A TEMPORARY STATE OF BLISS

Alexandros Mantas reached out to me and asked if I would be interested in taking an ear to their music, and since I had heard their rather odd Spanish language moniker whispered favourably in the community (especially ISKC Rocks), that intrigued me enough to agree without a hint of a fight! My spider senses tingled feverishly, though I had not heard a second of their craft! There are a great many stellar Greek prog bands out there such as Verbal Delirium, Master Key, Naxatras, Time Collapse, Methexis, Jargon, Ciccada and Missigno, to name a few, but this splendid affair just won Olympic gold in my books! An all-instrumental studio project featuring Stratos Morianos on keyboards and synths as well as the effusive Mantas on guitars, bass, and flute, "A Temporary State of Bliss" is their recent 2023 sophomore release after the pre-Covid debut "Introspection" released in 2018, which I intend to review as well one day. Lovingly infused with the great prog civilizations of the Golden Age, (kind of obvious from the get-go) their brand of epic and cinematographic prog is right up my alley, a stimulating mixture of subtle moods and dense atmospheres, sprinkled with an ornate refinement and a poetic beauty that just took my breath away upon the very first listen.

Kicking off the proceedings with a rousing 17 minutes of "The Stuff of Dreams", complete with a soothing Floydian intravenous swoon that is just what the doctor ordered, and the eventual "state of temporary bliss" sets the tone for the arrangement to travel through pastoral musings that shine like an Aegean morning, Stratos showing incredible control on his arsenal of keys, smooth as silk caressing the sun baked skin, passing off the baton to Alexandros to flutter in joyful abandon on his electric guitar, in a style that has Andy Latimer all over it. Contrast, transition, and the dance takes on a variant direction, (after all, they are expressing their stuff of dreams), very reminiscent of Slow Dance-era Anthony Phillips. Just like a storm in the Mediterranean, the piece rages briefly, flung into a jazzier, somewhat doom-laden uncertainty, expertly depicted by the obsessive piano and dark symphonics, Crimson-esque percussives courtesy of drummer Yiannis Iliakis, and then introducing rousing choirs that would make Magma blush with envy! The furious denouement is like a typhoon that drenches the body and forces the soul to kneel in unabashed respect. Helter-skelter for just a moment before finishing the story with a glittering slow hand bluesy guitar foray that heads straight for the starless skies above. Easily among the finest epic prog pieces one will hear in 2023.

Respite comes in the form of the chiseled beauty of "The Missing Part", as pretty a melody as one could possibly hope to dream of, let alone play. Alexandros' fluid guitar picking and the piano's rivulets, the booming bass undertow, and a surprising trumpet passage from Vaggelis Katsarelis that just had me on in a state of reverie.

Another epic 12 minute, more experimental (read daring) exercise in the shape of "A Series of Self-Correcting Errors", a tectonic blast into hyper-sonics, manic drumming and stop-on-a-dime twists and turns, veering like a guided missile seeking rebellion, finally arriving into a momentary plateau of serene contemplation, gripping bass runs, rippling piano adornments and a scintillating guitar outburst, full of restraint and yet powerful emotion. A final section that throws everything at the speakers, including the kitchen sink, pioneered by a ripping hammond organ rant, with varying tones that clearly define the intense adventurism these musician crave. The reptilian bass- led shuffle is an absolute masterpiece of controlled delirium (or delirious control, you choose), the band channeling their Gentle Giant influences.

One final long piece, the gorgeous "Impending Catastrophe" lasts just over 9 minutes and certainly nails the coffin shut on this puppy, at first seducing nice and pristine and deciding, there, and then, to getting down and dirty most convincingly, attacking with a fierce determination that is a hallmark of their Hellenic spirit. Moody, brooding, fussy but beautiful, powerfully confident, assertive, and wild. No wasted time, no dickering with style, just playing their socks off, inspired. They have found their spirit! As a very young Bono once stated, "I Will Follow".

5 psychological wastes

From Greece, the band's sophomore album coming five years after their debut shows continued exploration of a variety of familiar instrumental progressive rock styles often using a piano- or blues-rock-based sound structures.

