DIAGRAMMA

Well here is a fresh new band from Ottawa,Canada with their new cd DIAGRAMMA who will be one of the top 10 for 2007. I love it=good quality-nice recording-good voices-nice guitars-powerful bass-excellent drums -short tracks-long tracks instrumental pieces ect... It have everything for everyone.Some Zappa-Yes-Genesis-Gentle Giant-Rush-Pink Floyd But they have their own style it's not a clone of the great bands that I mentionned earlier it's new and fresh not a copy of another prog band.Just listen to the title track Diagramma a 20 min masterpiece (that track alone worth the price of the cd) Threads a nice Rush & Pink Floyd song - Three Valley Gap a beautiful instrumental à la Genesis & Yes Tempra a great jazz-fusion piece - Hiding in Waiting a nice prog commercial song - Arachnophobia a superb instrumental track with a hint of Gentle Giant (my favorite of the album) - Awakened a good prog rock song with few turnovers.You cannot go wrong with this one=4 stars for a great debut album from The Rebel Wheel (with this new line-up ) a few years ago they release a self title cd The Rebel Wheel.They only thing I would suggest is to put more of Angie Macivor voice and sax in their music.But nevertheless it's a great album = one of the best of 2007. Pots

This sophomore release by Canadian outfit The Rebel Wheel is an adventurous affair, a good release but also one that will only appeal to an eclectic audience.

What's unique with this CD isn't the influences from all over; but how these influences are showcased. Classic symphonic rock, dissonant and disharmonic experimental rock slightly similar to King Crimson, harder riff based rock similar to Rush, fusion and industrial rock are all styles of music represented on this release. But rather than having an amalgam of these influences, The Rebel Wheel mostly choose to showcase the elements individually; either by concentrating one of these influences in one particular composition, or by conveying them one after the other in the individual segments of each tune.

This is especially true of the long title track Diagramma, a composition more or less consisting of various parts in different styles put together as a whole. This approach is the major asset as well as the major weakness of this release. The adventurous listener will enjoy this mix, while the more conservative listener will yearn for something a bit more consistant where there's more of a stereotypical evolvement of a tune from start to finish.

All in all a promising album, and it'll be fun to see where this band are heading for their next release.