4:45AM

Aisles is a band from Chile which combine beautiful melodies with emotional vocals. I am listening to this album quite often these days. It's a pleasant album to listen and gives me a peaceful feeling. The mood is warm and very relaxing. Their first two albums are of the same quality. Especially "In Sudden Walks" with some short commercial songs like Revolution Of Light and the more progressive closer Hawai. An other well known band from South America is Nexus, which is also great. You should check them out! Please give Aisles more attention, they deserve it! Highlights from this CD are: 4:45am, Gallarda Yarura, Sorrow and the last two longer songs Hero and Melancholia. 4 sparkling stars ****

Aisles is again on the map of art/progressive rock scene with their third album issued in 2013 named 4:45. Another worthy release from this chilean band who delivers only the good things here even quite slowly because this album was released after 4 years from previous offer. Art rock with progressive rock elements thrown is to be found here, melodic arrangements, nice warm vocals, Vergara brothers are quite great not only here but aswell on previous album. The passages are emotive and well compose higlighted in pieces like opening title track 4:45 and on instrumental Gallarda Yarura, both are very nice pieces with top notch guitar lines. Another worthy ones are Shallow and daft and Melancholia. As I said the music is well crafted, elegant interludes between musicians bordering neo prog in parts but with a good doze of art rock elements added, no unecesary noodlings here for the sake of it, only warm , melodic and pleasent melodies. Definetly another good album coming from Chile, Aisles is for sure one of the most talented bands ever from Soth America who needs a wider recognition, they are now a mature band I can say .3.5 stars for sure.

Chilean band Aisles have one thing that instantly makes them stand out amongst progressive rock bands - a main emphasis on vocals - wait, don't run away just yet! There's still plenty of exceptional musical displays from the band throughout their third album `4:45am', a energetic, brooding, yet frequently joyous work, but the instrumental passages often take a back seat to a strong focus on vocal prowess, both of lead singer Sebastian Vergara and the whole group. We're not talking lazy frontman-focused AOR or straight-forward rock, instead the band has gone to great effort to deliver a huge array of vocal variety and complex harmonies, which is very admirable and quite daring. Prog rock is a genre known for sometimes treating vocals as an unimportant afterthought, so this makes the band stand out even more. There's no doubt about it, Aisles are a very confident band, totally sure of their abilities, and they've delivered a strong, melodic and distinctive work here.

Despite not a proper concept album with a connected narrative, the individual pieces often share a similar theme. According to the band, "4:45 is about pain, blood, resilience and strength. It's the most extreme hour of the day, the time in which you either get up or get completely lost, an hour shared by a soul in decline and one ready to rise". To realize this idea, Aisles chose an interesting selection of influences to incorporate into their sound. Everything from Rush and Coheed and Cambria-style intricate heavy prog, Spock's Beard cleverness, 80's accessible Genesis, the stadium rock excess of `The Wall-era' Pink Floyd and even new wave synth/poppers Duran Duran (not as bad as it sounds!) emerges throughout the album, but never in a lazy and uninspired way. The band twist subtle touches of those artists to their own unique vision. There's also lengthy and thrilling instrumental passages that only hint at directions the band may choose to guy in the future.

The band go right for the throat with the gutsy title-track opener, Coheed-influenced delirious vocal intensity (as well as similar female backing chorus spots), spiky electric guitar runs and some very upfront drumming. `Shallow and Daft' is an impossibly catchy yet lyrically dark synth-popper in the manner of 80's Genesis and Duran Duran that is perfect for what is a scathing observation of vacuous and empty celebrity culture, and it's truly one of the best examples of a catchy pop format working seamlessly with progressive intelligence. The harder sections of `Back My Strength' have a `Wall'-era Pink Floyd thickness, but sadly the lead vocal melody gets a little harsh in a few spots.

