PRICKLY PEAR

Second album from the Los Angeles based band THE SOURCE. It took three years to present the follower and the sound has evolved unmistakably. 'Prickly Pear' holds five songs which are provided with a quite complex structure but also presented in a special relaxed mood, symphonic oriented, spiked with some references to wellknown prog dinosaurs too. Especially Harrison Leonard's guitar is partially showing a stylistical conformity with Steve Howe. The band is provided with a new bass player as for a major change. But former member Nico Photos was responsible for the album art work at least and he has contributed to the initial song writing before the decision occured to quit the collaboration.

The Promised Land is only reachable when using a road consisting of many curves and turns. Aaron Goldich's keyboards are leading the band with safety though. This is an interesting diversified track by all means reaching the ten minute mark - even coming near to the typical YES style sometimes. The vocals are nicely mellow - the whole music sounds very harmonic. Surprisingly this song is faded out just reaching for Star Dreamer which is somewhat dreamy indeed where Goldich concentrates on electric piano with a jazzy note and you can enjoy a nice guitar solo excursion by Leonard. Thin Air appears mysteriously to me a little bit because bordering some rare heavy rocking moments but also 60's similar vocals reminding of the Beatles. This is amazingly blended in a successful manner.

Until Morning Time comes up like a mini symphony with changes and surprises en masse where I first thought: this is overproduced unhappily. But now after listening to the album during a longer period it doesn't take effect anymore - on the contrary - I would say this song is the album's highlight ... if not ... Castles In The Sky in active competition is probably a bit more catchy presented like an extended ballad. Here we have an impressing start with excellent bass contribution - lots of acoustic and electric guitars afterwards, funfair organ, convincing polyphonic vocals.

If you are already familiar with bands like IZZ, Big Big Train, Salem Hill, Spock's Beard and like this stuff you will act in the right way when deciding to explore this album. The band delivers high quality. Not adapted for easy background listening - I could listen for another couple of times and surely would detect some new impressions. Take enough time to explore - as many others it needs space to unfold. Listeners of cultivated prog music with retro references to the 70s should pay attention.

Great Source!

Once again, thanks to a site like this we can discover to some new acts that are meaning to keep prog rock alive, if we turn to any side of the globe we will find some young bands trying to put their grain of sand and leave a mark on this realm, some of them fail, some of them have success, but the beauty of this is that there is always prog rock. Now, and thanks to Uwe I could listen to this young band that come from the United States called The Source, who had released one album previously, which sadly I have not listened yet, but this year they came up with their second record called "Prickly Pear" which contains 5 songs and a total time of 49 minutes, so a song average of almost 10 minutes.

The album kicks off with "Promised Land" song that caught my attention since the very first notes due to it's dense and complex musical style, the guitars and keyboards take the leadership, and after a couple of minutes the song slows down and vocals enter, and during it's 10 minutes we will find several little changes, the song is very rich, and in moments causes a sensation of happiness, there are great moments here full of complexity like in minute 7 when it turns a bit faster, and despite being a new band, their style takes some older style, I mean kind of retro prog.

"Star Dreamer", has a dreamy feeling indeed, with a soft and calm harmony and some mellow vocals, this is one of the shorter songs on this album, but it also have it's little changes and it's complexity, in some moments it may turn to a catchy and poppier song, but it is good anyways.

"Until Morning Time" is another of the epics on this album, and that retro prog feeling returns here mainly due to the keyboard sound and guitars, that sometimes remind me a bit to Yes, I can imagine Howe was an influence to The Source guitar player. Being a long song, it is obvious that here we will find several changes, all of them following a proper style that will take you to one short moment to another, at the half of the song a piano enters and gives a radical change to the melody, but again in some moments I reminds me to Yes, very nice song.

"Thin Air" is the other shorter song on the album, and begins again with a soft sound along with the melodic vocals, suddenly some heavier guitar appears, there are also some backing vocals there and a kind of funky guitar later, at the middle of the song drums and a nice piano sound appear creating a cool song.

"Castles in the Sky" is the last song of this album and it is the longest track reaching 15 minutes, the start is a bit slow but it is growing and progressing of course, there are some background organ over there , good guitar notes and after a couple of minutes it makes a stop in order to return with acoustic guitar and then vocals, after all the song remains very calm in moments it actually sounds kind of a ballad, but then there is another change with a guitar riff, I like a lot epic songs, and normally I put them as the best songs on the albums, this time it does not happen, this is a nice epic but that's it, there are better tracks on Prickly Pear, I believe this track would be better if they cut some redundant moments.

After all, it is a very nice album, with some symphonic moments but I believe this is a clear example of the so called "Crossover Prog". Claps for the band and keep the great work. My final grade is 3 stars.

Enjoy it!

The Source is a young progressive rock band based out of Los Angeles. Prickly Pear is their sophomore album and shows development within the band from their first release. I regard them and Moon Safari as great new, young, fresh progressive acts amongst a lot of older, more established bands. I feel that the vast majority of prog bands are a lot older and it is refreshing to see young people closer to my age be inspired by progressive rock and provide a more youthful perspective. That is one of the main things I love about The Source, their sound is very refreshing in what can sometimes feel like a stale genre. I am in no way dissing progressive rock because I love more established bands, but it is a nice change of pace to have such a young band.

