CALIBRATED COLLISION COURSE

One can chart a variety of courses in the service of "making a point". Artists often choose a vague "route" in preference to a "path", to appeal to a moderately sophisticated audience, analogous to giving a hiker a general idea of the trajectory rather than specific routes and distances. Then there are the unfortunate cases of artists who smack their audience in the back of the head and tell them exactly where to go. In so doing they elevate themselves and degrade their potential fans. "Calibrated Collision Course" would be the poster child for this form of enfant terrible.

In a word, the sound here is chaotic in a perhaps deliberately unsettling manner. The musical disharmony matches the ceaseless diatribes about how we're all going to hell in a handbasket through society's overconsumption of resources be they comestible or of entertainment value. As if these weren't about as subtle as a hammer laying into a mosquito, add in news clips about global warming and, well, news clips, and you get the idea. It might have worked as a multimedia presentation, or as 5 minutes of filler in a green documentary, but one tuneless and tedious hour amounts to a jaw dropping overbite, if I can understate the case.

Points of comparison are thankfully hard to come by, but QUEEN with a correspondence school PHD comes to mind, as well as the Quebecois crossover group KAOS MOON, but GALADRIEL has neither the lofty fluffiness of the former nor the instinct for restraint and melody of the latter. Apart from the first couple of minutes of "Leap Of Faith", this CD forges one pigheaded and irreversible collision course with sanity.

I listened at least 5 times to this album but all I can say is that this is one of the strangest neo prog albums I ever heard, if it's neo at all what you hear here. To me this is a combination of neo prog and the Avant prog of Sleepytime Gorilla Museum. And let's be honest this is a very unlogical combination, something like Indo/Raga with Canterbury, it's that strange indeed.

Anyway, is that all there is to say about Calibrated Collision Course ? Actually yes because the strange and chaotic vocals and also music are coming back in each song and are the key feature of this release. It will have something to do with the idea behind the lyrics that mainly handle the chaotic state of our planet nowadays, at least according to Galadriel. I have to say I'm getting curious for the other releases by this band: do they sound the same or did Galadriel leave the neo path just recently ? They appeared on the scene about twenty years ago and their previous release was twelve years ago so I haven't got a clue but I will check some day.

This is for sure no standard neo prog so beware if you're interested. If you like something completely different go for this one but if you like it standard leave it. Hard to rate this album, I give two stars because I will not play this for my pleasure in the future and then I usually give two. Still it's not a complete disaster in my opinion. Check the streamsong here on PA I would suggest. It will give a pretty good idea.

This is an excellent album from Galadriel. Far better than the previous one Mindscaper. Galadriel definitely made a step in professionalism and quality (of factor ten!).

Compositions are intelligent, emotional and well executed. The presence of Andy Sears at the backing vocals leads to sophisticated, futuristic and beatiful colors that you don't hear in prog usually. The epic "As Big Bang" is absolutely stunning, and if it doesn't disserve the traditionnal amount of complex measures required by lots of proggers. Anyway, you will find here incredible vocal harmonies and nice textures (that rivalises in quality and freshness with Ritual ones). The last song "Consumer Satisfaction" is simply beautiful and instantly stays in mind. Galadriel also add some fresh jazz fusion to its abilities, for the best, and mix it with some Peter Gabriel last period textures (and far better!).

While lots of bands are composing "automatically" their epics, Galadriel never forgot emotions. For fans of Peter Gabriel, Flaming Lips and new stuff. To me one of the best album of 2008 (and there are lots!).

Oh my. Something went really, really wrong when this album was created. Or perhaps this fine Spanish act suddenly decided for a major shift in sound, now trying to reach out to a truly avant-garde audience. It's not an album that will have a broad appeal, that is the one undeniable fact about this production.