The seven minute `Sorrow' is an astonishing standout. A sad, sweetly romantic vocal is wrapped around numerous tempo and direction changes back and forth, the piece leaping to life with sudden confident bursts amongst the warmest of dazzling acoustic playing. "I've got you to resign to this world" is a particularly lovely lyric too. Somber acoustic ballad `The Sacrifice' has swooning, powerful group vocals from the whole band, as well as some welcome sprightly and nimble acoustic guitar fret-work. Album closer `Melancholia' balances delicate acoustic moods, triumphant and joyous electric guitar soloing and gentle voices. Oddly, and possibly coincidently, much of this piece reminds me of British singer Paul Draper and UK proggers Mansun. Shame about the unexciting fade out at the end, though!

There's also a few purely instrumental pieces that demonstrate a whole other fascinating side to the band. `Gallarda Yarura' shows the technicality of Dream Theater without the heaviness, an unpredictable harder edge like the Nick D'Virgilio era Spock's Beard-like and some precious I.Q mystery. There's tension filled electric drones with delayed guitar feedback and electronic pulsing beats during the experimental `Intermission'. The almost nine-minute `Hero' is a tour-de-force, full of brooding heaviness with unpredictable chiming guitar bursts, bristling snappy Neo-prog styled synths, ethnic percussion, melancholic ambient and doomy symphonic atmospheres.

Accompanied by a lavish CD booklet with stunning - and frequently dark - paintings by Omar Galindo (and just look at front that cover - vinyl edition, Aisles fellas, please!), `4:45am' is an assured and thrilling work from a talented band that frequently sounds so defiantly original, like no- one other prog band at the moment, and the way they implement their emotive vocals with the same passion that most prog bands only give to their instrumental passages is completely inspiring. I predict a bigger status in the progressive rock community in the years to come for Aisles.

Four and a half stars.

'4:45 AM' - Aisles (55/100)

Aisles guitarist German Vergara introduced me to his band's music a few years ago, when I received a pair of their albums in the mail. The Yearning and In Sudden Walks offered a more melodic approach to progressive rock that I was used to hearing, but the Chilean act soon grew on me. I still have fond memories of hearing In Sudden Walks for the first time and being taken aback by how beautifully Aisles had managed to incorporate vocal melody and harmony with the progressive mainframe. Not surprisingly, I was intrigued to hear where Aisles had gone thereafter. 4:45 AM is a quasi-concept work of sorts, inspired by the emotions and thoughts one might feel at that time where a new day begins. I'll say outright that Aisles' third album hasn't initially impressed me as much as the first two; even so, their efforts to innovate and expand their sound haven't gone unnoticed.

I don't think a review of any of Aisles' albums could go without bringing up their focus on melody. Historically, Aisles have always built their songs around emotive vocal melodies, a trait which will either attract or dissuade a progger outright, depending on their taste. Even if the human voice is the most potentially emotive musical instrument our species has at our disposal, I don't think the potential is often unlocked in prog or rock. In Sudden Walks was one such album that fulfilled that promise; Sebastian Vergara's voice complimented the atmosphere beautifully there. In comparison, 4:45 AM is less successful. The excellent acoustic piece "The Sacrifice" is reminiscent of the vocal success on In Sudden Walks, but the integration isn't handled so well here. In fact, many of Aisles' best successes on 4:45 AM are of the instrumental variety. "Gallarda Yarura" is a great instrumental that, surprisingly enough, offers some of the album's best melodies. "Intermission" is the album's darkest, most experimental track, based around the repeating motif and a bevy of soundscapey effects atop it. Sebastian Vergara's brooding voice is still in sharp form, but Aisles' vocal-based tracks aren't quite so dynamic this time around.

I once pegged Aisles as a band training from under the shadow of Marillion. Neo-prog was the surefire label for this band on the first two albums, but no I'm not so sure. The title track sounds like they could be drawing from dredg or The Dear Hunter. "Shallow and Daft" sounds like New Wave or 80's pop. The instrumentals have also added unprecedented variety to Aisles' music. Yet, for an album that sports such a variety of sounds and styles, 4:45 AM feels very subdued. The Floydian "Hero" is a welcome exception to this rule, but on the whole Aisles sound a little too restrained for their own good here. Even "Shallow and Daft"- Aisles' satirical love letter to pop excess- sounds relatively somnolent. I do suppose it makes sense given the album's theme revolves around "an hour shared by a soul in decline and one ready to rise" (according to the band) but the constant mellowness can make 4:45 AM frustrating, especially when the band clearly has the potential for a more energetic performance. If you need any evidence of that, you need look no further than the opening of the title track. Though it picks up on a characteristically mellow note, the way the drums pick up pace and lead into the first verse is brilliant. Aisles have always opted for the more laid-back side of the spectrum, but more often than not on 4:45 AM, I'm left feeling like a lot of the music is in need of some early morning caffeine.

