THE YEARNING

Chilean ensemble Aisles delivered a very fine album, "The Yearning": beautiful and attractive, albeit not groundbreaking really. One consistent flaw in this effort is a certain repetitiveness of moods and ambiences that begins to get quite noticeable right at the middle of the album itself, but this factor is adequately thwarted by two major virtues: the presence of tight melodic ideas and the clever management of elegant keyboard orchestrations. The latter one prevents the band from getting excessively bombastic, despite having two guitarists and two keyboardists in its line-up. The use of a programmed rhythm section (for lack of an empathetic drummer) is inventively adjusted into the demanding shifts inherent to the compositions. Main influences seem to be classic Genesis, classic Yes and classic Camel, although the predominant neo vibe leans them closer to the likes of Galadriel (especially regarding the lead vocalist's timber, very similar to that of Galadriel's singer Filardi) and, in the harder sections, a moderate Matraz. The band's overall approach to prog music is very lyrical, with a soft appeal that surfaces in a clear manner even during the energetic sections ,which are never too loud. The 13 minute opener 'The Wharf that Holds his Vessel' comprises a bombastic instrumental intro and epilogue, in between which the sung sections portray a delicate majesty. A very nice opener, indeed. Next comes an acoustic guitar-based ballad, 'Uncertain Lights', pretty much reminiscent of Genesis' bucolic side and Anthony Phillips' stylish love songs. 'Clouds Motion' find the band exploring its most muscular side (remember, they never get too far at it), while 'The Rise of the White Sun' digs deeper into expressions of sheer melancholy and 'The Shrill Voice' deals with both trends alternately - it would be fair to say that these three tracks together serve as the perfect sampler of Aisles' artistic ideology. 'The Scarce Light Birth' brings back some of the placid, bucolic nuances of track 2, albeit bearing more explicit symphonic textures. The 16 minute three-part suite 'Grey' finds the band basically reiterating the essence of their own sonic territory: fluid succession of melodic motifs, clever keyboard orchestrations and a recurring sense of serenity and self-constraint. "The Yearning" is a real refreshing album in the context of current neo-prog: not innovative, but inventive. Aisles is a band that all symphonic prog and neo prog lovers should pay close attention to.

I thought they’re Polish! No really – this gentle accent, this mellow QUIDAM/SATELLITE manner, influences from CAMEL, PENDRAGON and MARILLION (and surely GENESIS and PINK FLOYD), tender ballads (like “Uncertain Lights”) and strong melodic basis…These are usual Polish Neo Prog aces, but this time a new COLLAGE comes from Chile! Wonderful album, especially in highlights like opening “The Wharf the holds his Vessel”(11+ min) and closing “Grey” (16+ min). Nothing completely groundbreaking or too complex, but if you like emotionally strong, mostly mellow Neo Prog inspired by abovementioned bands, AISLES is a Must! Also if you’re a Polish Neo Prog devotee, take this one without hesitation! Recommended!

A modern (read neo) styled symphonic album, "The Yearning" is at its best when it opts more for the semi-acoustic styled symphonic - think Eris Pluvia - tracks like "Uncertain Lights, "Clouds Motion", or "The Rise of White Sun", rather than the "Lamb"-like ponderousness of "The Wharf that Holds his Vessel". Aisles' knack for melody and texture, and the chrystalline production, are plain to see on the best songs, but become mired in ambitiousness on the compositionally challenged "The Shrill Voice", which is more a pastiche of different time signatures than anything. This characteristic permeates the remaining songs to varying degrees unfortunately, and the finale tends to drag on ad nauseum, so, while Aisles debut has some truly beautiful movements, in general I feel that too much talent has been wasted to warrant rounding up from 2.5 stars.

Good debut album from Chile!

