LAPLACIAN

Melodic and proficient synth-oriented NeoProg from England. The music on Laplacian is pretty good, it's just that it's a little too obvious that Jopheus' studio album music is predominantly controlled, programmed, and issued from a computer keyboard. This can be done well but not while using the kind of "dated" (1990s) sounds that Jopheus chooses (including/especially "bass", "piano", and "guitars"). The second "problem" I have with the music on this album is that it's very run-of-the-mill, stereotypic NeoProg, which, as I've been stating repeatedly over the past couple of years, feels as if it has been mined to death: it's as if we're now working on anything we can extract through the intensive extractive processes of shale oil mining, fracking, or even capturing fumes. Can music progress no more? Are we done? Condemned to work only from the combinations and permutations of existing sounds, instruments, and styles? Curtis Adamczyk's vocals are weak and poorly rendered in the engineering department (sounding just like they do in their live concert performance videos). Qualitatively this is really a three to 3.5 star album but the Burtonshaw brothers manage to eek out some exceptionally-engaging (and well-constructed) music (including the excellent epic "Where the Lack of Logic Lies") despite the equipment insufficiencies.

This is an intriguing instrumental line-up, a father and son team are not exactly a common occurrence, Jopheus Burtonshaw being a 20-year-old keyboards/synthesizer prodigy, who also holds down bass and guitar duties , while his dad Rick operates the drum kit. They are joined by vocalist Curtis Adamczyk. While clearly imbued by the progressive tradition that encompasses the golden years as well as the modern school, the focus here is heavily synthesizer-centric but not the robotic mechanical version, preferring the effervescence of past giants like Emerson, Wakeman and Banks. There is plenty of piano, organ and mellotron as well as an arsenal of synths, just in case the symphonic side needs some support. The father holds down the rhythm section with experience garnered over a long career in music yet surely buoyed by his young offspring's exuberance. The opening piece as well as title track of this debut album stamps the credentials on their style, a surprisingly mature form of symphonic/neo prog of the highest order, propelled by not only overt passion but an ability to handle all kinds of challenging twists and turns, lively contrasts filled with mini solo spotlights that frankly are astounding. The piano work is virtuosic and defiant, remindful of a teenage Eddie Jobson with Curved Air, while his mastery of the various synths is mind boggling, both in accuracy and fury. Vocals and electric lead guitars emerge on "Dawn of Acquiescence III", shining a different light on Jopheus' compositional skills by creating a lyrical opus with enthusiastic singing that hits the mark on multiple levels. There is an obvious layering of keyboards, with solemn contrasts that include fluid piano playing. "Inertia" tips towards a more acoustic tangent, a desperate lament that shimmers in a pool of gentle torpor, loaded with tons of string mellotrons, the vocals despondent and apathetic, perhaps mirroring the title's full meaning.

The epic is a definite highlight as "Where the Lack of Logic Lies", runs eleven minutes plus of unrushed lavishness, a slowly blossoming symphonic arrangement that shows no haste or waste, building up a gradual frenzy that will eventually lead to endless horizons of discovery. The elder Burtonshaw marshals the rhythmic pace, with percussive detailing as well as hard thumping, slipping unexpectedly into a robust bass-led jazz groove, where the organ and the e-piano get to shine brightly in the spotlight. Not to be benched for too long, the synths and the mellotron enter the fray with little restraint. The alternating contrasts between ambient and bombastic make this arrangement a winning proposition. The vocal finale is appropriately forsaken, underlining the subject matter but blends well with the instrumentation as it fades into the mists of time. "The Grey Room' is a brief piano etude that impresses once again, the kid can play, of that there is no doubt. Targeting a more neo angle, "The House Within Itself" maintains the sorrowful lament that still reveals a fair amount of instrumental pace and shows off the ability to veer into variations that remain consistent with the arrangement. The synth solo edges towards virtuosity on a grandiose and bombastic scale, the ornate piano once gain appears to soothe the senses with some romantic interventions that settle the score.

Combining a total of nearly 14 minutes, "Consequences", the intermezzo "Bridge to Suffering" and "Suffering in Serenity" is a 3-part suite that runs the gamut of stylistics this band is capable of achieving, initially carving out a reflective ambiance, laden with sensitive orchestrations that are impressive for such a young musician. The sentimental concentration of piano and mellotron is certainly nothing new in the prog universe but when played with such melodic bravado, it can only be admired for its continued reverence to style. This may just be my favorite section on this extensive album, the melancholic nature certainly appeals to me, a flashback to Mike Rutherford's debut solos album, the vastly underrated "Smallcreep's Day".

This is where a tiny caveat comes into play, the 72 minutes of playing time is perhaps just too much for a debut album, in my humble opinion and would have been better served with a shortened version. The final three excellent tracks, "Alone", the ambient "Mistwell" and "Direlight" came across as overkill , though I must be stated for the record that the latter piece is an absolutely excellent finale, a daring and courageous synthesizer symphony, with tingling medieval acoustic decorations that impress, to say the least. It gets pretty intense in the final stretch, a masterful finishing touch. A band that needs to be ardently followed, rarely have I been so impressed by a debutant prog band with as much raw potential as this.

4.5 square waves