Although part of it may be attributed to a natural shift of tastes over time, I don't find myself as engaged by 4:45 AM as I did with the first two Aisles albums some years ago. It feels like a well-intentioned transition between their neo-progressive roots and a yet- undetermined point of destination. In offering such an attractive variety of prog and pop styles, Aisles haven't done quite enough to link it all together; each song offers some sort of promising identity, but there's little indication that the tracks are working together as a whole. It's an unfortunate side-effect of the album's promising variety that 4:45 AM ends up feeling disappointingly indistinct. Even if I don't find it as enjoyable as In Sudden Walks, I still think that Aisles' third album is a step in the right direction. Whatever weaknesses 4:45 AM has suffered over its predecessors is simply a result of Aisles' bold attempt to expand their boundaries and evolve musically.

Hailing from Santiago de Chile comes Aisles, representing the genre of neo prog since 2001 as led by brothers Germán and Sebastián Vergara. Their third album, 4:45 AM, represents a variety of songs that are for the most part vocally driven, tightly arranged, and composed with focus. Like many neo prog bands, this is not strictly for the progressive fans; lovers of pop rock, especially of the 80′s variety will certainly find much to love here just as fans of bands like Marillion and Saga will likely embrace this album.

4:45 AM comprises six vocal pieces and four instrumentals, but despite the fact that there are nearly as many instrumentals as vocal tracks, the overall feel of the album is a song- oriented, vocal driven direction. Among these, the songs "4:45 AM," "Sorrow," and "Melancholia" stand out as my favorites. While I've never been much of a Rush fan, "4:45′s" distinctively Rush meets neo prog feel caught my attention. Everything from the vocals to the drumming and guitar transitions reminded me of Rush, but extremely well executed so as not to be cheesy and always containing a certain amount of distinctiveness in the way they meld hints of jazz fusion throughout. Furthermore, the instrumental interlude is fantastic, featuring blazing guitar runs and great energy from the whole band. "Sorrow" shines with it's catchy groove in 7, gorgeous classical guitar playing, rich tone, and smooth feel. Reminding me very much of some Riverside ballads this piece has killer atmosphere and features a powerful climax where a violin weaves powerfully through dueling vocals and soloing drums. Also noteworthy would be "Melancholia," whose guitar riffing is the true standout factor. From the first moments of the track you'll pick up on a powerful melding of chords, texturing and lead to make for some cool riffs. Rounding out the vocal tracks on the album are pieces like "Shallow Draft," representing the 'Saga'-like 80′s pop rock side of the band, a power-ballad in the form of "Back My Strength," the quiet piece, "The Sacrifice." While I wasn't fond of these three pieces, those who are into more popular styles should dig them and they might even be a good way to ease your friends into some prog.

On the instrumental field of 4:45 AM there were some great things going on. "Hero" delivers lots of tasty drumming and percussion, light keys, and solid guitar playing overall. I'm hearing everything from bits of fusion to a brief shredding, spacey keys solo, to some mega Steve Vai influenced guitar runs that made me grin from ear to hear. Combine that with a sort of dark new age meets film score section in the middle and you've got a tastefully varied track on your hands. "Intermission" shows a very different side of the band with the instruments imitating electronics. From the guitars reproducing an arpeggiator feel to heavily processed drums and ambient leads, this is certainly a contrasting piece for this album. The instrumental that blew me out of the water, however, was "Gallarda Yarura." This is an evocative song with bits of folk, a stunning groove in 3, fantastic atmospheric changes, and loads of subtlety in the arrangement. One of the most beautifully melodic pieces on the album, "Gallarda Yarura" is delicately crafted and makes every musical line meaningful and consciously emotive. These Chilenos know how to deliver the instrumental goods and I would like to hear more of from them in the future.

