ACCELERATION THEORY, PART ONE - ALIENA

"In Continuum" is another project started by Dave Kerzner (originally from "Sound of Contact), who released their first full album called "Acceleration Theory" on January 1, 2019. The album is based around a sci-fi story of Kerzners about an alien that falls in love with a human and warns of on alien race that is coming to destroy the Earth. The band line-up consists of Kerzner, who is the band's keyboardist, lead vocalist and guitarist (acoustic) and main composer; Gabriel Agudo also lead vocalist; Matt Dorsay (also from "Sound of Contact") bass, guitar and vocals; Randy McStine on guitar and vocals; and Marco Minneman on drums. Along with this line up is the inclusion of several special guest musicians like John Wesley (Porcupine Tree) and Jon Davidson (Yes) on "Meant to Be", Steve Hackett (Genesis) on the track "Crash Landing", and Steve Rothery (Marillion) on the track "Be the Light". This is also the first part of the album, the second part will be made available later this year.

The album starts off with the title track "Acceleration Theory". This is an instrumental introduction lasting over 5 minutes with a spoken word section done by guest Leticia Wolf. There are also some guest strings added so the track is driven by the violin, viola, cello, piano and other keyboards. The track is dramatic as it introduces the story and there are also vocal field recordings. Slow drums start off at 3 minutes and the guitar also joins in.

"Crash Landing" features Steve Hackett who opens with a nice guitar intro and this slides into a quick keyboard bass reminiscent of Pink Floyd. Kerzner begins to sing, his vocals are a bit similar to David Gilmour in his lower register, but are more unique in his higher registers. The song structure is standard rock. Towards the end, Hackett plays again with the strings. "I Remember" tells the backstory of the alien and human meeting and of their love. It is more lyric driven and sung by Agudo. It is an emotional song and midtempo ballad style, but it is also standard.

"Two Moons Setting with the Sun" features dual vocals from Agudo and guest Leticia Wolf who mostly does harmony and some atmospherics. The song features a more complex rhythm pattern in the chorus giving things a more progressive sound but the meter is still a standard. The instrumental break is great with a second set of drums played by guest Nick D'Virgilio. The track finishes with a keyboard solo. Kerzner takes the vocals on "Scavangers" (with help from Jon Davison as background singer) which opens on an upbeat guitar solo. The verses and standard rock fare, the chorus is slightly more complex. The bridge slows things up some, but the main theme returns and ends on another sweeping guitar solo.

Steve Rothery guests on guitar on the next track "Be the Light". The song is more airy and expansive. Agudo sings main vocals with backing help from Wolf and Kerzner. Not a bad song, but it is pretty standard and accessible. It would work well as a single. "Hands of Time" is the longest track just over 11 minutes. Agudo and Kerzner are both on vocals and the string quartet is included on this one. There is an atmospheric beginning that quickly escalates into the most progressive section on the album so far with heavy guitars and keys. The heaviness gives in to a softer section and vocals finally begin with Kerzner. Things intensify and back off a few times while the vocals continue. Agudo takes the lead vocal later in the track as the lyrics take on the first person narration. This track is much more progressive as tempo changes and style changes several times. There are some nice solos here too.

"Racing Through the Past" is mostly an instrumental, but there are some vocal effects from Agudo and Wolf and some interesting guitar effects along with the string section. "AlienA" features Wolf singing the female alien character. "Meant to Be" features vocals by Jon Davidson singing over the theme from the track "I Remember".

"Man Unkind" is sung by Kerzner and is another Pink Floyd style track. The best feature of this track is the electric violin played by Joe Deninzon and the rousing solo he gets at the instrumental break. The string quartet joins in on this one too. "Banished" is the last track on Part One and features John Wesley on a baritone guitar. Deninzon also joins in on the electric violin again and the quartet does too.

The band has promised that Part Two will be available in the next few months. The story is represented well in the album with good characterization among the vocalists. The music is good, but leans on the side of progressive-lite, there are elements there, especially in "Hands of Time" and the rest of the album is well done, but as far as any thing standing out other than that, it is a good and smart album but with nothing groundbreaking and, in my opinion, not much in the way of complex and interesting sections that stand out. Yes its good and most people will enjoy it, however. And as far as the impressive list of guests are concerned, they are mostly underutilized except for maybe Deninzon's excellent solo in "Man Unkind".

Singer, keyboard player and guitarist Dave Kerzner (Sound of Contact) has started a new project with In Continuum, based around a core of himself and Gabriel Agudo (Steve Rothery Band / Bad Dreams). The concept of the band itself is that it will involve a revolving cast of musicians, almost in an Alan Parsons Project style, with different people being brought in to add different elements. For the debut that includes Matt Dorsey (Sound of Contact), Randy McStine (Sound of Contact, The Fringe), former Porcupine Tree and Sound of Contact touring guitarist John Wesley, drummers Marco Minnemann, Nick D'Virgilio (Big Big Train, Spock's Beard) and Derek Cintron along with guitarist Fernando Perdomo from the Dave Kerzner Band. Special guests on the album also includes Steve Hackett, Jon Davison (Yes), Steve Rothery (Marillion) and Joe Deninzon among others

As can be seen from the album title itself, the debut is being viewed as telling the first part of the concept, which is based on a science fiction short from Dave, set in the year 2074. The booklet is fully detailed including who plays on what song, lyrics, plus the story itself. This is a very polished album, one which I fell into the very first time I played it. There are obvious links with Alan Parsons, Steve Hackett, GTR and Asia and feels very Americanised indeed, but I mean all of this in a positive light. The songs are strong, with more than a hint of ELO at times, which they need to be given the performers who are involved. Songs such as 'I Remember' are bright and clear, with some inspired guitar at the beginning from Randy, and some stunning vocals from Gabriel. Marco is quite restrained (for him) on this track, but there are others where both he and Nik are out to show just why they are regarded as two of the finest drummers around.