Shifty, fragmented compositions with some passages firmly placed in neo-progressive territories and other with distinct jazz and funk tinges to them, some mainstream-oriented escapades with more of a genereic pop expression to them as well. Nothing new or innovative, but nothing truly bad either. The passages with instrumental layers residing somewhere in between harmonic and disharmonic are much more problematic though - neither fish nor fowl as far as I'm concerned. Add in a lead vocalist with a voice like Peter Gabriel seemingly trying to sing in the same manner as Jon Anderson (on a lower register obviously) and bombastic backing vocals used both way too often as well as outside of most normal perceptions of when they are appropriate, and the end result is taxing, and not in a good way.

Some folks will love this stuff, but it is a release that will appeal to a very select few. And I'm not amongst those charmed by this experiment, obviously.

Galadriel began in the late '80s as a classic symphonic band from Spain. Despite its limited production values, Muttered Promises from an Ageless Pond is a classic. With some changes in the line-up, and vocalist Jesus Filardi taking a more dominant role, the band released Chasing the Dragonfly; a perfect blend of their symphonic sound with modern touches. Even more line-up changes yielded the thoroughly modern-sounding Mindscapers. And then there was a long silence that was finally broken in late 2007 with Calibrated Collision Course.

Only Jesus Filardi (vocals/keyboards) and Jose Bautista (bass/keyboards) remain from earlier incarnations of the band, but they are fleshed out by a number of musicians including Jean Pascal Boffo on guitars and Andy Sears (from Twelfth Night) on backing vocals. It's also interesting to note that Simon Heyworth mastered the disc (his credentials include not only many mainstream releases, but also a number of releases from Anthony Phillips).

From the first track it's obvious this is a continuation of the styles explored on Mindscapers ? very modern-sounding aggressive prog rock, with many layers of aural textures that make for fantastic earphone-candy. "Blind Hostage" opens the album on a strong note, and with backing vocalist Andy Sears there is more than a little in common with some of the stronger late-period Twelfth Night material.

Many of the themes Jesus explores on this (and the previous) album are technology and consumerism and their dehumanizing effects on society. Sometimes he takes a light- hearted stab at these themes like on "Calorie Street". Other tracks, like "Leap of Faith" and "Press?Sure!" and "Consumer Satisfaction" are more serious diatribes. The epic track "As Big as Bang" covers a lot of ground, from the original primordial Big Bang to man's invention of firearms.

Personally speaking, it's great to hear Jesus Filardi singing again. I believe he has one of the best voices in progressive rock today. This new album showcases it well with its slick production and ear-candy textures. If you're new to Galadriel, the songs may be a little too eclectic, and there may not be enough of the more traditional prog clichés to be a clear winner. But just give it time; the album will grow on you!

A forerunner album I'd say. Perhaps the most interesting, innovative and shocking prog album of the 21st century until now. It breaks not only rules, laws and traditions of neo-prog but also of prog in toto. It does not meet the requirements and standards as of 1970s' so of 2000s' prog, and it's difficult to say if Calibrated Collision Course is far below or far above those standards, so unusual it is and so irregularly it sounds. All that the album consists of is made wrong. Every moment, every feature seems erratic. Something similar to hard prog in Blind Hostage - but it's a wrong hard prog. Something reminding fusion or even blues in Leap Of Faith - but it's a wrong fusion. Something... no idea what exactly, something unfamiliar but intuitively erratic in Calorie Street. Some jazzy moments in a few tracks - but again, no one should compose and play jazz prog in such a manner, it's a derivative jazz prog. A wrong, distorted quotation from The Who's Tommy in Press? Sure!. And finally - a wrong epic. Every next bar in 20-minute As Big As Bang is unexpected, and if it brings no discomfort, that's just because every bar is full of strange beauty. Of something that may be called harmony of chaos. The entire album is one big Zone Of High Risk. The risking one is of course Jesus Filardi who, as a composer, explores the areas where no musician ever invaded before. Some people say that probably it would be better if those areas still remained never invaded. Some call Calibrated Collision Course chaotic and unpleasant for ears. I don't try to dispute with those people, this all is very individual. But when I first listened to the album, I was permanently thrilled to solve this 58-minute musical charade. And now, after 9 years, the charade still remains a charade and its solution is every time new. If the 4th album from Galadriel is not an embryo of some new paradigm for prog music, then it is at least a one-time marvel.