GIANT THE VINE

About the debut album I wrote this: "If you are up to a captivating blend of Mellotron friendly Classic Prog and intense modern prog this is an album to discover!". Well, I am sure that those who like Music For Empty Places will also be pleased with this new effort. Again the focus is on emotion, and creating tension between the mellow, atmospheric, more dynamic, and bombastic parts, often it sounds compelling and hypnotizing. Although the keyboards and guitars sound a bit more lush and elaborate on the first album the music on A Chair At The Backdoorm is tastefully coloured with acoustic - and electric guitar, keyboards, piano and saxophone. My highlights.

Protect Us from the Truth (8:21) : The intro delivers twanging guitar, soaring keyboards, sound effects, and soon the unsurpassed Mellotron joins. Then a slow rhythm with soft drum beats, and powerful saxophone play, evoking King Crimson. Gradually the music turns into more lush and bombastic, pretty hypnotizing and compelling, this is the 'Giant The Vine trademark'. Halfway a dreamy sound featuring an exciting contrast between tender piano and raw Robert Fripp kind of guitar riffs, topped with Mellotron, what a captivating dark and ominous climate, early King Crimson and Swedish Anekdoten come to my mind. The final part is mellow and hypnotizing, with subtle work on guitar and keyboards, in the end a moving guitar solo that starts sensitive, then howling and more fiery, wow!

Jellyfish Bowl (8:16) : First a dreamy climate with tender piano and the distinctive lap steel guitar sound, blended with the Mellotron, then a bombastic sound in a slow rhythm with Mellotron violins and sensitive electric guitar runs. Halfway tender piano, the hypnotizing atmosphere is a fine prelude to a bombastic eruption with howling electric guitar in a slow rhythm, again the lap steel guitar joins, with a wonderful solo, backed by Mellotron violins. How intense, and how interesting, Giant The Vine succeeds to deliver lots of tension and dynamics.

The Heresiarch (3:31) : This short track features the heavy side of the band with an agressive and catchy bass, powerful tight drum beats, a melancholy Mellotron sound, and a dynamic rhythm-section. Halfway fiery guitar runs, and finally Mellotron choirs, another pretty compelling musical experience.

A Chair At the Backdoor (12:24) : The final epic title track opens with twanging guitar, in a slow rhythm, coloured by fragile electric guitar work. Then a mid-tempo with a tight beat, Mellotron and hypnotizing guitar play, the climate is again ominous. Back to dreamy, and halfway sensitive guitar runs. The second part starts with an accelaration featuring powerful guitar and saxophone, evoking early King Crimson. Finally from dreamy and hypnotizing with Mellotron and fragile guitar to more lush and dynamic, the music sounds intense, topped with Mellotron and intense drum beats. In the end the twanging guitar play from the beginning, what a beautiful and compelling composition.

No vocals in the music of Giant The Vine, the instruments colour the compositions, especially the guitars and keyboards, in a very compelling and hypnotizing way, simply wonderful!

My rating: 3,5 star.

This review was previously published on the website of Background Magazine, the oldest Dutch progrock source.

'Protect Us from the Truth' post embellished with progressive slopes, a sax, a crescendo with riff, a final melancholic, dreamlike Genesis solo which makes it a masterpiece. 'Glass' spleen guitar arpeggio reminding me of the famous 'Capt'aine', Kwoon for a bewitching post painting to immerse yourself even further, mono like the group, beautiful like a climb to Olympus. 'The Potter's Field' dark and dark, about Hart's buried, about covid and its horror, sinister beauty. 'Jellyfish Bowl' representing emptiness and the search for occupation, like listening to film music; air latent, monolithic, primal, Sakamoto in sight; the middle break on Simone's crystalline piano and the dreamlike rise recalls Genesis and King Crimson porcupine versions. 'The Heresiarch' changes tone with an energetic rhythmic rock tune for the awakening, the incisive bass which continues on 'The Inner Circle' cinematic, religious choir which denotes, voices in the distance, the piano of Ilaria solemn to 'talk' about Dolcino and Marcion and their heresies. 'A Chair at the Backdoor' from a line in Talk Talk, about fear of arrival, about the door to escape; long track in post crescendo, Gregory with his sax takes him on the frantic crimsonian hints before the more sedate post-rock finale.