Exploring prog music from countries outside England, Italy, USA and Sweden are becoming my interest nowadays. Well, actually not the country that matters but the fact that I can enjoy the music of a band which I have not known the name yet - that matters most than the country. But a country like Chile with prog music? That makes me excited! But even though there is a "hallo effect", I would still compare the music with the regular standards that I impose on most of my reviews. That standards might not stand alone because I have a philosophy that "Music is Emotion", there might be cases where the music seems mundane in terms of standards but it stirs my emotion, I would consider it as well. In general, don't worry that I will give you "biased" review.

The opening track "The Wharf that Holds his Vessel" flows nicely into my ears. This relatively long track (approx 11 minutes) provides multi-styles and changing tempos. The music is generally mellow and melodic, blending the sounds of Marillion, Camel, Pink Floyd and a bit of Genesis. Those who love neo prog will definitely like this opening track. "Uncertain Lights" sounds to me like a PFM (Italy) track especially on the way acoustic guitar fills are being played and how the vocals bring the melody. It's a mellow and nice track. "Clouds Motion" reminds me to the music of Camel, combining the howling guitar and keyboard work followed beautifully with piano that accompanies vocal to sing a song with a touchy melody.

The epic that concludes the album "Grey" (16:37) comprises three parts and all of them are composed excellently. The first part is mellow, dominated by guitar fills, keyboards and mellow vocal. It flows into second part with a bit complex arrangements and some guitar riffs. The overall tempo of this epic is relatively slow and there might potentially be a feeling of getting bored with it. The acoustic guitar fills performed throughout this track is good.

I would conclude that this album is good in composition. The melody is quite good even though not all segments a catchy and memorable but the music arrangements that form the song are quite neat and would favor those who like music of Camel, Pink Floyd, Pallas, Marillion and other neo prog bands. The other factor that I need to consider is that the songwriting is good as well. Recommended for neo prog lovers. Keep on proggin' ..!

Peace on earth and mercy mild - GW

Somehow it appeared hard for me to really get into this album and it took me more than 10 listens before I felt ready for the review.

The problem was to figure out if it was really true that the very good opening track (The Wharf that holds his Vessel) was so much better than all the others. And after these 10 listens I can only conclude it is. The short opening epic is a very nice composition with some excellent progressive moments and reaches a 4* score easily. When you hear such a good song at the beginning of an album you expect some more with the others but alas we've clearly had the best after this even though the next five shorter songs are all nice but none of them clearly reaches the 3,25* level.

At the very end of the album we have the longer epic called Grey clocking about sixteen minutes. It's not strange to at least hope for something great with this one but also here the standard of the opening song is not reached by any means. Maybe 3,25-3,5 at best but that's it. So the final score for the entire album is not hard this time. it can only be three stars to me (3,3)

To compare Aisles with another progband is hard, maybe in style it has elements of Genesis but certainly not the best of Genesis just slight resemblance.

AISLES are a band from Chile and this is their debut from 2005. They now have a drummer but for this album they used programmed drums. I'm a big fan of many bands from Chile but this album really has been a disappointment for me. I do like the fact that there are two keyboardists here but they didn't really take advantage of that. Vocals are in English with an accent.

"The Wharf That Holds His Vessel" kicks in quickly to an uptempo keyboard led soundscape. A spacey calm settles in after 2 minutes. Reserved vocals 3 1/2 minutes in as it picks up. The tempo continues to shift. The guitar is prominant after 7 1/2 minutes then it ends with a spacey calm. "Uncertain Lights" features acoustic guitar and laid back vocals. It's fuller a minute in. "Clouds Motion" is led by piano, drums and vocals before a minute.

"The Rise Of The White Sun" is light with vocals. It's fuller before a minute and contrasts will continue. Not a fan of this one. "The Shrill Voice" has a strange intro in fact the whole song is like that. Very patchy. "The Scarce Light Birth" opens with acoustic guitar as fragile vocals join in.It gets fuller as contrasts continue. Not a fan. "Grey" is the over 16 minute closer. It's fairly aggressive early then it settles when the vocals arrive. It kicks back in as contrasts continue. A much better sound when it kicks back in before 9 1/2 minutes.