This album was a difficult one to review. At first, I was not that impressed by it. There were bits and pieces that caught my attention, but as a whole I wasn't moved by it. But, on repeated listens, I've really grown to love this album and now consider it a considerable improvement from their debut album. This album is definitely a grower, and I recommend that you listen to it numerous times to give it a chance before you make your final verdict on it. In fact, I still feel it is too early for me to form a final opinion, and I feel that it will only keep getting better as I keep listening. This album has become truly addicting for me and I love it.

While I feel the star of their debut was keyboard player/singer Aaron Goldrich, I think the star here is guitar player Harrison Leonard. I am drawn in by his playing which sounds an awful lot like Steve Howe at times, and very jazzy at others. I also love some of the acoustic guitar work as well that pops up on a few tracks. By highlighting Leonard, I in no way am downplaying the other members of the band. I think the playing is top notch all across the board. So, that being said, I'm not sure what bothered me when I first listened to this album. I thought Goldrich's vocals were perhaps too whiny, but I am now quite impressed with his style and love certain vocal sections. I think my main problem with the album is that there doesn't seem to be as much heaviness as I usually like in my prog. I don't mean that they have to have heavy, fast Dream Theater like sections, I just felt that sometimes they get a little too light in their approach and I would like a little more bite.

But, that being said, I've come to appreciate the more "light prog" elements of their sound. I absolutely love the opening track, "Promised Land" and have loved it from the start. The opening reminds me of the opening of "Close to the Edge" by Yes. It is chaotic and beautiful at the same time. I also love the instrumental bits at the end that lead the listener on quite the musical journey. I was actually a little dissapointed when it started to fade away because I was ready to be taken to the next part of the musical journey. The two shorter tracks, "Star Dreamer" and "Thin Air" are both favorites of mine as well, especially "Thin Air". I love the jazziness of this track and the "ooh, la la las" that make this such a fun listen.

The two longer tracks have been the most difficult for me to get into. "Until Morning Time" is great, but once again it seems to drift along without getting to a really hard hitting place that I expected it too. "Castles in the Sky" I like a lot more, and I especially love the ending which for me resembles the ending of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" by the Beatles. This really is a great piece and I have grown to love it more and more with each listen.

So, my verdict on this album is that I have really grown to love it and my score for it has gone up and up as I've listened to it again and again. I still feel I have a ways to go to truly appreciate this record. At first I thought that the compositions sounded chaotic and messy, but I am starting to get how the compositions fit together and flow and it is making for a much more enjoyable listen. So, my conclusion is that this is a remarkable band who have created a great album of music. There are parts where I get a little bored, but for the most part I am fully entertained and even blown away by some parts. This comes highly recommended and I look forward to getting to know this record even more.

The most intriguing album today. To be complete, I have to say that this is also my first album to review today. And to say the terrible truth, this is also first to hear this rainy day. But it sounded good at the first time.

Anyway, except joking mood, I have to say that this is one of these albums, where you know you've fell in love on first sight. Transformed to prog perspective of course "heard", but pattern is the same. Not just after one minute, but I was hooked after first seconds and during whole album. Goal almost unable to accomplish, to attract you through entire what, 45 minutes ? Impossible may some say, but this music is both melodic (I suspect them to use some well known melodies under veil of prog complexity).

When listening these songs, I feel like very depth of my heart is touched. Harmony element is beyond maximum level on scale, it's far more than what you're used to listen (I suppose), almost spooky, how well it all goes.

5(+) Time will show if this decision is right. But I feel it like that.

EDIT: Time prove my decision right, I still admire every (fuc_in) aspect of this music. And it is really hard to catch my attention with every sound here, believe me.

Another thing. It revokes my childhood melodies, long lost melody fragments (beginning of Star Dreamer for example and then all over the song till the end). Or Until Morning Time which again, is almost forcing me to close my eyes and dream. I've never encountered so strong feeling as ones shining from this album. It is so dense and trying to get attention (rightly) that I'm surprised how anybody can feel not affected. Because this is good thing about prog, when you know it's good music (no good, perfect, masterpiece like music), you can flow away and surrender yourself to music, to enjoy it completely and without any limitation. And you know that you're doing right thing. And amongst these promising elements, the most charming one would be vocal part.

Thrilling album.

Second release of this discret and unknown band released in 2009 named Prickly pear is also a worthy affair in symphonic prog realm. This time, at least for me the album sounds little melower and softer then previous one, maybe because the guitar parts and overall instrumental sections are not so evident. The best pieces to me are Until Morning Time and Promised Land, a decent towards great tunes with excellent song writting and good performance, the rest are also ok. I like this band and I like both albums, with a plus on their first one, to me their best from the two. The Source must be discovered for sure by many prog listeners. 3 stars for sure.