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TRIP THE LIFE FANTASTIC

Drifting Sun

Neo-Prog


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Drifting Sun Trip the Life Fantastic album cover
3.75 | 169 ratings | 9 reviews | 18% 5 stars

Excellent addition to any
prog rock music collection

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Studio Album, released in 2015

Songs / Tracks Listing

1. Trip the Life Fantastic (6:22)
2. Peach Blossoms (2:00)
3. The Wizard (6:34)
4. Sunsets (2:42)
5. Lady Night (7:53)
6. Ode to Nevermind (2:15)
7. Five Ever (8:33)
8. XXX Forever (2:32)
9. Tormented (4:37)
10. Last Supper (9:35)

Total Time 53:03

Line-up / Musicians

- Peter Falconer / lead & backing vocals
- Dan Storey / guitars, bass, mixing
- Andrew Howard / guitar (2,4,6,8)
- Pat Sanders / keyboards
- Will Jones / drums

Releases information

Artwork: Ronnie Ho

CD Self-released - DSA003 (2015, UK)

Thanks to apps79 for the addition
and to Quinino for the last updates
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DRIFTING SUN Trip the Life Fantastic ratings distribution


3.75
(169 ratings)
Essential: a masterpiece of progressive rock music (18%)
18%
Excellent addition to any prog rock music collection (43%)
43%
Good, but non-essential (26%)
26%
Collectors/fans only (10%)
10%
Poor. Only for completionists (2%)
2%

DRIFTING SUN Trip the Life Fantastic reviews


Showing all collaborators reviews and last reviews preview | Show all reviews/ratings

Collaborators/Experts Reviews

Review by LearsFool
PROG REVIEWER
5 stars Drifting Sun first appeared back in the '90's, by the latter half of the decade put out two nice studio works, and then drifted back below the horizon. Next thing you know, they've popped back up this year, spreading the word about a new album of theirs with all the enthusiasm and zeal of a fresh faced band. This I can now confirm is entirely natural, as this record is a beautiful and truly marvelous slice of music that sounds like it was cut by young blood. I mean, immediately when playing the album from the top listeners are sucked in by seemingly youthful and certainly pretty sounds. The course of the album weaves wonderfully through long tracks of symph and neo alongside shorter beauties, with piano often complementing the rock side. And at the very end, the final two tracks, a second wind of unexpected and boundless energy comes in to carry us through to a smashing conclusion. Very enjoyable, just a pure treat for the ears, played excellently and with vigor.
Review by BrufordFreak
COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
3 stars No, thank you very much, this cabaret Neo-Prog-by-numbers is not for me. I find very little fresh or refreshing here. As amateur of fact, a lot of the songs seem as though they are overly drawn out by monotonous repetition of classic rock hooks. All of the songs sound the same--as if Blue Öyster Cult were redoing their "Going Through the Motions"-era music with Freddy Mercury. If Drifting Sun were an actor, they would be the Steven Segal of screen and film.

Almost redeeming songs: the brief Spanish guitar-bass duet "Ode to Nevermind" (8/10); the EPICA-like male castrati vocal of "Five Ever" (8/10), and; the over-the-top 80s Christian epic, "Last Supper" (7/10).

Review by Angelo
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator / Retired Admin
4 stars Drifting Sun are a band that escaped my attention, because their first two albums were released during a period in which I hardly listened to any music apart from what happened to be on mainstream radio. Had they not released a new album this year, I would probably not have missed them for quite a while, because they are not among the bands that are mentioned on a daily basis. Now that they did release an album, and I have heard of them, I may was well tell the world how I feel about it.

Listening to the album it is clear that the band knows how to build up a song. The title track Trip the Light Fantastic opens the album with piano and high pitched but clean vocals. It fills up with the other instruments over the first half and becomes more guitar driven in the second half - until the piano returns. A similar build up is found in Five Fever, but here the first half is mainly piano and synths.

Completely different to this are The Wizard (with a 70s hard rock feel in the guitar playing, and matching vocals) and the Pendragon like Tormented (fiery guitar opening, prominent bass and keyboards in the vocal parts).

Lady Night and The Last Supper are two longer tracks. The former has great vocal work and pulsing keyboard in places, and seems to be mixed slightly different than the rest of the album (bass and keyboards stand out a bit more).

Last Supper also has a pulsing riff at it's center, but much more prominent than Lady Night. The guitar and organ really work together here, not surprisingly many reviews of this album compare this to old Deep Purple work. There's a lot more going on in this somewhat haunting track than I want to explain here - it's 'hearing is believing' I think.

A separate mention goes to the four short tracks that separate the longer ones. Peach Blossoms and Sunsets are the first two, which have a slightly classical feel to them. The have to bow for the other two though. Ode to Nevermind has a great (electric and acoustic) guitar and bass interplay, and XXX Forever reminds me in a way of a certain Mr. Hackett and Mr. Banks. Without these short interludes this would be a completely different album.

Summarising, this album is very likely not the most renewing thing in the world of rock. That's no disqualification though, because I've heard more quite appealing 'retro' albums over the past six to nine months. Retro is perhaps not even the right word, the band makes music in a style that has been around since early Marillion, Pendragon and other similar bands, but despite an occasional hint to even older times, with a modern touch to it. The compositions work, the vocals are absolutely great and I love the keyboard work. A worthy album to include in 2015s collection.

Review by Ivan_Melgar_M
SPECIAL COLLABORATOR Honorary Collaborator
4 stars Surprisingly addictive

Received this album a couple days ago as a promotion from my good friend Aapatsos and started to listen it in the car, but the first minutes didn't impressed me, sounded too simple for my taste and a bit derivative from Hogarth Marillion, but as songs advanced, my impression started to change, to the point that I've been listening it repeatedly for the last 48 hours.

