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Progressive Rock CD Reviews

Xavier Boscher

Embryogenesis

Review by Gary Hill

Xavier Boxcher can always be counted on for some killer progressive rock music. This is a fine example. All but the opening track here are instrumentals. The music is often fusion oriented, but it stretches into hard rock and even some symphonic sound at times. This is a powerful disc that is quite effective. It's a great addition to the Xavier Boscher catalog.

This review is available in book format (hardcover and paperback) in Music Street Journal: 2018  Volume 2 at  garyhillauthor.com/Music-Street-Journal-2018.

Track by Track Review
Cornucopia
With some hard-edged guitar rock meets fusion at its core, this works in with a killer prog rock sound. It drops back to mellower stuff as it moves along. The vocals come in as a bit more oomph is added to the mix. It rocks out more after the vocal section. Then it shifts to same fast paced keyboard weirdness for a time before shifting toward more hard-edged prog for a while. The cut continues with another dropped back vocal section before they again power it out for more hard rocking prog.
Illumination
Fusion and hard rocking sounds are the order of business here. This has a lot of energy and some killer melodic material. It's a powerhouse instrumental that has some intriguing shifts and changes.
Female Architecture
More melodic, this has a lot of fusion in it in the first movement. It drops back to a full-on jazz treatment later with some great bass work and piano. It explodes into some fiery hard rocking stuff mid-track, but drops way down again after that to continue. Then it rises back up into more rock based sounds to continue. This instrumental is steadily shifting and changing.
Timelessness Kingdom
Another melodic instrumental that merges fusion and hard-edged prog rock, this is a killer cut. There are definitely elements of things like Joe Satriani here, but with a more purely prog edge to it.
Hybrid
There is no big change here. Instead we get another killer melodic prog instrumental. While I love the keyboards on this, you can't ignore the guitar either. Everything works well together to create some compelling sounds.
Blastocyst
The guitar that opens this has an almost epic metal vibe to it. This is a driving and powerful cut that really rocks. There is some killer melodic guitar work as it grows. Then it drops way down for a mellow and rather strange bit of ambience. That section sounds like twisted soundtrack music. It begins to grow upward in a sort of jazz meets King Crimson jam on that twisted sound. Then it explodes back out into the hard rocking journey that we heard before to continue.
Cells (ft Jean-Jacques Moreac)
I love the bass work on this number. The cut is another with plenty of fusion in the mix. It starts mellower and builds very gradually for a time. Around the minute mark it explodes out into a powerhouse jam that combines that fusion element with symphonic progressive rock.
O Negative
This instrumental is more extensive. It's a killer cut with some great shifts and changes. It makes good use of the combination of hard-edged prog rock and fusion sounds.
Embryogenesis
The closing piece is an epic that weighs over 19 and a half minutes. It is another powerhouse jam with a number of shifts and changes. I love the drop back to keyboards. Then when it fires up into hard rocking guitar sounds from there it's a killer. It gets into some almost metal territory at times along this road. Around the fifteen minute mark it drops to some symphonic stuff before powering back out into some almost pure metal to take this instrumental to a percussion section. Then some purely classical music takes over. More rocking stuff joins again to take this number to its closing. 
 
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