1. "The Stuff Of Dreams" (17:02) opening with a sound and form feeling very rooted in the classic 1970 period of Rock Progressivo Italiano, the band eventually kicks in at the end of the fourth minute with an upbeat strummed acoustic guitar motif that still harkens back to bands like LE ORME and GENESIS as well as modern bands like the late Bill Gillham's CIRRUS BAY. In the eighth minute the instrumental palette (and chord play) turns a bit more STYX-like, being flattened out in the ninth minute into a kind of extended étude of Baroque constructs. In the eleventh minute, a brief series of rather ominous power chords clear the path for a slow, steady GOBLIN-like cinematic walk down a dark alley until at 11:58 the "monster" is revealed--and it is terrifying! At 12:30 it seems that the POV pedestrian/composer has chosen a "turn and flee" option as the heavy full-band music races along with all instruments contributing to a cacophonous build of tension from which there is only a temporary resolution at the 14-minute mark followed by a tension-filled reprieve and rest period that turns into a walk, run, and continued fleeing led by some wonderfully intricate piano and electric guitar interplay over a standard driving rock rhythm track. A wonderful soundtrack to a mini-movie! (31.5/35)

2. "The Missing Part" (5:35) nice trumpet and lead electric guitar playing and arrangement over a very simplistic, plodding four-chord piano sequence. (8.66667/10)

3. "A Series Of Self-Correcting Errors" (12:03) interesting RPI-like beginning, starting with cinematic tension before launching into a fast-flying frenzy into a DAAL-like Dick Dale swing motif. The third motif, which begins in the third minute, is less frantic, more Trans-Siberian Orchestra-like, but this comes to an end in the fifth minute and is replaced by a very gentle, beautiful, dreamy passage that contains layers of beautiful melodies woven together over piano. A wonderfully emotive SANTANA-like electric guitar solo starts up in the sixth minute and carries the listener into the Mellotron-drenched eighth before the pace picks up and synths and woodwinds trade off taking the lead. Nice bass play in this motif. Electric guitar and orchestral hits play off the as the train careens over the cliff into the end abyss. (22.25/25)

4. "Impending Catastrophe" (9:12) opens like a children's song with Fender Rhodes and synths with classical guitar and synth flute taking over the lead melody in the second minute. At 1:35 the band switches vehicles from horse-drawn country coach to military truck as it takes us lumbering at higher-than-recommended speeds down some urban side streets. The truck driving seems to smooth out--perhaps hitting a more modern street--before a STYX-like synth solo in the fourth minute. Contemplative solo church organ takes over in the fifth minute, giving us a full minute to reflect before a heavy section with FRIPP-like guitar machinations takes over gradually leading us into a near-classical motif before reverting back to the heavy soundscape where the drums and synth strings arpeggi launch us into a race to exit. This motif morphs from full band to solo piano, the dextrous acoustic keyplay giving us a concerto feel for a half a minute before the rest of the "orchestra" joins in with a TRANS-SIBERIA ORCHESTRA flair. (18/20)

Total time 43:52

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of sophisticated instrumental music that often conjures up clear reminders of many of the 1970s prog and classic rock sounds and stars.

Residuos Mentales is a studio project from Athens, Greece, formed by Stratos Morianos (keyboards, synthesisers) and Alexandros Mantas (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, flute, bass) in 2012. It took until 2018 for their debut album to make an appearance, 'Introspection', and now a further five years for the next one. There are a lot of guests on this which turn it into a full band with Dimitris Radis (electric guitar, acoustic guitar, bass), Yiannis Iliakis (drums, percussion), Leonidas Sarantopoulos (saxophone, flute), George Karayiannis (guitar), Vaggelis Katsarelis (trumpet), and Maria Tseva (wordless vocals). Yes, this is an instrumental prog album (way too few of these around), and in true old school fashion it opens with a dynamic track which is more than 17 minutes in length. Actually, there are only four songs on this 44-minute-long release which gives plenty of time for the band to move and shift.

Here we have instrumental music with real purpose and drive, taking the listener on a journey which has many twists along the way, so much so that one never knows what is going to come next. There is no doubt that the final sections of the lengthy "The Stuff of Dreams" are heavily influenced by Andy Latimer in the guitars, while the introduction sounds much more like Galahad as the music is built on layers of keyboards towards the climax which is surely to come, but no, we move into picked acoustic which feels far more like Anthony Phillips. To my ears this is a very English sounding release, much more than other bands from Greece I have reviewed in the past, with plenty of takes from the golden age through to the current day, always polished and with a true sense of direction. We get symphonic combined with neo, with crossover tendencies here and there as they follow the muse where it takes them as opposed to keeping it tightly constrained.

Due to the way they keep shifting, and also having some guests only on certain tracks, one never knows what is going to happen yet, but there is always a real clarity and is an album where any proghead can just sit back and let the music wash over them. Released through Dutch label OOB Records one can only hope it is going to get the recognition it so richly deserves as this is a delight.