Proceed with caution.

Promising initial effort from this Chilean band. Lush, melodic symphonic progressive rock is the name of the game here, with more than a few nods in the direction of the neo progressive part of the stylistic expression. Gently wandering guitar textures and multiple layered lush keyboards forms the main foundations for most tracks here, slow in temp and high on atmospheric qualities. Good quality lead vocals that suits this style leads on in the verse and chorus parts, while atmospheric guitar soloing and the occasional drawn out heavy guitar riffs come and go to add some contrast and variety.

Personally I found my enjoyment hampered somewhat by a curious compositional trait though. Aisles are very fond of a start and stop effect in their compositions, and often utilizing that effect both for dramatic shifts but also in passages where several intriguing fragmented themes are started, then stopped and alternated with another one before the first one settled. This, and that the few tunes where this effect isn't utilized are the most gentle numbers taking on a heavily explored part of this genre without establishing a strong identity leaves me with an album that shows promise, but that ultimately doesn't manage to come across the "good but no cigar" as far as my personal taste goes.

There's lots of promise here though, and I gather most fans of vintage neo progressive rock should find this a pleasant effort.

'The Yearning' - Aisles (7/10)

There's been no denying that the progressive rock scene has since spread beyond the confines of North America and Western Europe to the rest of the world. In fact, in recent years, some of the best progressive rock has emerged from the new wave of global proggers. One such nation that seems to have been picking up some speed with their scene is Chile, which may not be the first place someone would go to when looking for strong modern symphonic prog rock. However, Chilean neo-proggers Aisles prove with their debut 'The Yearning' that they are a band that deserves to be recognized on the international scene. While possessing a familiar sound of melodic prog in the vein of Marillion or Genesis, Aisles do what they do very well, and the result is 'The Yearning', a highly capable debut record that makes up for its lack of innovation with beautiful melodies, arrangements and performances from all involved.

Although the pursuit melody in music is certainly not at the top of most proggers' lists in terms of importance, the highly harmonious songwriting that Aisles works with this album works to their benefit. The lyrics are nothing special in terms of wordplay or derived meaning, but the vocals of Sebastián Vergara feel as if they contribute alot not only to the sound, but the composition as well. The other two Vergara brothers (keyboardist Luis and guitarist Germán) drive the rest of the music, often playing off of each other. The effect is one of beautiful harmony between instruments.

The songwriting is not as consistent as I may have liked, but from the first track- 'The Wharf That Holds His Vessel'- onwards, it should be clear that the band can write a very good piece of prog rock. By the latter half of the album, it does feel as if Aisles begins to stretch out their musical ideas a little too far, leading to one too many lackluster moments, most notably 'The Shrill Voice' and the plodding final epic 'Grey'. The best music here rests with the opener, the melancholic 'Clouds Motion', and the sixth track 'The Scarce Light Birth', which has hints of flamenco acoustic guitar, hinting at their cultural roots.

Of course, Aisles has not developed any measure of groundbreaking album or revolution in prog rock. Often, the band will sound a little too close to British neo-prog legends Marillion for my personal liking, but based on its own merits, Aisles' 'The Yearning' is a very good debut. Melody, strong songwriting, admirable performances, and enough details in the music to be worth going back to quite a few times makes the album an unlikely winner.

Aisles is a band from Chile and The Yearning (2005) is their first album. It was released by Mylodon Records and distributed by Musea Records.

The band was kind enough to send me their 2 albums (they're about to release a 3rd one soon) and because I usually don't review 'old' releases I've decided to do mini reviews for old albums once in a while, especially the ones I have in my CD collection and I haven't reviewed yet.

On this first album of Aisles they were a quintet with Sebastián Vergara (vocals and flutes), Germán Vergara (electric and acoustic guitars), Luis Vergara (keyboards), Rodrigo Sepulveda (electric and acoustic guitars) and Alejandro Meléndez (keyboards). In The Yearning (2005) both Rodrigo and Germán played the bass and the drums were recorded by Alejandro and Rodrigo.

