FALL IN LOVE WITH THE WORLD

One of the albums I ran into through the great community around House of Prog is Fall In Love With the World, by United Progressive Fraternity (UPF).

A line up consisting of former members of Unitopia and The Tangent, give this band has a solid musical base, and it shows on this album. An album that carries a message that was also brought forward by Unitopia earlier - we should take better care of our planet. A broad subject that affects us all and is high the agenda of UPF. This shows in the lyrics, all centered around this theme, each track in its own way.

Opening track is the film music like We only get one world. The album contains a lot of heavy progressive rock, driven by guitars and keyboards. Still, the band has left a lot of room for quieter parts and other instruments as well.

Best proof of this, because it fills about 25% of the album by itself, is the 22 minute epic in 7 movements, Travelling Man (The story of Eshu). This track contains well executed saxophone and (sax-)flute solo's, but also driving guitars and wailing keyboards. To me, the best part of this track, and maybe even the album is the combination of the 3rd and 4th movement here. The former contains an almost marching beat, on top of which the vocals, keyboards and guitar interleave with each other like on early 70s Genesis tracks. It transfers almost seamlessly into the second, which moves from a heavy guitar driven part into a middle eastern feel and then suddenly introduces a violin that shows how well violins and guitars can rock together.

The Water is also an 'ear-catcher', that contains backing vocals and vocal effects recorded by Jon Anderson - making UPF singer and producer Mark Trueack a very happy man, according to the liner notes. The driving beat of this track makes it really work. The acoustic guitar based alternative mix that is included as a bonus is also not bad, but lacks a bit of that drive.

In Choices, Don't look back - turn left and Religion of war, the band manages to mix slightly pop rock choruses with just the musical complexity to make rock into progressive rock. The interplay between the instruments, including that aforementioned saxophone makes this into modern symphonic rock, with a catchy edge.

Surprisingly, the least appealing track to me on this album is the title track, Falling in love with the world. The track is based around an acoustic guitar, with other instruments playing around it in the same way as on the rest of the album. However, the track lacks a bit of power, not in the least due to the very low tempo of the vocals. Not a bad track, but nowhere near for example Travelling man.

Overall, I am pleasantly happy with this album, and the way it UPF combines old school symphonic rock with modern sounds and instrumentation. Some tracks, like Don't look back and Religion of war and certainly The Water are actually good material for getting the band air play on rock radio stations around the world and the internet.

More than worth buying for sure!

Australian prog band Unitopia decided to call it a day in 2014 after 4 albums and more then 10 years career, but the head behind this band Mark Trueack together with his mates Matt Williams, Dave Hopgood and Tim Irrgang decided to team up with well known musician Guy Manning and going under the name of United Progressive Fraternity. Also there are some top notch invited guests here like Jon Anderson, Steve Unruh , Steve Hackett and few more who done a great job. Well, as I expected the sound UPF offers is not far from Unitopia atmosphere, but in places is little less intresting and with less progressive aproach. I definetly call this first baby named Fall in love with the world issued in 2014 progressive rock, but the progressive elements are few to my ears, the only great tune from the album is the longest one Travelling man (The story of ESHU), clocking around 22 min with exemplary musicianship and ideas, there are some great instrumental sections, keyboards, guitars are brilliant and the vocal passages aswell. Unfortunatly the rest are only ok, nothing special about it. and I prefer Unitopia much more, an album like The Garden Marck Trueack will never be part of, definatly the best album from his career untill now. All in all decent release, nothing groundbreaking here only good and nothing more. The art work made by famous Ed Unitsky is asyou might imagine colorful, intresting and very well made. 3 stars for this debut.

UPF stands for United Progressive Fraternity, and originally came about after the demise of Australian band Unitopia. Mark Trueack (vocals), Matt Williams (guitar, bass, vocals), Dave Hopgood (drums, vocals) and Tim Irrgang (percussion) then joined forces with Guy Manning (Manning, The Tangent etc.), who brought in Marek Arnold (Toxic Smile, Flaming Row, SSTTGG etc.) and with bassist Daniel Mash the line-up was complete. There as then the short matter of bringing in ten guest musicians, including such unknowns as Jon Anderson and Steve Hackett?

The use of Marek's saxophone is probably more prevalent on this than on his other releases, and the album certainly benefits from it. Musically this is crossover prog, with some interesting percussive and world influences, and in many ways it is quite different to what else is out there, although at the same time it contains some passages that are quite simplistic yet always melodic. I don't know how much impact Guy and Marek had on the writing of the music, but it is clear that they had a large amount to do with the arrangements. I haven't previously come across Unitopia, but I am certainly intrigued to hear what the band used to sound like, as this is an incredibly immediate and accessible album, and it is just a shame that it has taken me four years to come across it. The use of Jon Anderson on fourth track "The Water" on backing vocals is quite interesting, as before looking up the details I hadn't been aware who had been involved but he stands out a great deal, and puts a stamp of approval on proceedings. Hopefully his appearance will attract fans of his to try this out, as that song itself is yet another great melodic AOR progressive rock number which makes me smile each time I play it. Overall, fun and commercial with small world influences here which make a big difference when they appear. Ecological, and great fun to boot!

So? who's UPF? Why their sound is so unique, experimental and pop, but yet so familiar? What we have here is the core guys from the Australian crossover/symphonic prog band Unitopia uniting forces with Guy Manning from British progressive rock act The Tangent? I guess it was an "only genius allowed" situation. Mark Trueack on vocals; Matt Williams on guitars, bass and vocals; Guy Manning on guitars, keyboards and vocals; Marek Arnold on flutes, sax, keyboards and vocals; Daniel Mash on bass and vocals; David Hopgood on drums and vocals; and Tom Irrgang on percussion? six members doing vocals? enough introduction to kind of imagine what the vocal harmonies sound like on this album. And there are a couple of guest musicians, some better known than others, including names such as Steve Hackett and Jon Anderson, to name a few.

Slightly under 70 minutes of amazing Prog music, really thoughtful and current lyrical content, and fantastic songwriting that teases with various forms of progressive rock. There are pure symphonic elements, some more heavy and metallic moments, Latin and Jazz nuances here and there, and epic and memorable hooks. Quite a journey! A lot of different instruments coexisting and delivering a great record that should never been avoided or disregarded by any Prog music lover, a lot of meat to chew, very lean meat with almost zero fat content (especially on the 21 plus minutes epic Traveling Man), a complete meal that deserves a careful and repeating listening to fully enjoy and appreciate all the ingredients and the result of their mix. Superb! My highlights are:

- Choices

- The Water

- Traveling Man