AGAPANTHUSTERRA

Not a common band name, not a common cd title and the music itself on this album is not so common anymore in the circuit of progressive rock. QUANTUM FANTAY delivers progressive space rock, sometimes psychedelic, sometimes a bit heavier, then again ambient, references to 'OZRIC TENTACLES' become obvious immediately. This Belgian group from Lokeren is the brain child of keyboards player Pieter van den Broeck (alias Pete Mush) of Ghiribizzi, a very busy guy, because he is also member of Instant Blue and Gemini Season.

The album starts with an ambient 'electronica' track in the vein of Jean-Michel JARRE and VANGELIS, but accompanied with very intriguing flute and the only vocal part on the album by means of a vocoder, but when the guitars are entering, the OZRIC influences are imminent. The pace is raising considerably on "Lantanasch" with fast keyboard play and spacey effects (widely spread throughout the entire album), but there is enough variation to keep the track interesting. Surprising are also the reggae intermezzos in "Spral Flame" and "Trip Escape". And sometimes the music can be compared with the instrumentals of CAMEL in their early days.

The title track and longest track on the album starts surprisingly with a bass riddle and accompanying drum beat like on 'Are you Ready' of PG&E, but I guess this is purely coincidence, although the 'spacey' sounds are mixed with rock patterns. And in the middle of the track you can even discover some MARILLION influences, indeed a lot of variation right here.

You can hear Eastern influences in different tracks but especially in Wais Dame Dilamp (what a strange title?), here they are using a typical Turkish string instrument, the sax. In combination with the omnipresent flute this gives an exotic flavour to the space rock of QUANTUM FANTAY. Technically it's of a high level, although the creation of a certain atmosphere seems to be more important than individual tricks. The guitar solos of Dario (of Ghiribizzi) are very nice, although the keyboards are far more present than with OZRIC TENTACLES for instance. And in the same manner I would have preferred some 'double bass' drum playing on certain occasions, this could add some more variation. The album ends heavy with flashing guitar solos on 'Chase the dragon', you could call it 'space hard rock', no idea if this really exists!

'Agapanthusterra' is a very strong debut album, the biggest with this kind of instrumental space rock is to keep the listener 'fascinated, in this case it works out fine. But maybe for the next album they could try to add some new elements, especially to avoid the eternal comparison with the aforementioned group(s). But anyway, this ends to be a refreshing album, little by little there is totally brand new 'progressive' wave of bands standing up in Belgium, no complaints from my side :-).

My rating: 8,5/10

Review by Claude 'Clayreon' Bosschem

It's been a while since I heard a new psychedelic record. Most refreshing when compared to recent prog releases. This disc is entirely instrumental. I assume it has the strongest effect when listening to it by the light of the stars only. There's a big range of musical styles present varying from prog to psychedelic, space rock, electronic music and even slices of reggae and etnic music. The name of Ozric Tentacles comes to mind quite often and sometimes you can notice some Hawkwind elements as well.

The stunning opening track starts off with some old fashioned keyboards that are setting the scene for broadcasting an announcement from an alien creature. I suppose it wasn't a bad idea to put the alien on the cover as this music breathes science fiction. This opening is reminiscent to Mike Oldfield's songs from a distant earth" and sounds astonishing. Their typical style commences to show itself on the second track. Here, the bands starts an Ozric like rhythm provided by an energetic guitar riff and rhythm section covered by a sound of a thousand sci-fi sounding keyboards. Not much melody can be spot but somehow it works out fine without. Nice cosmic interlude which includes beautiful melody motifs provided by the flute parts that also have a substantial contribution throughout the whole album. You can notice the prog leanings in the wonderful guitar parts of "Spiral flame". Funny how the keyboards from outer space manages to sound absolutely stunning even though it's not all that new. To create the special sound, quantum uses keyboard sounds which are dating back to the seventies and eighties of J.M. Jarre and Jan Hammer but it seems refreshing cause these are mixed with modern keyboard sounds. The title track makes a fine example of this. This up-tempo track is definitely one of the highlights not only for it's strong melodies of some great sounding parts but also for the a great variation between the very different sounding sections. "Wintershade" is illustrating the contrary, this is a melodic piece of soft cosmic music with drums on it. "Wais Dame Dilamp" is an eastern sounding track but later on the tempo's speeding up. Next track even shows some influences from house and jazz that nicely fits in the lush atmospheric sound. Last one is the oddest track of the bunch. You can spot some aboriginal elements here. Near the end "the dragon" sounds more and more like a horrible creature who eats just about anything but I suppose this funny track is rather intended as a practical joke.