Overall, Aisles produces a solid album and shows potential for the future. I am impressed by their melodic sensitivity, which is especially clear on tracks like "Gallarda Yarura" and the title song. In the future I would like to see them take more of a focused direction and establish a firm musical identity that could be a launching point for a distinctive sound. That said, they're going in the right direction and will surely produce more quality music in the future.

Night is full of emotions

Sometimes, you wake up in the middle of the night, and go out to see what is going on in the world - or just lay on your back and fantasise about it. That's what Aisles' album 4:45AM is about: a man doing just that, get up and stroll through the city, soaking up all the emotions he feels. Each track on the album fits an emotion he may encounter, from melancholy to sorrow, but also the feeling of strength to correct past mistakes.

All of these are different emotions, and that explains why all tracks on this album are so vastly different, despite the idea of it being a concept album. This also makes it in hard to grasp the album at first - but by the time you reach the end, you just want to listen again. My review notes show this - usually I listen to an album 'on the fly' a few times, and then over time I start taking notes as input for a review. Even after playing the album 10 times, my notes still showed doubt about the first few tracks, and more and more curiosity near the end. And I'm playing it yet another time while writing this...

The opening (and title) track 4:45AM opens with a catchy guitar riff, which makes you expect a straight forward rock song. Nothing is less true, this is a full blown, varied neo-inspired track with a lot of very nice guitar and keyboard work. The instrumental Gallarda Yarura that follows is a very well done instrumental piece. At first I found it just a bit too long, but after some time you start realising that more is happening than you hear when listening to casually - a sin when listening to this type of music any way. Now the real confusion of the first few listens starts right after this, with the 80s pop alike track Shallow and Daft, which according to German Vergara in an interview is exactly that - an 80s pop alike track with a message about the shallowness of commercial radio. It grows on you, despite not being the most complicated track on the album.

After this, there's a lot more on offer, and my personal highlights are The Sacrifice, Intermission and Sorrow.

The Sacrifice is a beautiful acoustic guitar and vocal track, in which Sébastian Vergara shows what he can do (with his brother on backing vocals), and the addition of a string quintet at the end to complete the feeling of the sacrifice being made.

Intermission is a very surprising and addictive instrumental. With it's pulsating rhythm and the guitars sounding almost as if being produced by a synthesizer, it is an almost psychedelic rock track that stays with you.

Sorrow is the highlight of the album altogether, with a varied mix of melodies, instrumentation and great vocals. It also shows the one weakness of this album: the balance between highs and lows in the mix. It's not only because my own main instrument is bass that I feel the bass side of the sound spectrum is lacking on this album, only Sorrow seems to be more balanced in this respect.

The two remaining tracks Hero and Melancholia I will not describe in full detail here, but they are of the same quality as the other tracks.

This album is really what some would call a 'grower' - and exactly why I never would write a review based on a single play of an album.

Thanks to German Vergara for providing a review copy of the album.

Chilean band AISLES was formed back in 2001, and came to some prominence when they released their debut album "The Yearning" in 2005 through Mylodon Records (South America) and Musea Records (Europe). Since then they have set up their own label, Presagio Records, and released a further two albums. "4:45 AM" is the most recent of these, and was released towards the tail end of 2013.

As of 2013 Aisles comes across as an accomplished art rock band, a unit that manages to incorporate synthy pop into their sound with the same ease as they incorporate melodic and neo progressive rock, but who appear to be at their best when exploring moods of a more tranquil nature, using vocals and rhythm details to very good effect in creations that revolve around careful, frail guitar motifs and unobtrusive keyboards and strings to create strong and distinct moods with a lot of nerve, despite their overall delicate and careful nature. A production that merits a check by those intrigued by bands described as art rock as well as by those who tends to enjoy music that merits a description as sophisticated rock.

