LIQUID SCARLET

Watch out, this is the clinking debut of a young band from north sweden who names King Crimson, Yes, Genesis, Zappa and Björk as musical paragons. Sounds promising? Indeed! As a fan of skandinavian prog I was very excited about this album. And now, after the release and some rotations in my Hifi I can say that it doesn't fall short of my expectations, far from it, it exceed all of them by far. Liquid Scarlet creates music in the vein of Anglagard and Anekdoten with a slight impact of alternative rock. I know that alternative rock is not the kind of genre wich normally seems to accord with prog but Liquid Scarlet manage's it to take advantage of such impacts. The self titled debut is bubbling over with ideas and sounds modern, exceedingly diversified and despite of the audible influences very independent. You can find Robert Fripp like guitars, swedish melancholy and a lot of melotron, all packaged in a seasonable garment.

The album starts out with frantic melotron fusillades flanked with heavy riffing. Short mellow parts arrange for some breathers. "Greyroom" really is a perfect opener. In the beginning "Hesitating in the Foyer" seems to be quite straight but mutates to a more wilder kind of song. Here you will probably hear best what I meant with alternative impact. In the end I thought I even heard some Beatles influenced seconds but I may be wrong because I'm no real expert concerning the Beatles. "Citta nuova" is a calm and fluent tune, at least in the first half. Here and there the prevailing mood is teared up by some shrill sounds. A nice drifty bass solo leads back to the primordial theme. A very nice guitar solo followed by a teriffic keyboard solo top the song off, a true highlight. But the next highlight follows. The instrumental "Molok" begins with tramping chords, wild drumming and a flashy guitar. But the song calms down to a sublime middle section with monotonous bass and a beautiful guitar. The other instruments raise and the tune ends similarly wild as the beginning. "Talking in ashes" is a beautiful ballad featuring a nice clarinet and flute (melotron) playing. However, in the end the song turns to a bombastic and more heavy tune with lots of hammond organ. "Comes near, lingers far" is another highlight. In the beginning it seems to be as frantic as the beginning of "Molok" but promtly offers a cool jazzy groove with nice relaxed vocals. The part breaks open due to some Anglagard like obliqueness but commences in the relaxed, jazzy way. The song ends with a great guitar solo. "The red stairs" again features a lot of great melotron besides a jazzy flair. "One last masquerade" is a great closure and with it's mixture of bombastic melotron, crazy Anglagard like parts and the nice church organ at the very end just another highlight of this great album.

Liquid Scarlet's debut really impressed me. It shows that prog is alive and that there are still young people out there willing to create this great music. I don't think, or better, I'm sure that the slight alternative approach wasn't made just to sell more copies. It really fits the general sound of the album wich is by all means very progressive. A good deal more I think that the alternative impact is the modern sounding component of their music. Again, I think it fits quite good. Liquid Scarlet adresses everybody liking Anglagard, Anekdoten, King Crimson and early Genesis. It also adresses all melotron and hammond lovers out there. I have to say that I have some difficulties with my rating. I wanted to give 5 stars but I think I will leave it at 4.5 stars before it stands the test of time... I really recommend to check out this delightful debut of this very young, telented band. I hope we will hear a lot more of this great band.