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Lobate Scarp - Time and Space CD (album) cover

TIME AND SPACE

Lobate Scarp

 

Crossover Prog

4.01 | 66 ratings

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Rivertree
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator / Band Submissions
5 stars The contradiction will bring us together ....

oh dear ... maybe this album comprises a little course in dialectics? So what ... at least it has offered more than one contradiction to me in the early beginning, when I came in contact - it must have been Summer 2013 eventually. Firstly, album title and artwork obviously point to kinda space rock opera, but musically this is - very simple to recognize after a while - far away from any space rock stuff, basta!. And furthermore, as I'm listening to a lot of new albums - which forces to cull with intense - in most cases after the first listening session I'm sure to know when having something to stick at. Not in this case - while blatantly melodic and catchy, like 'Space And Time' appears, I was inclined to sort this out to the prog related table at first.

Luckily enough though, just Save My Soul saved my soul in this case, a song that fortunately attracted my attention and soon went over to my phone player, amongst other things due to a fantastic fusion intermezzo. And then after a while this convinced me to take it with more mindfulness .. and to load the other tracks too. So in the end I've been listening to 'Space And Time' on my trip to work (back and forth) at least twice a week - while learning to love it furthermore. As noted before - instead of space rock - here we go with symphonic, neo and heavy prog oriented tunes. The title song comes underlayed with remarkable percussion equipment, I bet Alex Acuņa is involved here. Two words - clever song-writing.

Adrienne Woods' mournful chamber cello opens this affair, probably causing mixed feelings - but hey, they soon switch over to a good-mooded behaviour, which luckily will stay over the rest of the course. By the way, a real attraction is Adam Sears' versatile keyboard input, certainly approved on the following short but definitely tricky Jacob's Ladder featuring funfair organ, soaring and bubbling synths, symphonic strings aso. - bravo! Beginning Of Us drifts into pop rock fields then ... but they don't keep in that way while weaving a very nice guitar dominated intermezzo in.

The Contradiction at first rocks the house with slightly bizzare overburdened vocals, but again there is a change to state after a while into a lovely flow including piano, electric guitar, cello and violin. The heart-warming The Moment seems to be placed as a ballad and The Mirror sums all the band qualities up then and evolves to a real progressive rock parfource run. Man! Something forgotten to mention? - oh, yes, Adam Sears seems to be the head of this combo and kudos are adressed to his strong song-writing abilities ... and he provides an excellent singing voice on top of it.

The LOBATE SCARP crew offers an unpredictable blend of neo/symphonic, fusion, heavy and popular rock music, partially comparable to bands like Jadis or Bolus, which are coming into my mind. There's a lot to sing-along after a while. The compositions are top-notch all the way through, full of melodic moments, that's it what really strikes me. While most frequently used in recent months 'Time And Space' is a matter very close to my heart, an extraordinary appearance - I still can't find anything to grouse about - which finally deserves the highest rating which is possible.

... and will tear us apart ... (No way! Not in this case!)

Rivertree | 5/5 |

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