Chile's neo prog/crossover band "Aisles" would appear to be adopting the philosophy of the proverbial tortoise, marking a slow and steady improvement with each release, and a maturation that comes with watching the world pass by at half speed. "4:45 AM" channels this philosophy, the hour at which one can simply roll over or opt to savor the crepuscular serenity and put the hurly burly in its place.

The style remains as before: a refreshingly uptempo, at times even pop inflected delivery that thankfully splashes about a romantic Latin flair in its more acoustic textures, as well as in its vocals, which tower above the meager standards of most prog rock. The prog quotient remains high throughout, quite an achievement given the lightness of some of the moods. It is reinforced by several instrumentals, with "Gallarda Varura" and "hero" being the most enjoyable, the former possessing a sweet melody and the latter all the bombast of recent NICK MAGNUS instrumentals via STEVE HACKETT. The more accessible songs are the title cut, the power ballad "Back my Strength" reminiscent of the better offerings on the prior albums, and the remarkable "Shallow and Daft", which achieves its stated objective of emulating 1980s synth pop, with meticulous arrangements, irresistible synth hooks and spoken parts that warn of the dangers of charismatic media overlords the world over. But all in an uplifting way!

The mellow "The Sacrifice" and "Sorrow" incorporate fluid acoustic guitar passages that hint at the group's lineage without insisting upon it, and the result is congenial. I may be giving the impression that the music of "Aisles" is too "safe" for the more demanding progressive rock listener, and I suppose that's true to an extent. I might argue that distinguishing oneself in this realm is no easier than in the cumulus clouds of 11/8 time signatures and virtuous solos, and AISLES performs admirably well in a more crowded field by playing to their strengths. Prior albums revealed that epics were not their trump card, and the closer here, "Melancholia" does not really buck the trend, although its monotony of languid vocals and ponderous guitars is not without charm.

I have to resist grading "4:45 AM" as a schoolmarm might assess a student whom she believes to be underachieving, in the hopes of motivating said student. In a recent discussion about "Aisles", I confronted the reality that, while I really like the group, I find their output doesn't quite do them justice. Still, this is their best album to date and, like the title hints, it's still early in the grand scheme of things. 5 stars by 2020?

This is an album from a band that arises from the less complex side of the neo-prog genre, and features callbacks of vocal-fronted pop rock circa very late 70's progressive rock akin to material by Kayak or Styx. Atypical of most well- known prog bands Aisles (or I guess AISLES as they stylize it) has an aforementioned heavy emphasis on vocal work performed by Sebastian Vergara, which depending on who you are, could spoil most experimentation or improvisation present on 4:45. Guitar work and overall use of flashy, echoing effect-laden playing style is very similar to music you'd find on late-career material from Pink Floyd (Division Bell mainly). To me this is a bit disappointing because it has that sense of a band who used to play extremely well on their own but due to age they had to rely on background ambiance and soundscapes to make up for any emptiness they would have been able to kill in their heyday. This does not at all apply to Aisles, who has been around only since 2001, but is forgivable because, surprise, they aren't Pink Floyd. Variation is mostly present towards the end of the album, but retains mainly the same style, tempo. This causes a bland factor for most of the tracks on the album, making them forgettable for the most part- that is but for the finale epic Melancholia; a song where this style of Aisles actually works as well as has equal balance between the vocals and the instrumentation. This song demonstrates creativity that I do hope to see on upcoming albums from the band.

Unfortunately 4:45 as a whole is humble but also doesn't quite cross the threshold of skill that I expected. Compositions are not unique, lacks a unique style, and overall is not played quite to snuff as I think it could have. Like most of Aisles' releases up to this point, this is another step up the proverbial rung for the band's rising potential. An album doesn't quite satisfy but also makes me expectant for a followup.

The band's third studio album sees them taking a step toward more radio-friendly pop-oriented songs.

