ARGOS

This album sounds rounded like they were playing together for a longer period. And it matches at least for two of them. Robert Gozon and Thomas Klarman are knowing each other for several years now starting with the symphonic styled band SUPERDRAMA. Chance brought it about that drummer Ulf Jacobs discovered the band's myspace site and made contact to the others. Soon they started to record this production which was released by French label Musea at the turn of the year 2008/2009.

This means - if you are searching for predecessor albums you will fail - it's ARGOS' debut in particular which shows them on a promising way. They have put together a melange of influences from different genres (not only prog). It's obvious: the members don't make a secret of their favourites - this is imagined as a homage I assume. The song title Young Persons Guide To Argos for example is to treat literally indeed - a funny piece where the lyrics are nearly only comprising a numeration of canterbury artists respectively bands.

The whole album is divided in three parts - to say epics would probably also be accurate. The songs are spiked with wonderful diverse keyboard elements provided by Thomas Klarmann and Robert Gozon. Both also alternate on guitar, bass and vocals. Drummer Ulf Jacobs plays sensitive, accentuated, fitting perfectly. 'Nursed by Giants' comes with five symphonic oriented songs full of vintage keyboards (mellotron, organ, piano) plus skillful arrangements and nice melodies. And it's nearly confusing - on A Name in the Sand Robert Gozon's voice appears almost equally matching to Richard Sinclair. Genesis references with mellotron contribution all over are unmistakeable on Killer (fine percussion adds) and the complex The King of Ghosts with polyphonic vocals.

Third song Black Cat is probably the most charming one played in a happy mood. Guitar, bass and even vocals are performed in parallel - very melodic - I really like the solo excursions of the electric guitar - definitely my highlight! The neo progressive tinged Core Images marks the transition to the second album partition with some Peter Hammill variances. 'Canterbury Souls' - that speaks for itself. Here they manage a stylistical blend adding jazz and fusion too with the next four songs. Softly floating with flute like on the mellow The Hat Goes North where the song title is a pun of course. Vocals are stepping back. Ten Fingers Overboard is grooving a lot - maybe describable as a mix of Crusaders and Caravan ingredients.

'From Liverpool To Outer Space' is expressing the next change to some Beatles oriented moments with piano. Meet the Humans comes very special because some nearly contradictory styles are mixed up. Starting with a classical spinet theme they are attaching the song with a drum&bass/breakbeat alike rhythm and some spheric keyboard/synth elements later. Can this work ever? I would say yes - although this is not my preferred track. This section marks a turning away from seventies retro to modern electronic sounds and loops. Somewhat experimental in any case - reworking german composer Richard Wagner to an electronical setting as another example.

A really interesting new discovery where the first section 'Nursed by Giants' is my personal favourite. In spite of many references to their paragons this album is not a simple rehash at all. If you like to listen to a well performed cross section of music styles you should climb aboard.

Pretty neat debut effort from this German trio; lacking in true originality perhaps but with lots of charm.

This effort is more or less a tribute to the various musical heroes of the members it seems. The album has been divided into three parts, each highlighting a particular aspect of influences. The first of these, "Nursed by Giants", first and foremost plays out influences from Genesis and Gentle Giant. The following sequence, "Canterbury Souls", pays tribute to the so-called Canterbury tradition in British progressive rock. The final part of this venture is called "From Liverpool to Outer Space", and mainly deals with Beatles-inspired efforts.

The band wear their influences firmly on their sleeves, and doesn't try to create something stunningly unique. They explore selected musical aspects of the various bands they like and admire with a great deal of charm, and does a very good job in doing just that. With better vocal performances this would have been a truly great effort - as it is it's still above average, and a venture which should please fans of vintage progressive rock in the British tradition.

Paying tribute to various progressive rock greats of yesteryear, Argos provides a three-part album (broken up into multiple tracks) during which they somewhat imitate various bands. The first part, "Nursed by Giants" is an extremely good impersonation of Genesis and Gentle Giant. The second part, "Canterbury Souls" pays homage to the graceful groups of the Canterbury scene. The third part, "From Liverpool to Outer Space" is an obvious tribute to The Beatles. Argos acts as a musical chimera, presenting three very different faces of progressive rock music, yet retaining a good measure of consistency. As such, this album isn't particularly amazing, unique, or even memorable, but does a fine job interpreting the aforementioned styles.

