A GRANDER VISION

Relayer's debut was both hard to find and a bit costly to purchase, but since I was so blown away by their second and third releases, I went the extra mile and bought this. I'm not disappointed, I can be obsessive about collections and I needed this one to fill the void. If nothing else, A Grander Vision sets up The Teething Fashion quite well. This band is a merger of Freddie Mercury vocals, Howe/Hackett guitar, a mix of master keyboarding; hints of Banks, Wakeman and others, a solid bottom end that nods to Squire, Geddy Lee and others, and drumming just as influenced by prog's early percussionists.

Poor production techniques are the main problems, along with a band trying too hard to create something epic. If I edit the first two and half minutes off the title track, A Grander Vision, they would have had a much better tune. The attempt at being artsy fails, with falsetto vocals and slightly off time gimmickery that just doesn't seem to gel. One other well intentioned mistake, is allowing one of the other band members to try to sing two lines. Steve Howe's ear ripping vocals would have been a welcome relief. The rest of the disc is okay, at best. A band still searching, questionable "la la la da da" lyrics when real words may have been more appropriate. Padding, the probable downfall of prog, is evident in more than a few instances. If you don't have anything interesting to say, say nothing at all. So what if the song comes in at 17:00 rather then 22:00. Keep it fresh.

I would say that Relayer learned a lot during this first endeavor and certainly improved their product, but if you have the money to buy this, use it for something else.

Relayer is a US prog band,formed in 1991 in a suburb of Illinois called Libertyville under the guide of bassist Tom Burke and guitarist Tim LaRoi with vocalist John Sahagian joining the band a year later.Initially named ''The relay'',they soon changed their name to Relayer and by 1994 they tranformed into a quintet with Greg Panmer on keys and Michael Ways on drums.This line-up led the band to the private-pressed debut ''A grander vision''.

Despite named after the eponymous Yes album,the band doesn't sound really like their inspiration masters.The opening ''Anyone'' is a powerful prog rock piece with driving guitars,nice solos and a very personal vocal performance by Sahagian,not unlike TILES' prog approach.The long self-titled 20-min. opus is a total different story.This one falls into the modern Symphonic Rock category with an excellent result.Good performance by Ways on piano,even better synth and organ work,the guitar work is fantastic and somewhere between RUSH'es power and GENESIS' trembling,not to mention the fascinating solos,with Sahagian in full shape once again.An easy flowing essential modern prog epic.The following ''The river'' is somewhere between Heavy and Symphonic Rock with fantastic work on synths,ALEX LIFESON-influenced guitar work and very nice breaks and changing moods.''Wire Mill Scars'' is closer to the later style with grandiose keys,shifting moods and a bombastic atmosphere overall till the great ending outro.An hounorable mention must be done to the very tight and strong rhythm section.

''A grander vision'' was quite a surprise.An unknown US prog band delivering energetic,diverse,challenging and rich musicianship with elements from Symphonic to Neo to Heavy Prog,without any mistakes in a very tight release.Highly recommended.