not everything works completely for my ears. The thing is, if you like touch guitar, you’ll find plenty to like here. It wanders toward strangeness quite a bit. It also gets in the neighborhood of things like metal, King Crimson, Rush, Kraftwerk and Frank Zappa. It’s quite a ride overall. This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2015 Volume 3 at lulu.com/strangesound.

Track by Track Review

Van Halo Heavy and crazed, this makes me think of Rush a bit, plus some metal and King Crimson. It’s an intense cut that makes a great opener.

Just Chillin' More percussive and electronic, this is fast paced. It’s also suitably weird and yet tasty.

Abteil With more of a noisy element to it, this is also crazed.

Gedankenstrich This is just a short little bit of soundscape.

Blast Unicorn: Final Exam Mellower and more electronic, this is twisted yet also pretty. It gets crunchier and heavier as it continues, moving towards modern Crimson territory. This is one of the weirdest things here. Given the competition, that says a lot.

Waterclimber Here we get another short bit of strangeness.

Ghostmodern Somehow this feels more melodic. It’s still got plenty of fast paced sound and oddities, though. It does get pretty hard edged after a while.

König Kaiser Kingdom Castle Somehow, this makes me think of Frank Zappa in a lot of ways. It’s electronic and almost like Kraftwerk meets Zappa to me.

Music Face This one is definitely a short bit of noise.

Ausgeburt of Love Very hard edged, this is also quite crazed.

Nonnenfinsternis This is very much like modern King Crimson. It’s fast paced, hard rocking and very bizarre, but somehow compelling.

Hack in the City Here we have another short bit of noisy musical connecting tissue.

Bobtail Builder Bombastic and percussive, there is a pounding to this. Yet there is also melody present. It gets pretty intense at times and is quite dynamic, really.

Überhaupt There is a lot of modern King Crimson in the mix here, too.

Hitfall More melodic and spacey, this is cool.

Schattenspender This is far more percussive in nature. The melodic elements take the front later in the piece.

King Crumble Much more of a stripped down piece of weirdness, this is cool, too.

Godshaped Ice Cream This is the most mainstream thing here. There is almost a playful element to it. It’s bouncy and a little bit on the fun side. It’s my favorite piece of the disc.

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