SUMMERLAND

Germans Poor Genetic Material from Speyer started as a duo in late-90s with Stefan Glomb on guitar and Philipp Jaehne on keyboards.Both were previously playing with the Neo Prog band Eskape, at the time when Jaehne established also the well-known QuiXote label with Tea For Two's Stephan Weber.They recorded their first couple of albums ''Free to Random Vol. 1'' (1999) and ''Free to Random Vol. 2'' (2000) with the help of another ex-Eskape member on keyboards, Martin Lengsfeld, both were attempts on the field of Experimental/Ambient Music.For their next album ''Summerland'' the band comes as a 50:50 mix of Eskape and Alias Eye with Phil Griffiths joining on vocals and Ludwig Benedek on drums.The album was released in 2001 on QuiXote.

Poor Genetic Material put an end to their experimental tendencies of their first works and propose an intelligent Progressive Pop in ''Summerland'', where vocals, melodies and sensitive textures play the basic role.They sound close to IT BITES or mid-90's BIG BIG TRAIN, focusing on soft keyboard lines, nice electric and acoustic moves and ambiental soundscapes with an atmospheric background.Even if the instrumental stuff is rather limited, the clean and emotional voice of Phil Griffiths is extremely rewarding.Most of the tracks are pretty simplistic with a few progressive moves added for good measure, relying on memorable melodies and accesible songwriting, surrounded by some typical elements of the Prog Rock genre, like a few theatrical singing lines, guitar distortions or light symphonic colors, while some of the electric solos have a strong FLOYD-ian vibe.The long title-track has more in common with the Neo Prog genre akin to TWELFTH NIGHT and PALLAS.Such a strong dependency from the melodious textures means this album lives or dies from its melodic depth and fortunately the band offers plenty of them with a good inspiration.

Accesible Neo Prog with strong Pop twists.Well-composed, sensitive and enjoyable music.Recommended.

This humble "debut" of sorts rather timidly introduces the style that POOR GENETIC MATERIAL would ply over the 4 albums that mark the group's season cycle of the early 2000s. Coming off of 2 essentially ambient records, "Summerland" acquaints us with two-timing vocalist PHIL GRIFFITHS of ALIAS EYE, whose pipes inherit the authority of his father MARTIN GRIFFITHS. The style here is not unlike the softer aspects of ALIAS EYE, with more than a nod to the preceding "Free to Random" works. In fact, this is one of those albums that never seems to be played at a high enough volume to garner attention, apart from a shining melodic shift here or a vocal outburst there. Yet taken as a whole it exultingly bears the laid back uniformity of a lazy summer season, with the simmering sense of a life to be savored, in which western ideals of growth and productivity are folded neatly along with the autumn clothes. Yes we will get to them but don't rush us! The response is loud and clear in "Rush of Ages" that opens the follow up album "Leap into Fall". But for the meantime you may enjoy the atmospheric soft rock of "Summerland".