THE ORIGIN OF CONSCIOUSNESS

I haven't heard the previous UR album, Through and Through, so I didn't know what to expect, except that Bill Pohl has a touch of Holdsworth in his guitar style. Well, I always find that intriguing. Bill Pohl does have a lot of Holdsworth in his bag of tricks. That doesn't detract from what my ears are telling me though. Kurt Rongey shifts deftly between piano and synth, swirling out flurries of ascending and descending patterns. Drummer John Livingston is powerful and dynamic, has great tone and compliments the strong bass playing of Matt Hembree. This is a very tight band, playing complex progressive rock with some major fusion influence. The vocals are good, at least much better than other bands playing this style of music. Some of the harmony vocals remind of Echolyn. The lyrics are pretty far out, in the Jon Anderson tradition. I've read them a few times and without some kind of guidance from the author they could contain multiple meanings. In this context, the ambiguity fits and doesn't detract from the overall pleasurable experience.

As I sit and listen whilst typing this review, I'm hearing what can only be described as Echolyn with Scott McGill sitting in to provide additional pyrotechnics. There is a similarity of sound, especially when the whole band builds mountainous crescendoes of instrumental power. Missing are the acoustic guitars and memorable melodies that make Echolyn the significant group that they are. Not to say this music is without melody, but simply a lack of melodic hooks that get stuck in your head. Instrumentally, these guys are ferocious and not lacking for ideas, but maybe they are putting too many ideas into the mix and not letting the melodies take hold and gel. Still, I can't help but be intrigued by the cohesion of the bands sound. This one calls for more than casual listening and since they are from Texas, I'm sure they'd want the listeners to swill some fine brew to better appreciate their brand of American Prog.

I would recommend The Underground Railroad to fans of Echolyn, Frogg Cafe, Land of Chocolate, Finneus Gauge, Thieves Kitchen, Dark Aether Project, Djam Karet and Thirteen of Everything. A complex harmonic undertaking. Raise a glass and enjoy!

You owe it to yourself to check this band out. If you like Genesis style keyboard prog... this is for you. It's funny that the other 2 reviewer's hear other different band styles in the music since this music can be a crystal with all the different colors in it. This is very creative and original, incredible layer upon layer of intricate dynamic progressive textures. With every listen, you will hear something new and it's complex enough to keep this in my CD player for many consecutive listens. The acoustic and synth keyboards have a classical and progressive sound and the electric guitarist is very creative and uniquely expressive and can be mind blowing...depending how open minded you are to it. I cannot stress the dynamics and time signiture changes enough, beautiful melodies too. I've listened to prog rock for 32 years now and these guys are really incredible. You can check out audio samples on the http://www.theundergroundrailroad.net/.

I rarely bash modern bands, since I know how it’s hard to make a record and release album. But THE UNDERGROUND RAILROAD did nothing to please my tastes; hence this is purely egoistic point of view :) OK, these guys didn’t care for throwing at least one memorable melody in their album, but they overfilled it with top-notch playing and head-crashing signatures. Their Jazz and even Avant leanings are obvious, so I guess they are simply misplaced in Symphonic Prog genre. Or is this Symphonic MathRock? Anyway, if Prog for you is a good playing first and complexity for its own sake second, get this one. If you care for emotions, melodies, enjoyable moments etc, forget about these things for an hour.

I can't believe another reviewer ditched this album BECAUSE it was "overfilled it with top notch playing and head crashing signatures" The melodicism is incorporated within the harmonic complexities of the dense arrangements, otherwise you just may be browsing in progressive music by mistake. This contemporary music is a synthesis of many forward thinking trends in bands from Henry Cow to Bill Brufford. Simply beautiful and dynamic progressive fusion. Do not take it for what it is not. This is not proto prog or neo prog or something over-simplified that will insult my intelligence. This is amazing thinking man's music with rich harmonic and melodic texture in a fusion framework with arresting improvisation incorporated into dense King Crimsonesque compositions. a great cd!

When I first listened to this album, the opening track reminds me to jazz music like those played by Chick Corea especially with the piano work. As the music moves along, I remember Echolyn as having similar style with the opening track "Julian Ur" (7:45). It's because of Chick Corea music is typically has no vocal except some with Flora Purim. This album by Underground Railroad has vocal line which is sung similar with Echolyn. The music in fact turns into slower tempo with keyboard solo, guitar solo and vocal line. The guitar work is really stunning. It then flows into faster tempo with next track "Julian I" (2:37) which reminds me to the combination of Weather Report and Brand X. The keyboard work at the background is really nice, especially when it's followed with guitar solo. It's quite unique in terms of composition because the rhythm section comprises heavy riffs like any typical rock / metal music but the melody line (through vocal) is jazzy in nature. "Love Is a Vagabond King" (10:40) provides great combination of piano, guitar and dynamic drums at the opening, followed with guitar solo in the vein of Allan Holdsworth. The song features nice breaks among transition pieces through nice piano work. I personally enjoy the exploration of guitar solo in the middle of the track which has a combined style of Allan Holdsworth and Jeff Beck. This is one of excellent songs this album offers.

