WE ARE IN THE TIME OF EVIL CLOCKS

THE REBEL WHEEL are a four piece here on their third studio album led my multi-instrumentalist David Campbell. Based in Ottawa about a five hour drive from where I am mostly east but slightly north I am still in shock mode over this album. Almost perfect for my tastes, very consistent and powerful with that "Red" era of KING CRIMSON standing out the most by far.

Do you like Wetton's bass playing then check out Claude Prince on here from the band NATHAN MAHL this guy absolutely dominates the sound here. I remember how much I loved his sound on "The Clever Use Of Shadows" my favourite NATHAN MAHL album, well he does even better here. Guy LeBlanc keyboardist and leader of NATHAN MAHL adds a synth solo on here, he was also part of CAMEL for a while playing on "A Nod And A Wink" maybe others. Hey if these two guys dropped in from Montreal it's just a 2 hour drive to Ottawa. Claude is playing bass on the majority of this record but wasn't there for three of the tracks so David plays bass on two of those tracks and they brought in another bass player for one other song.

I'm so blown away by this record! How about the cover art with those evil clocks destroying a city and the closest one has numbers going to 13(gasp). Evil indeed. To discover a band like this kind of in my backyard is crazy to me. I mean MAHOGANY FROG from out west gave me the same feelings of pride that we have such talent playing our music. I had heard of THE REBEL WHEEL many times over the years during concert listings that were given on FM radio but like MAHOGANY FROG back in the day I never actually heard their music.

Powerful and dark, lots of atmosphere and the female who adds vocals plays keys and sax and the latter is such a treat on here bringing "Islands" to mind at times. There aren't a lot of vocals on here this is mostly muscular, determined music contrasted with the spacey atmosphere with darkness at times. Released in 2010 we get an hour of very consistent and powerful music with rock guitar, jazzy sax but man that bass blows me away. How did he get that sound? So a concept album that actually doesn't put the focus on the lyrics over the instrumental work? How refreshing.

Check out the intro, kind of a "War Of The Worlds" Sci-Fi start with alarms going off and chaos. When it kicks in around a minute in it sounds awesome! David can sure handle the guitar and we get contrasts here and when the sax arrives it changes the mood but then back to that experimental soundscape. I always check the songs of albums I'm reviewing that I really like, well all but two of the thirteen were checked here and yes that makes this a 5 star recording for me.

How about the bass on "Klak" oh my! Amazing sound 4 minutes in and what sounds like mellotron but maybe spacey synths here. Maybe the most beautiful moment is the opening of "Word Play" with that picked guitar and sound. How about "Scales Of The Ebony" with that nasty bass with guitar and beats mid-paced and features that synth solo from Guy. "Settling Of Bones" reminds me of a song from "The Power To Believe" as she sings in the style of Belew here. The short closer is a killer way to end it, a short, dark, experimental piece, love this stuff. But that 30 minutes multi-part track "The Discovery Of Witchcraft" is the highlight. So epic! More of the same really and thankfully so. There is a section where I'm thinking Free jazz surprisingly and that the "Invitation To Dance" section of course.

This goes directly into my "best of" Crossover section and a major discovery in my music world.