SODOM AND GOMORRA XXI (AS AL-BIRD)

Symphonic prog from an Uzbek project which later developed into Fromuz. This is the debut album from a project with in total two albums.

All music here is instrumental with vocals used as instruments. This is one fifty minutes long suite with no letups. The music is a mix of new age, fusion, a lot of Pink Floyd'ish space rock, Russian symph prog and avant-garde. Think Little Tragedies and Karfagen. A bit Fromuz is also present here. There is also a lot of Eastern folk and classical music present here.

The music ebbs and flows throughout with a lot of change of themes along the way. The first part is very Pink Floyd. The final half an hour is much more classical music.

Quality wise, this album is good. There are some great melody lines along this ride and I find this album pleasing, but not great. A good album, nevertheless.

3 stars

Underneath the name of Al-Bird it states "A solo album from one of the three of X Religion", and underneath the title it states "Progressive Symphonic Poem". On turning the CD over to find that it was a four part epic which was further sub-divided into another twenty pieces, and had been presented as a 'scenic version' as well, I was ready to fall asleep. But, and it is a very large 'but', this is a damn fine album. It has been recorded by the three members of X Religion, a progressive rock band from Uzbekistan, but has been released as a solo album. The only thing that is a pain is that although it states that it is in separate sections, and indeed these are musically quite obvious, it has been loaded onto the CD as one data track so the only way to listen to it is by playing it through in a complete sitting.

The press release mentions bands such as Pink Floyd (most definitely) and ELP (I can see where they are coming from with that one), but in truth there is a lot more going one here. There are sections that with just a small amount of mixing could belong on Chemical Brothers while at others it is quite hard rock. One of the joys of this album is that it is not just possible to deduce what is going to happen next, yet at the same time it does seem to fit together as a whole.

Musea state that the album "is as ambitious in its conception as it is successful in its production" and I wholeheartedly agree with them. Not an album that I thought I was going to enjoy but it is very good indeed.

Originally appeared in Feedback #71, Dec 02