Even when this is not the music I usually listen, the passion of Pete Falconer in the vocals and the piano by Pat Sanders captured me more and more, giving me tome to appreciate the impeccable production and the skills of all the members but overall, it's nice to listen a band where the members play for the band rather than for their individual glory. The guitar solos are impressive but always blend cohesively with the music and the rhythm section works like a well oiled machine.

Even when this an album that must be listened from start to end rather than by songs, there are some tracks that impressed me more. In first place the melancholic Peach Blossoms and it's incredibly beautiful piano performance.

Also play special attention to the vibrant The Wizard and the frantic Tormented but overall to the mini epic Last Supper that has a hint of DEEP PURPLE with a great bass and percussion by Dan Storey and Will Jones......Oops, almost forgot the acoustic Ode to Nevermind that reminded me of Steve Hackett.........But listen the album in order without skipping a song, it's worth.

Before I end the review and as an advice, don't expect extremely complex stuff, because you may be disappointed, but if you want to listen good music with beautiful melodies, plenty piano and some strong guitar solos, then Trip The Life Fantastic is your album.

Four solid stars and will search for the previous releases.

Review by Mellotron Storm
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars DRIFTING SUN have pretty much remained a five piece during their careers, but there has been a ton of lineup changes, including different singers. The one constant has been keyboardist Pat Sanders. They are from the UK and have an interesting history with their first two studio albums being released in the second half of the nineties, then silence. Until this record "Trip The Life Fantastic" from 2015, now that's some serious time.

So call this the comeback album if you will, but it spurred a consistent run that continues in 2024 with their latest "Veil" featuring Jon Jowitt on bass and Fudge Smith on drums, now that's old school. Their last few albums have been rated very high on the RYM site. I just have this three album run beginning with the album I'm reviewing today, along with "Safe Asylum" and "Twilight". And that "Safe Asylum" album is special. The other two are 3 star albums but that 2016 release was made for me.

This one makes me cringe at times, I'm not going to lie. I mean that 8 1/2 minute ballad "Five Ever" is awful but an extreme example of "in poor taste". Top three include the title track to open the album, as well as the closer "Last Supper" which is my favourite, and a long one at 9 1/2 minutes. Some killer bass on this one, as well as on my last top three "Tormented" where the drums really impress, and it's quite powerful.

While I highly recommend "Safe Asylum", apparently their last few albums are the ones to get. I need to at least check them out. This was a modest comeback, as well as being hit and miss.

Review by Warthur
PROG REVIEWER
3 stars When is a reunion album not a reunion album? 16 years had passed since the previous Drifting Sun album - On the Rebound, which for my money is probably their best effort of the 1990s - when this new release came out, but only Pat Sanders remains of the line-ups that recorded the band's first wave of releases. So far as I can make out, when the original band fragmented Pat ended up with custody of the name - probably because he was one of the founding forces of the group in the first place - and after taking a long break from the industry he decided to give it another go in the 2010s, putting together a new lineup which made its debut here.

In the long run, this seems to have more or less paid off - a steady flow of albums has come out right to this day, gathering a level of critical attention and listener acclaim that had eluded the 1990s incarnation of the group. (I myself rather like Safe Asylum, and rate Twilight as a bona fide classic.) Trip the Life Fantastic, by comparison, feels more like a warm-up effort - an album put out largely to test out the process of both producing their album and bringing it to market in the online DIY era, with material which is entertaining but not especially ambitious.

It's a light and at points somewhat cheesy affair, and when you know that the band come out with more creative and distinctive material later on it's hard not to suspect they were keeping their powder dry and not putting out their best material on this album just in case it crashed and burned. Alternatively, perhaps this lineup was so fresh that they still needed a bit of time to really gel and come up with solid material, and they jumped to make an album a little before they were ready.

Either way, it's alright, but not really better than "alright" - entertaining enough if you like light, unchallenging neo-prog, but few people are likely to get very excited about this. Maybe, at a stretch, you can imagjne a major Drifting Sun fans from their original 1990s run getting hyped up about this back in 2015 when it came out - but now the band's rebirth has picked up more steam and put out superior material, there's little compelling reason to prioritise this album now. With both the best of the new material and their two 1990s albums being comfortably better, Trip the Life Fantastic falls between two stools.

Latest members reviews

4 stars Review #22 Drifting Sun released their first eponymous album in 1996. Two years later they released the very good 'On the Rebound', and then they disappeared! Now, almost 17 years later, they re-appeared again, with a brand new album which is a true jewel! From the old members only Pat San ... (read more)

Report this review (#1572350) | Posted by The Jester | Monday, May 30, 2016 | Review Permanlink

5 stars Simply put: an excellent album! Well produced and performed by all involved. Kudos to Pat for writing and organizing such a triumph! Soaring, dramatic vocals by Pete Falconer as well. Each track really takes you on a journey through atmospheric and spacious soundscapes. While some tracks are progres ... (read more)

Report this review (#1384798) | Posted by chrisjmartini | Thursday, March 19, 2015 | Review Permanlink

5 stars I really love comeback albums and when they are as fantastic as this one, I'm even more excited to be able to experience it at the time of its release. The history of this band is already documented on PA so the main point is that this is the first new release since 1998 and though some inevitable ... (read more)

Report this review (#1384783) | Posted by rickdeckard | Thursday, March 19, 2015 | Review Permanlink

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