Abiogenesi s/t
You’ll read fairly often in reviews about compositions being good or bad, often without an explanation or reason for the reckoning. Abiogenesi’s solo album is probably as good an example as any of a band whose compositions are relatively poor and at least in this case, I can probably explain why beyond just the gut feeling. The band creates music in a retro-70s style with a big Hammond organ sound and it’s obvious almost throughout the album that the music has been written as sequences of chords. Now there’s nothing wrong with writing sequences of chords, but to leave them as un(der)developed as they are here is one indication of compositions not being up to speed. Sure, sequences of chords hint at melodies, most often in the tonic, but without elaborating the melodies, creating counterpoints or harmonies, it’s difficult to see these as being above any pack at all. In fact without thinking through, it’s more likely that your songs are going to remind you of those before you. If I play a D, C and G chord on my guitar it reminds me of Led Zeppelin doing the same thing. Mixing it up, augmenting or using the third or fifth as the dominant note, using chords with a little more flavor all go to, if not creating a new recipe, at least creating a new take on one. Despite the huge 70s sound, I see the band almost driving through a landscape of Deep Purple and Atomic Rooster riffs, delivered with a dash of Italian romance. It’s certainly not a bad album, but seems to demonstrate the idea of writing by working out sequences, rather than hearing an idea in your head and trying to bring that out.
Anekdoten - Nucleus
Anekdoten present another nuance in the compositional debate, the question of what happens when your musical influences are far too strong. Despite the fact the band tweaks their sound a little from album to album there are so many aspects of their sound that remain the same, from the Wetton-esque vocals and Rickenbacher bass playing to the slow/heavy sequences the band is too reliant on. Often an Anekdoten track is based around some bass riff that is modeled around a unison sort of line (such as high E/low E). Like Abiogenesi a lot of the material seems to work itself out through the chord sequences, always plaintively melancholic, and you can feel the approach to the heavy denouement with the predictability of a Cast song. While Anekdoten absolutely nails this formula and manage to make every other song or so a rather good example, to not try and mix up the compositional structure and try some different ideas, seems a bit shortsighted, as I can imagine they’d put the album out that might really get the people talking. Instead, I find that each album is just a variation to some extent on what they did on their debut, an album they’ve never quite matched up to.