In general, The Yearning (2005) follows a Neo Prog path. Unfortunately, it lacks a good production and depth sometimes. The fact that the band used sampled drums instead of real ones doesn't help that much too.

I come to imagine very often while listening to the album that Aisles' music could be in Spanish instead of English, that would be a very interesting thing to have, and perhaps it would give the overall change in sound that would make the album sound better.

The Yearning (2005) incorporates 7 songs, 2 of them over 10 minutes long (making them be the most interesting ones) and the others between 4 and 8 minutes long. 'The Rise Of The White Sun' has interesting choruses and a couple of songs use the acoustic guitars as the main instrument. The electric guitars sometimes lack in depth, but in tracks like 'Grey' they are pretty much alive. All in all, a good debut album with more than enough interesting music on it to make you pay attention.

3.5 stars if I could!

Key track: Grey

As far as I know, this is the Chilean band's first album.

1. "The Wharf That Holds His Vessel" (11:21) a song that feels to me, start to finish, as if I'm listening to a band playing in the orchestra pit for a theatric stage musical; this would/could quite easily pass for an overture! (17.5/20)

2. "Uncertain Lights" (4:05) a very nice opening with very delicate vocal track sung over beautifully picked classical guitars and synth three-way weave. The harmony vocals here are also quite sublime. These musicians are so talented! So skilled! The only song on the album that really puts on display the amazing vocal arrangements so well-developed and exploited in their future songs. Quite mature SIMON & GARFUNKEL-like songwriting. (8.875/10)

3. "Clouds Motion" (7:07) here's the first song that conjures up for me more references to "classic rock" bands like JOURNEY or RUSH. It's also the first song to drop a few of those melt-my-knees gorgeous riffs, chord changes, bridges that the band becomes so adept at with their future albums. A top three song. (13.5/15)

4. "The Rise of White Sun" (4:57) A 1990s sound palette (or one quite like 1978's BABYLON) doesn't totally spoil another heart-felt vocal from Sebastian Vergara. It's comforting to comprehend how much more fluent Seb becomes with the English language (especially it's pronunciation) as well as with creating highly melodic vocals and vocal arrangements in the future. (8.75/10)

5. "The Shrill Voice" (4:59) portends some of the band's extraordinary future music with the unusual quick-mixture of multiple motifs in short spaces of time--and then repeating them throughout the song from time to time. Not Seb's best vocal, the street voice is interesting, but it's the driving motif that follows 1:50 that is, for me, my first real glimmer of the genius of this band: an extended heavy PINK FLOYD-like instrumental passage that sucks one in and entertains with the numerous surprise instrumental and vocal flourishes and nuances. Despite the many out-of-date instrument sounds chosen, this one serves, as another top three song. (8.75/10)

6. "The Scarce Light Birth" (7:34) a near-GENESIS-like ballad format in which we see the capture of some of Sebastian's most seductive vocal melodies yet. My third favorite song. (13.125/15)

7. "Grey" (16:37) almost completely flat and unexciting. (25/30): - i. The Yearning - ii. Unit Land - iii. Path of Gleams

Total Time 56:40

Hearing these songs makes me wonder how much time these musicians spent together (or separately) as theater musicians, as cover band for "classic rock" music like Journey, and how long they worked on these songs. They certainly have a tremendous amount of courage and "maturity" in order to take on these fast-changing, multi-themed, unusually-complex and multi-dimensional songs. The chapter-like/epic storytelling flow of each and every song is quite extraordinary. Unfortunately, the band has not yet mastered its capture of great "earworm" melodies in the way it will in their next albums. Also, the "dated" computer keyboards and poor effects chosen for the drums do affect my enjoyment of the music. Again, I apologize to the band for not getting the songs whose commitment to the words/lyrics/message is paramount: it's your music that I've grown to love; I know not your intended messages!

B/four stars; an excellent debut album from this totally unique theatric symphonic band.