THE GREAT LIE

Poland has been quite the hot scene for prog bands in the 21st century ranging from the proggy metal sounds of Riverside and Retrospective to the crazy avant-fusion of Light Coorporation and Merkabah. The space rock and neo-prog scenes have also been quite strong with bands like Millenium and Believe cranking out some interesting art rock in the last couple decades and then there's this band called THE ADEKAEM which formed in Tychy in the south of Poland in 2013. Basically THE ADEKAEM is a duo consisting of Andrzej Bielas on keys and synths and Krzysztof Wala on guitars and synths. Both have contributed vocals.

Although technically a duo, this band has employed numerous guest musicians over the years and on ADEKEEM's fourth release THE GREAT LIE, the number has expanded to include drummer Tomasz Holewa, bassist Krzysztof Wyrwa, two vocalists Marcin Staszek and Krzysztof Wyrwa as well as flautist Jakub Bason. While considered to be neo-prog in some camps, THE ADEKAEM is a bit more eclectic than the term implies. True that the basic compositional structures are based in catchy sprawling grooves heavily fortified by synthesizer counterpoints but the band started out with a heavy reliance on jazz-fusion styles. On THE GREAT LIE these guys have jettisoned the jazz influences and settled into more of a space rock sound with darker overtones like classic King Crimson or even the horrific soundtracks of the Italian band Goblin.

This is a rather long album with nine tracks that just miss the 77-minute mark. The highlights of the album are the drifting sounds heard on the instrumental tracks. The opening "Woodland Frolics at 3AM" and "Spontaneous Combustion of Ego" showcase the band's ability to exercise its instrumental interplay with spontaneous and creative textures and tapestries of synthesized atmospheric splendor. Many of the vocal tracks feature space rock tones and timbres familiar to any fan of classic 70s Pink Floyd or Eloy. The album sort of slinks along at mid-tempo processions and floats by like drifting clouds in the sky on a lazy summer afternoon but rock guitar heft is added with power chords adding some distorted sustain and the occasional neo-prog guitar sweeps are ubiquitous as well.

For album of this length, a band needs to keep things from falling into a monotonous procession of ideas and in that regard THE ADEKAEM does an excellent job at keeping things from running on auto-pilot. The alternating vocal and instrumental parts display different strengths of the band as they can easily adapt to either stylistic approach and the adept use of keyboards allows droning atmospheres to provide the perfect background for more adventurous keyboard soloing and guitar exploration. The thumping bass may remind a bit of classic 70s Floyd at moments but luckily the supporting musical backdrop steers your attention away into swirling synth majesty.

This is my first experience with THE ADEKAEM but it won't be my last. THE GREAT LIE reveals a very gifted duo who can lead a group of musicians into a progressive rock world where interesting psychedelic space rock meets neo-prog and more. This is a very relaxing album and although the style presented could've easily nosedived into the world of cheesiness, Bielas and Wala are masters of fine-tuning the subtleties so that everything sounds organic and naturally unfolding. Add to that the brilliant album cover art which perfectly depicts the music experienced inside except for the fact that there are no violin or cello sounds to be heard! LOL. This is indeed the perfect soundtrack for a moonlit starry night on the beach. A lot like some Eloy only with much better vocals.