"Nursed by Giants part 1: Killer" Plinking tones begin the album, which soon give way to organ, electric guitar, and a bouncy little rhythm section. The vocals are surprisingly low, while the keyboards are largely kept in Tony Banks mode for most of this peppy track track.

"Nursed by Giants part 2: The King Of Ghosts" This song reminds me of Gentle Giant toward the end, particularly because of the giddy counterpoint vocals section, but is a pleasant one that also makes me think of The Beatles in the beginning.

"Nursed by Giants part 3: Black Cat" Another Gentle Giant-sounding track (interesting title in this respect, methinks), this one combines that post-Gabriel Genesis synthetic sound with softer vocal passages- all rather similar to the Gentle Giant number of the same name.

"Nursed by Giants part 4: A Name In The Sand" Acoustic guitar and Pink Floyd-like vocals make up this fourth part. In fact, it's very similar to Pink Floyd all around.

"Nursed by Giants part 5: Core Images" In a bizarre twist, the band adopts a heavy Van der Graaf Generator sound, complete with vocals that sound just like Peter Hammill. There's some dazzling synthesizer work also.

"Canterbury Souls part 1: The Hat Goes North" Soft electric piano, some flute, and a straightforward beat makes for a decent, jazzy pop tune.

"Canterbury Souls part 2: Young Person's Guide To Argos" Mellotron and synthetic brass introduce sputtering electronic tones, drums and organ.

"Canterbury Souls part 3: Ten Fingers Overboard" While not a bad piece, this tends to be even more faceless than the previous pieces, but does has some good organ in it.

"Canterbury Souls part 4: Norwegian Stone Shortage" The final part of the second suite is more akin to Muzak, and lacks consistency, more or less jumping from one musical idea to the next rather haphazardly. Still, it has a good jazz vibe and isn't unpleasant at all.

"From Liverpool To Outer Space part 1: Further Apart" The simplest portion of the album is the third one. This is a song with straightforward vocals and a soft piano providing the chords.

"From Liverpool To Outer Space part 2: Time For Love" A light peppy song, this is similar to the previous track, but with a happier feel and some rather familiar lyrics ("There's a time for love, and the time is now").

"From Liverpool To Outer Space part 3: Meet The Humans" Harpsichord in a major key gives way to Mellotron, electronic percussion, and light vocals.

"From Liverpool To Outer Space part 4: Elektro-Wagner" Synthetic yet orchestral, this terse piece has charm and serves as a nice bit of music.

"From Liverpool To Outer Space part 5: Passing Through" The final piece sounds like another blend of The Beatles and Gentle Giant with a little oomph in the drumming department. It's quite good, and I rather like the refrain.

3.5 stars for sure

One of the most pleasent discoveries I've made in last years in music is for sure german band Argos. Formed around 2005 as a trio and evolved on their second album from 2010 as quartet, Argos mange to capture my intrest big time. The selftitled album saw the light in 2009 released by Musea records. Argos is divided in 3 parts with each part having small pieces but some how conected between them as a real story. Each parts as the title of the part implies have different musical influences, first one is something between Genesis Gentle Giant and VDGG, the second part is a tribute to the canterbury sound not far from Hatfield and the North or Caravan and the third remind me of maybe The Beatles but more complicated for sure. Very polished album with lot to offers, very diverse in manner of composing. Nice instrumental arrangements with eclectic sound, electronic keyboards and awesome voice very much towards Peter Hammill fame. Intresting orchestrations, complicated yet melodic guitar lines, some excellent keyboards and crystal clear sound overall. A pretty good debute, I really like the combination Argus offer here of aformentioned bands, it has a very good atmosphere and is quite intresting most of the time. 3.5 stars. Argos is definetly one of the best kept secrets Germany has today in prog rock scene. With 3 album released so far they definetly are among the most intresting bands around.