Quintessence s/t
I know Tom can relate to this one, you ever have trouble getting rid of an album because the cover is so cool, yet the music leaves you apathetic? When I bought Quintessence’s Dive Down with the gorgeous mandala cover, I was pretty psyched, thinking that this early 70s English ensemble with a predeliction for Indian music and spirituality would be a sure fit, but it ended up turning out more like Alice Coltrane’s Radha.. album (her weakest) than Shakti, as if someone had donated musical instruments rather than money to the Hare Krishna cause. Still I didn’t want to let that stop me when there were still a few Quintessence titles left to check out as maybe I just got the wrong one. Anyway this s/t release is actually their second or third and it is a little better, although, like a lot of contemporary Christian music, their approach to spiritual lyrics is to beat you over the head with it until all you have left is a corner new age store. Unsurprisingly, this has tinges of all sorts of early British progressive rock, that subtle sense of esoterica that bands like East of Eden and Comus had, but I suspect this is more a sign of the times than any sort of subtle creativity at work. Anyway I’m hoping it’s a grower, I doubt I’ll be rid of the idea of this group until I hear all of them eventually.
Speechless - Time Out of Mind
Full disclosure time - I know guitarist Sean Tonar well enough that I’m probably more inclined to like this than I might have had I not. Speechless are a Georgia-based instrumental quartet who are releasing a debut album that really doesn’t sound all that much like a debut given the pedigree of the musicianship here, which is pretty top notch for a new group. Chops abound, particularly from guitar and keys, in fact the only issue here is with the bass player’s tone which doesn’t cut through enough, a little less slap bass and a bit more lower end would have really improved the cohesion. Stylistically there are some obvious influences, although it must be credited that all but the Rush influences are subsumed into their own vision. The entirely comes off somewhat similar to Djam Karet, something that might be even more true if they stretch out these pieces live. There’s also a little Dixie Dregs and a little Genesis at work, but neither are particularly obvious and work mostly at the compositional level. In fact if I was to compensate and be a little more critical I’d say that the compositions need the most work, but then again that sort of thing usually improves as a band does. There’s a few sequences through the album that have some rather typical chord progressions, but as something of a progressive rock group usually we’re on to another motif before the problem becomes too heinous. The strengths, however, are definitely in the musicianship, there were at least one or two keyboard solos that knocked my socks off and Tonar has always had an excellent sense of melody in his playing that dates back to Mindworm, I suspect he’d lift any group he’d be a part of. With progressive rock’s often reliance on guitarists like Fripp or Hackett, it’s nice to hear playing a little more like Gilmour or Morse. Anyway this is a very assured debut, although I’d think that eventually taking the sound to a more professional studio would elevate their game quite a bit, particularly as the work improves.