Until now, I had never bothered to delve into the Random Earth Project. From the information that is included, I conclude that the heart of the band consists of three musicians who take care of keyboards, bass and vocals. Several guest musicians provide interpretation on guitar, drums and saxophone. Some more famous names come to the fore such as guitarist/vocalist Amanda Lehmann who we might know as a fellow musician of Steve Hackett during live concerts. Regular band member and bassist Trev Turley is also active in the prog scene but mainly as a writer. When a band starts an album with a real epic of more than sixteen minutes, the expectations become a bit higher. The title track shows where we are going in terms of style and intention and that is typical British prog with a lot of room for the keys. The voice of singer Kym Blackman reminds me strongly of Martin Eden of German Chandelier, a bit biting, a bit nasal and with some sharp edges. Since we hear several guest guitarists in different songs, the question is whether this is good or disturbing. A bit of both actually, because the solos are not always very exciting and so we can say that sixteen minutes is quite long if not too much exciting happens. The song cables along a bit without real variety, but the atmosphere is pleasant and the tempo remains quite slow. The keys provide the foundation and structure and the beginning with church organ sounds is nice. The little piece of Phantom Of The Opera at the end is funny. The album contains seven tracks and it is not entirely clear who plays the guitar parts on some of the songs. That does not apply to the second song Cry in which Andrew Walker performs a nice solo which clearly gives this slow, dragging song more appeal. All told is also a somewhat shorter song but with the aforementioned Amanda Lehmann is on guitar which just makes it sound more complete but here the sound comes closest to The Beatles, yes you read that right. So, no pure prog but a somewhat poppy song without too much excitement. Hotel is an instrumental song with a lot of saxophone and this track doesn't appeal to me at all, it is centrally chosen and after this we go to the best song of the album. Game-Gates is a long track in which two guitarists provide the extra bit of fire, Owen Barry and Mark Holmes form enough counterbalance to the omnipresent keys of Carleton Van Selman. Here they show that there is really potential in this project but also that adding a permanent guitarist would be a good idea because the balance between keys and guitar is also important here. Nowhere does the tempo pick up and the music passes relatively slowly, but in this case with the necessary variation which makes this song more appealing. I would say, make a whole album with songs like this and (even) more listeners will be convinced. Mojo King also starts interestingly with floating keys and guitar picking and as soon as the voice comes in, we are back in the aforementioned atmospheres. The rhythm of the bass is a bit latin-like and as soon as the keys take the lead we end up in a passage with wordless vocals and that fits in with the atmosphere of this song. The album closes with Christmas Song and that makes one fear the worst and that is partly true. The lyrics are very sweet and the bells are not missing, not my thing. Let's be honest, the only ones who have managed to combine prog and Christmas well are compatriots IQ. I think it's a very hopeful album, while there is still something to criticize it certainly has much more potential and that is only to be appreciated. To summarize, the potential is there to make appealing prog, but some songs really fall by the wayside. Blackman's voice is something you have to like, but he sings fine. There is no real rock and I sometimes miss that a bit. These guys can certainly play, but the quality of the recordings could use a boost. Still, because of the chance of an even better album, I want to express my appreciation for the courage and good intentions, hence: *** Erik Fraanje (edited by Dave Smith) Where to buy? |