1. "4:45am" (4:06) like a late 1970s AOR song from ART IN AMERICA or RUSH. I have to admit to being a little surprised at the directional choice exhibited by this song--obviously chosen to represent the band's new vision/sound in its being the album's opener. The extraordinary musicianship and dedication to complex minutia is, of course, still obvious, but this is definitely more of a pop-oriented song. (8.75/10)

2. "Gallarda Yarura" (4:32) a long guitar-centric instrumental that could very well have supported vocals makes me wonder if lyricists were either preoccupied with other parts of life or whether Sebastian Vergara was not as heart-fully engaged in the project. (8.666667/10)

3. "Shallow and Daft" (4:52) there's quite a bit of 1980s jazz-pop in this one--sounding a lot like HOWARD JONES, ICEHOUSE, and/or JOHNNY HATES JAZZ. Interesting choices for radio samples they included in the final minute. Melodically quite pleasing but technically and instrumentally quite a step down from the complexity of their past stuff. (8.5/10)

4. "Back my Strength" (4:54) 1980s BRIAN FERRY! Such a simple four-chord song that I feel quite disappointed. Even the beautiful little delicate passage in the middle is diminished by the standard radio fare that it is sandwiched between (though I do like the homage to WHITESNAKE in the instrumental guitar solo). (8.5/10)

5. "The Sacrifice" (5:08) lone acoustic guitar being gently picked shows promise--raises my hopes. Sebastian's delicate vocal (later harmonized) matches perfectly. Gorgeous. But, it never really develops into anything more than this (which leaves it locked out of the prog world, relegated to pop-stage craft). Even the buildup and crescendo in the fifth minute is not enough--more emotion than compositional genius. (8.75/10)

6. "The Ship" (0:57) ship noises--more engine and industrial gear than water.

7. "Intermission" (5:02) the opening weave here seems to suggest that "Side 2" might be more proggy.I love this! The long sustained notes up front make me think that there might be an electric violin involved. Something we might have heard from BRUCE COCKBURN when he had HUGH MARSH working with him. I even love the more percussion- oriented reprise at the end. Great instrumental! My favorite song on the album. (9.5/10)

8. "Sorrow" (6:57) acoustic guitars being picked with more traditional percussion sounds (like talking drum!) and Sebastian and harmony vocals worked into a nice gentle weave. I love the deep throb of the bass play. The interplay of the two or three guitarists alone is magical! I don't really like the way Sebastian's voice is compressed and held in the back. And why is the beautiful female vocalist's name (Constanza Maulén) uncredited? My other top three song. (13.375/15)

9. "Hero" (8:11) a slow methodical progression of blues-rock guitar arppegi (using a soundscape quite similar to that of THE GATHERING on the twin towers of "Analog Park" and "Herbal Movement") with support drums and bass and frenzied synth noises flitting in and out turns into a more familiar Aisles style at the 90-second mark with some cool time and thematic twists and turns accented by guitar, synth, percussion, and vocalise flourishes here and there and ended by an almost Gregorian chant bridge at the four-minute mark that takes us into a very ENIGMA-feeling cave/cathedral place for a minute or so. Drums and distant power chords and aggressive but distant guitar play join in during the sixth minute as DAVID GILMOUR/BRIAN MAY-like strummed chords and RICHARD WRIGHT-like synth solos a bit. At the seven-minute mark the joinder and presence of the string quartet becomes quite noticeable. The final minute sees the song resort to beautiful classical guitar being picked over the remnants of the string quartet. Nice ending to a surprisingly long instrumental. hard to believe that these formidable vocalists did not create anything magical to complete the fully-dimensional realization of this one! Still, I call this a win--and it definitely pleases one's prog sensibilities! My second favorite song on the album. (18/20)

10. "Melancholia" (10:41) a little slow in its distorted blues-rock orientation, the full and theatric story and lyrics get a bit lost in the one-dimensional three-chord music that plays pretty much from start to finish. I like the way the instrumental portion of the music recedes over the final 90 seconds while the vocals lag behind, staying forward. (17.333333/20)

Total time (55:19)

Were it not for "Side 2" (the last four songs) this album would not be worth any prog lover's while.

B-/3.5 stars; a bit of a disappointment; as if the band was torn as to which stylistic direction(s) to go and was also kind of forcing an album out while lacking inspired, fully-committed contributions from the full complement of collaborators.