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Beardfish - Sleeping in Traffic - Part One CD (album) cover

SLEEPING IN TRAFFIC - PART ONE

Beardfish

 

Eclectic Prog

4.07 | 553 ratings

From Progarchives.com, the ultimate progressive rock music website

Gatot
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Right after Christmas last year I met Hardiansyah Rizal who was on year end holiday in Jakarta. He has been working in Singapore since three years ago. My prog meeting with Rizal has always been very unique. Before he moved to Singapore, we sometime gathered together for a prog meeting right after office hours at his office because my going home way pass across his office. We typically spent about two to four hours meeting until midnight. We talked a lot about prog music (pssst ..!!! Sometimes we talked about power metal too .!!!) while playing some CDs that we have just received from amazon or laser edge or missingpiece.net. Or sometimes we talked about CDs that I received directly from the bands due to my involvement with progarchives and DPRP.net. That's the nice thing being a reviewer .. receiving free CDs (not for sale version) from prog bands.

Last year end meeting with him was different because we held the meeting at local café down town and I bring my laptop to play some CDs together. What so interesting was when he introduced me a band called Beardfish that I had never heard the name before (pity me! How come I claim myself as prog man but knew nothing about this Swedish band?). So far we talked about prog and professional life especially for him being in Singapore, I was blown away by the music of Beardfish. I then went to progarchives website and checked about this band and found colleague collaborators Erik, Prog-Jester and Ricochet had penned their views excellently here. I was so motivated to have another spin of this album. In fact, I kept replaying the album right after I listened to it the first spin in its entirety. It was really a JOY listening to this album. It has been so long that I need this kind of music. This site describes it well that this is categorized under "electic prog" and has received many influences from Gentle Giant, King Crimson and Zappa. I just need to add that there is a bit of influence from Jethro Tull as well.

Let's have a musical journey with "Sleeping in Traffic: Part One" .

A wonderful opening!

It starts in ambient nuance through an accordion sound "On The Verge Of Sanity" (0:47) and it moves seamlessly with a blast of upbeat music as intro part of "Sunrise" (7:54) in an elegant way. Honest, I am impressed by the kind of music this intro part delivers to my ears and it strikes through my mind wonderfully. The music is quite symphonic in nature and it later it has beautiful break right before the first verse of vocal line enters the music. I can sense the element of Van der Graff Generator in the music. The melody that the singer sings is so catchy and also the piano solo that accompanies the singing is also catchy. What makes the song so powerful is the inclusion of screaming performed by the band's drummer Magnus Östgren. This is truly a masterpiece track and it serves as wonderful opening!

. and here they go ..a beautiful break!

The next track "Afternoon Conversation" (3:42) is basically a drumless song with magnificent guitar playing which reminds me to Steve Howe of Yes. The song serves as a beautiful break that flows naturally with unusual melody but the more you listen to it, you will see it's really catchy. It then moves back to an upbeat tempo music with rocking style "And Never Know" (5:59). Talking about musical vein? At first it sounds like early King Crimson and later when guitar starts to roll, there is a similarity with Jethro Tull, especially "Too Old To Rock n Roll, Too Young To Die" song on the way the guitar is played. The singing style is truly energetic and sometimes involving high register notes with screaming style. Honestly, this is a great track! "Roulette" (12:07) opening reminds me to another Swedish band A.C.T. or Supertramp to be a bit precise. However, when the keyboard enters, it wipes out every single similarity I can withdraw from this piece because it's quite original in style. The singing style is quite unique especially when it is combined with unique keyboard / organ work. It's really good. This song moves wonderfully with multi-styles combining many elements of music.

"Dark Poet (3:24)" provides The Beatles style of music with nice piano work that accompanies vocal. ". "Harmony" (7:20) brings together the element of Gentle Giant, King Crimson and a flavor of Procol Harum. But Gentle Giant is much obvious. The stream of this song might sound weird to some people but it works really well with me. I love how the vocal sings high and low register notes nicely. "The Ungodly Slob" (6:42) is truly an excellent progressive rock band with its dynamic structure combining complex arrangements and inventive keyboard work.

..and the excellent concluding tracks ..

The three concluding tracks are all excellent. "Year Of The Knife" (7:28) sounds like combining the music of Gentle Giant - thanks God with great guitar work! - and classic rock music like Beck, Bogert, Appice. The song style is quite unique especially the combination of guitar work and the music beats, accompanied with excellent singing style. "Without You" (2:39) is an excellent ballad with great acoustic guitar work accompanying mellow singing. "Same Old Song (Sunset)" (7:51) is another excellent style with good mellotron sound.

Conclusion

Overall, this is an excellent album that suit those of you who expect dynamic structure and some sort of complexity combined with nice melody. For those of you who are new to prog music, this album might take you quite sometime to get you familiar with what the band is trying to do. But for those who have known King Crimson, Gentle Giant and Zappa, I don't think you have difficulty in digesting and - in fact - enjoying this excellent album. Bravo Sweden! The Land of Progressive Music. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Gatot | 4/5 |

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