What can I say about this album. The music is great, the production work couldn't be better ! Still can't believe what these young guys achieved. "Aguapanthusterra" is way too short. I would like to taste more than 50 minutes of this instrumental dish. I can play it at any time I want without being in a particular mood. It never seems to bore due to the fact that no soundscape is lasting too long and there's a good balance between the quiet and the more violent sections. Off course there's also the wonderful wall of sound which comes to the front every now and then. When it does you're getting short in ears to hear every single element. This kind of music is easily to get into but unlike some Ozric music it never gets really pompous. The album is definitely keyboard dominated but it's used in a spectacular, unpredictable way, sometimes fluid, sometimes spacey, sometimes rhythmical but always fascinating in it's combination with the other instruments. It should also be mentioned that the contribution of every instrument is important for the overall sound. This deserves world wide recognition !

'Agapanthusterra' is the debut of this space rock band from Belgium headed by composer and keyboarder Pieter van den Broeck. He uses the alias Pete Mush which is not unusual for this species of musicians being more along the way through the universe than staying on their home base. This private press release shows the band in the vein of the earlier OZRIC TENTACLES sound distinctly.

That means the songs are mainly grooving, controlled by Mush's spacey keyboard/synthesizer contributions and propelled by the excellent drummer Gino Bartolini. You really can search for a genre album where the instruments are mixed with such a clearness. The songs are instrumental of course and the flute plays a prominent role too. As in the nature of things you won't detect much complexity - this is played straightforward in the whole. Also not surprising - Jaro's bass lines are often provided with a raggae/dub style.

The album has its best moments in the first half. The smooth opener T.N.S.F.P is starting atmospheric ambient accompanied by a flute and vocoder deformed voices. With Lantanasch the tempo increases to a typical space rocker backed with repetitve keyboard patterns. The tile song Agapanthusterra strikes because of great dynamic coupled with breaks and heavy guitar dominated parts. Wintershades appeals much to me because of a special melancholic gliding flow. QUANTUM FANTAY also presents oriental flavoured songs - Wais Dame Dilamp once more with flute and the fascinating hallucinogenic hidden track Amoevha which finally turns the ballance to give another half star.

'Agapanthusterra' is a good debut - lacking of a stylistical independence a little bit. Anyhow - if you like the music of the TENTACLES or HIDRIA SPACEFOLK you can't make a mistake when you order this album - 3.5 stars.

"Vincent, are we satisfied ?" Well, depending on what you're looking for. So, where's the real treat here. Lantanasch gave great deal of flute combined with space sounding synthesizers. Spiral Flame on the other hand reminds me more Jarre's work (even only album I've heard was this most famous Oxygene part, I don't know now what part exactly, just that my mother had it and there I heard it), maybe little bit Vangelis (also, I don't know his music so well to be so sure, but sounds like it.

In general, there is big part of ambient thing here. But instead of Vangelis (Ah, another one, Mike Oldfield at times, now that's everyone influential here I hope), Quantum uses electric guitar sound more prominently. Everything fits in space theme and that's where it stands and falls. Do you love this kind of music ? Do you want less ? Because (even I first hated this saying, I came to realization that) less is sometimes more. After listening to their over- combined, 2009 album, which sounded very promising before first listening, I have to say that I'm satisfied. I never though that I will prefer less complex one instead of more difficult.. Chase the Dragon is exception here, faster pace and heavier guitars in the end.

4(-), melodies, true holds its name as Space rock (or ambient).