2025, Part 4: Other Albums worth checking out for yourselves

 The albums presented below represent a group of albums that each came highly recommended to me but failed to capture my sustained attention. Knowing that I no longer have the patience, time, or interest in forcing myself to review every album that comes my way, I offer these up as a reminder of music you may wish to check out for yourselves. This has been a difficult decision for me in that my initial intentions on becoming a music reviewer were to try to offer fair and impartial, somewhat "objective" reviews of as many of the hundreds of new album releases I hear about from each and every year of this 21st Century. I apologize to all of the wonderful music professionals who had hoped that I might review their musics.

FLUCTUS QUADRATUM Laplacian

Melodic and proficient synth-oriented NeoProg from England.

Line-up / Musicians:
- Jopheus Burtonshaw / keyboards, synthesizers, guitar & bass effects
- Rick Burtonshaw / drums
- Curtis Adamczyk / vocals

1. Laplacian (6:07)
2. Dawn of Acquiescence III (7:11)
3. Inertia (5:06)
4. Where the Lack of Logic Lies (11:21)
5. The Grey Room (2:19)
6. The House Within Itself (6:41)
7. Consequences (6:09)
8. Bridge to Suffering (0:50)
9. Suffering in Serenity (6:43)
10. Alone. (5:56)
11. Mistwell (0:43)
12. Direlight (13:01)

Total Time: 72:07

The music on Laplacian is pretty good, it's just that it's a little too obvious that Jopheus' studio album music is predominantly controlled, programmed, and issued from a computer keyboard. This can be done well but not while using the kind of "dated" (1990s) sounds that Jopheus chooses (including/especially "bass", "piano", and "guitars"). The second "problem" I have with the music on this album is that it's very run-of-the-mill, stereotypic NeoProg, which, as I've been stating repeatedly over the past couple of years, feels as if it has been mined to death: we're now working on anything we can extract through the intensive extractive processes of shale oil mining, fracking, or even capturing fumes. Can music progress no more? Are we done? Condemned to work only from the combinations and permutations of existing sounds, instruments, and styles?

      Curtis Adamczyk's vocals are weak and poorly rendered in the engineering department (sounding just like they do in their live concert performance videos).

      Qualitatively this is really a three to 3.5 star album but the Burtonshaw brothers manage to eek out some exceptionally-engaging music despite the equipment insufficiencies.   

MOTORPSYCHO Motorpsycho

And then there were two: the Psychonauts' two founding members . . . and a bunch of hired hands. The realities of the modern way of making and publishing music has finally dawned on Bent and Hans.

Line-up / Musicians:
- Bent Sæther / lead & backing vocals, acoustic & electric guitars, bass, Mellotron, synthesizer, piano, organ, Omnichord, percussion
- Hans Magnus Ryan / lead & backing vocals, electric lead, rhythm & slide guitars, Mellotron, synthesizer, piano
With:
- Ingvald Vassbø / drums (1,6,8-11)
- Mari Persen / strings (2)
- Reine Fiske / electric guitar (3,4)
- Olaf Olsen / drums (3,4)
- Thea Grant / vocals (8)

Disc 1 (40:49)
1. "Lucifer, Bringer of Light" (10:49) off to the races we go straight from the first frame--especially with metronomic JAKI LEIBZEIT-like drummer Ingvald Vassbø in the driver's seat. The harmonies on the team vocals are rather weak, even discordant at times. The song's chord structure is fairly straightforward with only a few interesting bridges or instrumental passages. The WHO "Baba O'Riley"-like third minute starts off interestingly but then devolves into a fairly straightforward ALLMAN BROTHERS-like guitar solo--and then slightly more interesting LYNYRD SKYNYRD-like duet/duel. This goes on until the ninth minute when the boys try to come back to a slightly-more sophisticated (and infinitely more interesting) variation on the opening theme for more vocals. (17.5/20)
2. Laird of Heimly (3:54)
3. Stanley (Tonight's the Night) (4:10)
4. The Comeback (4:32)
5. Kip Satie (2:25)
6. Balthazaar" (11:40) bug-buzz-saw playing around until Krautrock motif steps into play at the 0:56 mark (with a bass line that is a variation on the famous "Peter Gunn" riff). The team vocals are okay, melodic and smooth, I just don't know (or care) what they're singing about. Guitar solos with a variety of guitar sounds (one very Allman Brothers-like). Halfway into the song I'm finding the motif to be more annoying than hypnotic, this despite all the different guitar sounds and the addition in the sixth minute of piano chord hits. A turn given to synths for solos in the seventh minute provide a little diversion/relief but then we're right back into the rut for the next vocal section in the eighth minute. Around the eight-minute mark the band shifts a little (mostly drummer Ingvald Vassbø's drum beat and style) and then synthesized guitar takes off for the next solo (with the next sound). The eleventh minute brings us around to the final vocal section while the instrumental parts of the song show signs of cracking and, perhaps, dissolving. No such luck. And then there's the whole travesty of focusing a song about "Balthazaar" much less using the word as the exclusive occupant of the chorus's main lyric, repeated over and over. Sorry guys! This just doesn't live up to the high standards of your tremendous body of work! (17.375/20)
7. Bed of Roses (3:19)