"Halo" (8:21) opens the music with a combined work of keyboard and acoustic guitar followed with mellow vocal line, backed with long sustain keyboard work. The piano work that follows and also the guitar melody are truly stunning and this kind of music confirms me to the style of Echolyn music, especially in vocal department. What follows is a graet musical interlude demonstrating bass guitar, piano, guitar and dynamic drumwork. The basslines look very tight and quite dominant. The piano solo makes the music floating and it flows wonderfully from one segment to another. The guitar solo follows the musical interlude. It's stunning!

"The Canal at Sunset" (4:17) starts mellow with guitar and piano work followed with drums and vocal. "Metaphor" (2:59) starts with a dynamic bass lines and the following music is really like Echolyn or Finneus Gauge - it's excellent stream of music - especially with its complex guitar and piano work. Wow! I like it. "Creeper (The Doorman Pt. 2)" (13:26) is an epic which starts mellow and it moves into Holdsworth-like music through the sound of keyboard. It reminds me to Holdsworth's "Metal Fatigue" album. I can sense the bass guitar playing is really wonderful especially in this track. The album is concluded nicely with "Julian II" (8:54).

Overall, it's an excellent addition to any prog music collection and it's best offered to those who have been familiar with Echolyn, Finneus Gauge, Brand X, Allan Holdsworth or in fact Bill Bruford first three albums. I recommend this to all of you and I'm sure you will be satisfied. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

This is one of my favorite albums of the 21st century. Dense but meaningful, it takes several listens to appreciate, but it doesn't wear out its welcome for me, as I still find new things to appreciate as time goes on. The only flaw is a slight sameyness to the sounds, but other than that this is almost a masterpiece.

I can only conclude after reading so many positive reviews about this album that it's "over my head". I just can't get into this music. I didn't like it the first time I heard it, and after many listens I can at least appreciate it but I can't enjoy it.

"Julian Ur" opens with dark sounds that build. Piano takes over then a full sound. It settles quickly with vocals. Some drastic mood and tempo swings on this one. The synths are melancholic before 5 minutes and the song stays that way to the end. "Julian I" features some nice chunky bass. The vocals are almost in the background throughout this album, almost like they were mixed too low. Synths dominate around 1 1/2 minutes. "Love Is A Vagabond King" is an instrumental and it's actualy upbeat early on. Lots of synths then the guitar leads a minute in followed by piano. Then the drums take their turn before 2 minutes. Guitar is back. Chunky bass before 4 1/2 minutes. Piano comes in as it settles right down 7 1/2 minutes in. "Halo" has these synths and vocals that come and go. Piano after a minute. Spoken words before 2 1/2 minutes then it kicks in instrumentally as vocals stop. Vocals are back 6 minutes in as it settles. Piano ends it.

"The Canal At Sunset" is mellow to open then the tempo picks up as vocals come in. This is almost a straight forward track. "Metaphor" opens with some huge bass before we get a beat with piano and guitar. Vocals follow. Great sound 2 minutes in. "Creeper (The Doorman Pt.2)" is the longest track at 13 1/2 minutes. Piano to start as reserved vocals come in. A fuller sound 3 minutes in. I like the section around 8 minutes where the bass throbs until 10 1/2 minutes in when it settles with vocals and piano. "Julian II" opens with lots of keyboards and drums. Vocals 1 1/2 minutes in as it settles right down. It kicks in heavily after 3 1/2 minutes. The piano and drums are outstanding a minute later and so is the guitar that follows. Best song on the album.

Critics seem to like this band, i'm having trouble in that regard.

You know that killer riff that Emerson plays starting about 30 seconds into "Tarkus"? I don't really want to hear it 3 or 4 times on the same cd from another band some thirty years later!

But that's about my only complaint on The Underground Railroad's second cd "The Origin of Consciousness". I mean, I almost expect to hear some derivative sounds on any new prog cd these days, and these guys are all clearly talented enough to pull off some complex polyrhythmic ELP stuff mixed with fusion. But I thought they went to that well just a few too many times here; I will concede that the final track ("Julian II") contains some themes from the first track ("Julian Ur"), so some repetition is expected there I guess . Not that this is a bad cd - I did give it 4 stars! I enjoy the Porcupine Tree-like vocals, and I'll listen to any guitarist who emulates Allan Holdsworth. The sounds of Spock's Beard and Echolyn also come to mind on a few tracks. But one of my other difficulties with this cd is that I can't take quite this much of the dissonant vocals and song structures - I need more frequent breaks of harmony and melody to resolve the tension, especially when the lyrics are obtuse and delivered somewhat darkly. (Actually, much of the art on the cd booklet is representative of the music.) And there are certainly many stretches of virtuosity displayed throughout the cd, but sometimes the solos don't seem to go anywhere - it's sort of like watching continuous one-minute snippets of great chase scenes from different movies, but never getting to see the outcome of the chase. Maybe they're trying to put too much into a limited space?

Favorites for me are the 11-minute instrumental "Love is a Vagabond King" (which really is excellent!), "The Canal at Sunset" and the 8-minute opener "Julian Ur"...in that order. This is complex music played well; but it's not an easy listen, and may require multiple listens to fully appreciate. I'm intrigued enough to concede that this kind of talent deserves at least that much of an opportunity.