Commercial and immensely enjoyable, it is an album which rarely feels as if it is a group of separate musicians as opposed to a band, and probably the single biggest impact on this is the violin of Deninzon as when he is involved in a song the ear is instantly drawn to what he is doing. Overall this is a great debut album, and I am certainly looking forward to the next instalment.

Dave KERZNER, a man I discovered in 2014 with "Stranded" and who worked on SOUND OF CONTACT and under his own name, is releasing an opus at the beginning of the year in the continuity of his performances, IN CONTINUUM! This album has everything to please the "guest stars" by sailing on bands such as STEVE ROTHERY BAND, STEVEN WILSON, THE ARISTOCRATS, PORCUPINE TREE, SPOCK'S BEARD, YES, MARILLION, THE DEAD DEADS, STEVE HACKETT in other! In terms of its reference, one can walk on the PINK FLOYD period "The Wall", on the ALAN PARSONS PROJECT (announcing a new opus of the latter?), on THE KING CRIMSON of the period "Red", on GENESIS of the period "Duke" to "And Then There Were Three"; we are also there on the atmosphere of AYREON for galactic sounds and history ... This romantico-galactic concept is set in 2074 and tells the story of a (charming) alien who came to Earth to prevent a potential attack on humans by his people... humans, remotely controlled without their knowledge of their own free will since the beginning of the 20th century by the same aliens who provided them with the means to develop their technology to move to an advanced stage of evolution, have of course not waited for them to begin their own self-destruction through, among other things, a well-felt nuclear war. We will leave it to you to read all the details in the album booklet. In short, don't hesitate to snorkel on this long sidereal journey! At the pure atmosphere level, I was able to find the sublime voice of Gabriel Agudo and Jon Davison as well as that of Leticia Wolf fluid, crystalline, taking me a little towards YES and the GENESIS of Ray Wilson; otherwise, the symphonic parts with violin and cello bring an even more airy and graceful sound, not just symphonic; As for the different guitar parts, the flights of Hackett, Rothery and Wesley highly complement those of Randy McStine for solos often dantesque, dreamlike, demonstrative and enjoyable. The sound of IN CONTINUUM becomes more than a melting pot of great artists, more than a mega-group of musicians aware of their art, this sound reaches my ears as the quintessence, brewing and filtering of a generous PROG era. The different songs go from real haunting melodies to purely prog tracks, and to others almost epic metal, in short and before moving on to the deepening of the album, you will have understood that you have here one of the very good albums of 2019, if we go is due to the release date of January 1st! Let's move on to the titles, just to dissect the beast a little: "Acceleration Theory" and his intro to the "Time" of PINK FLOYD just to put in the bath, classical instruments for a lyrical crescendo climb of the most beautiful effect, a solo to the "Duke" genesis, it's the sceneist! This is followed by "Crash Landing" for a hit with a sound at the ALAN PP for melodic synths and a bass reminiscent of the "Dogs of War" of PINK FLOYD again and his solo sire HACKETT with its variation of notes! "I Remember" based on the warm voice of Gabriel Agudo in a register of that of Ted Leonard of ENCHANT gives an FM title with this time cascading notes of a certain Steve Rothery, whom I was able to greet last year and his hand and his performance at a French festival Ais! "Two Moons" goes on a very "Nigerian" HUM BLOOD with an air that Tony Banks would not have denied, it's like "Burning Rope". "Scavengers" and "Be the Light" take us on TOTO with always this rocky voice, it's almost dancing, it's energetic, it's nagging but on the bright side, it's intoxicating! From the piano, a ubiquitous drums for the first track, The magic guitar of Rothery on the ballad of the album.

Let's continue the second part of the album with "Hands in Time", future cult prog piece: a pinch of "The Wall" for the voices, an intro SF, then from the 2'30'' of the riff and a jazzy outburst with integrated trumpet, plus a bit of KING CRIMSON period "Red" and a little s John Wesley's olo give this piece an incredible space-metal rhythm of talent: just, listen! Immediately after, we arrive at the last piece itself pre-cut in 5 movements: "Racing... and her delicious piano intro and voice all accompanied by cellos and other violins, we leave with "Aliena" on the album's hit, a heady female voice by Leticia Wolf, a cascade of crystalline notes and an ARIA to the IN CONTINUUM! "Meant To Be" and "Man Unkind" will take us even further into the prog galactic sphere by bringing piano, violin, voice, guitars and successive rhythms to the firmament; at times, for the oldest dinos-fans- progueux, we will be entitled to vintage sound SOLSTICE as on "New Life"! Finally or already, the last track "Banished" will bring us back to earth with a last solo of John Wesley at the baritone! In short, two titles that must be listened to and that give IN CONTINUUM its credential