Disc 2 (40:50)
8. Neotzar (The Second Coming)" (21:07) pretty weird and lame for the first 2:40 with piano-like guitar notes backing singer Thea Grant, but then the band kicks in with some decent cruise-drivin' music over which another lame vocal (and equally-lame background vocal) is set. The Mellotron strings work is mismatched and the guitar solos in the mid-section are just okay. At 8:15 there is a break before harp-like "heavenly" music fills a minute and more while, eventually, electric guitar plays a spacious series of mindless notes for another minute or so. In the eleventh minute some chords begin to form from behind, orchestral washes. At 12:15 some ominous and acerbic notes and chords begin amping things up until there is about 90 seconds of almost-UTOPIA/MAHAVISHNU/ZAPPA-like cacophony up to the end of the 14th minute. But then things smooth out and return to the main Motorpsycho highway though a more-subdued electric guitar continues soloing into end of the 15th minute before being rejoined by the other guitarist--who then takes over in the sixteenth. Man! It feels as if these guys have really been chompin' at the bit to have some loose solo time--even some vicious duels. Drummer Ingvald Vassbø really ups the chaos in the seventeenth minute but then things straighten out again for some piano and synth leadership--just before male vocalist steps in with a lame vocal. The final three minutes continue this piano-pounding palette while the guitarists (and vocalists--in the background) speed along toward the 21st minute in which they break it all down into bare-bones guitar and Mellotron note picking to the song's end. Interesting and sometimes exciting--especially if you're just into guitar shredding--but really not a greatly engaging or memorable song. (34.75/40)
9. Core Memory Corrupt (5:38)
10. Three Frightened Monkeys (8:41)
11. Dead of Winter (5:24)

Total Time 81:39

An album that feels like the two have rustled through their closets of old songs that had never made previous albums and dusted a few off for fresh renditions. I can see why most of these had been left in the closet. Even the ones that feel fresh are filled with either too much chaos or too much noodling: not the stuff that have kept me loyal to the cause for over 16 years.

EYE 2 EYE Lost Horizon

French NeoProg artist moving toward the heavier side.

 
Line-up / Musicians:
- Paul Tilley / lead vocals
- Bruno Pegues / guitars
- Philippe Benabes / keyboards
- Didier Pegues / drums, backing vocals, keyboards
With:
- Elise Bruckert / violin
- Etienne Damin / bass
- Djam Zaïdi / bass
- Valentin Gevaraise / guitars
- Nicolas Fabrigoule / piano
- Kelly Mezino / backing vocals
- Michel Cerroni / backing vocals
- Stéphane Baumgart / backing vocals

1. Garden of Eden (9:40)
2. The Letter (6:53)
3. Meadows of Silence (12:03)
4. Lost Horizon ( Ghosts Endgame) (22:45)
I - The Shoreline
II - Tempest
IIII - Sad Eyed Siren

Total Time 51:21

ECHOLYN Time Silent Radio II

Line-up / Musicians:
- Brett Kull / guitar, lead vocals, backing vocals
- Ray Weston / lead vocals, bass, backing vocals
- Chris Buzby / keyboards, backing vocals
- Jordan Perlson / drums & percussion, backing vocals

1. Time Has No Place (16:37) :
- a. Into Blue and Green
- b. The Air of Ivy Hill
- c. Emerald Garden
- d. Forever Evermore
2. Water in Our Hands, Pts. 1-4 (28:51)

Total Time 45:28

ECHOLYN Time Silent Radio vii

Released the same day as Time Silent Radio II, this album exhibits more of a pop song simplicity.

Line-up / Musicians:
- Brett Kull / guitar, lead vocals, backing vocals
- Ray Weston / lead vocals, bass, backing vocals
- Chris Buzby / keyboards, backing vocals
- Jordan Perlson / drums & percussion, backing vocals

1. Radio Waves (7:01)
2. Silent Years (4:31)
3. Cul-de-Sacs and Tunnels (7:09)
4. Boulders on Hills (6:53)
5. Our Brilliant Next (5:47)
6. On We Blur (5:41)
7. Tiny Star (8:29)

Total Time 45:31

THE AURORA PROJECT EVOS12

Line-up / Musicians:
- Dennis Binnekade / lead vocals
- Alex Ouwehand / guitar, backing vocals
- Remco van den Berg / guitar, backing vocals
- Marcel 'Mox' Guijt / keyboards
- Rob Krijgsman / bass
- Joris Bol / drums & percussion

1. Slave City (6:27)
2. The Movement (5:41)
3. Have Some Tea (11:36)
4. The Traveler (5:46)
5. Freedom of Thought (9:09)

Total Time 38:39