Giant the Vine took Mogwai, Radiohead, Wilson and mixed to release this soaring beautiful, post rock album with Genesis and King Crimson 70's a bit, punk rock, Tool rock, early Porcupine trees; dreamlike, innovative, a great breath of fresh musical air.(4.5)

The eight tracks presented by GIANT THE VINE are calibrated, between 4:51 and 7:24 and that's fine because instrumental music adorned with overly long tracks is very often difficult to digest. The main frame of this "Music for Empty Places" is the absence, absence of the texts of course, but also family absence. Fabio VRENNA figurehead of the Ligurian formation having lost both parents in the space of a few months during the recording of the album. And we can go further because this record is an involuntary tribute to a genius creator, a tribute to the late Mark HOLLIS, who passed away last February after a very short illness.

Since we have just mentioned Mark HOLLIS and therefore TALK TALK, we find on this disc titles ("The Rose" and "The Lost People" or even the fiery second part of "Gregorius" armed with a depth and majesty in the impressive use of synthesizers) that the British could have composed at the time of "The Color of Spring". Even if the music proposed by GIANT THE VINE is more nervous, more punchy, than that written by mister HOLLIS, we are dealing here with a mix between seventies influences and colorful post rock, yes because post rock is rather white/grey/black than nourished by the colors of the rainbow.

A little aside on the influences, GENESIS of course (the keyboards of the opening title "67 Ruins" and the Banksian piano on "Ahimsa"), PENDRAGON (the energetic and lyrical guitar of the second title, the already mentioned "Ahimsa", my piece favorite on the whole album). And then those specified in the preceding paragraph, we clearly have between the esgourdes a disc of climates, which it is necessary to listen to many times to draw the auditory quintessence from it. And do as I often do, listen to the tracks in random order, ideal for a record of this ilk, because swallowing it in one try seems difficult to me.

"Music for Empty Places" is a well made album of it's kind, but to my ears a few of the songs lacks that little extra to manage to become more than just ear candy: Pleasant and pleasing in an almost unobtrusive manner. Other creations makes a stronger impression however. An album for fans of instrumental progressive rock of the kind that is fairly easy to listen to, and that may have a fairly broad potential audience also outside of the boundaries of the progressive rock universe.

Listening to this debut album I notice that the focus is emotion, and consider Music For Empty Places as a pretty intense musical experience (like Radiohead, Coldplay and Riverside). The band hosts two guitarists and two keyboard players, this gives the sound of Giant The Vine a lush and dynamic extra dimension. The contrast between the dreamy and bombastic parts often create a lot of tension: the one moment a slow rhythm with a hypnotizing atmosphere or dreamy with twanging guitars, the other moment an up-tempo beat with heavy guitars and drums or a bombastic eruption with howling guitar or majestic Mellotron. Another strong element in the music is the colouring with the two guitars and keyboards. From twanging guitar with flanger or a spacey guitar sound to howling electric guitar runs and propulsive riffs. And from delicate Grand - and distinctive electric piano to sumptuous Mellotron outbursts and mellow organ waves. The interplay is very intense, and the rhythm-section does a good and dynamic job. My highlights.

The Kisser (5:58) : It opens with a beautiful layer of dreamy orchestral keyboards, then the music alternates between mellow, up-tempo and bombastic eruptions. This is topped with a very pleasant colouring of the instruments: from heavy guitar with strong drum beats or catchy riffs to a spacey guitar sound and sparkling piano runs.

Gregorius (6:34) : First a bombastic climate with rock guitar riffs and Mellotron violins, then dreamy twanging acoustic guitar and a strongly build-up, volume pedal driven guitar solo with tender runs. Then again bombastic with sensitive electric guitar and Mellotron violins, halfway the music turns into a compelling mid-tempo with emotional guitar and powerful drum beats, with Spanish echoes. Finally a short slowdown and then a bombastic eruption featuring Mellotron violins and howling guitar with volume pedal (evoking Steve Hackett). The conclusion of this composition is very subtle with mellow duo twanging electric guitars, again with a Spanish flavour. Simply beautiful, what a dynamic track, my favourite one.

A Little Something (5:03) : It starts dreamy with warm acoustic rhythm guitars, a Floydian guitar sound and organ, shifting to a slow rhythm, then tender piano joins. Next a bombastic eruption with howling guitar, heavy riffs and propulsive drums, very intense. Finally a mellow atmosphere with slighty distorted guitar, a captivating contrast with the bombastic parts.

Past Is Over (7:24) : Another varied and dynamic composition that begins with a dreamy intro, then a catchy beat and again dreamy, featuring fragile guitar work. Now the music turns into a slow rhythm, a very compelling amtosphere, the bands its trademark! Halfway a dreamy climate with melancholical orchestral keyboards, then a sensitive electric guitar joins (again evoking Steve Hackett). In the end a bombastic eruption with heavy guitar riffs, a huge contrast with the many dreamy parts in this track, emphasizing the frequent tension in the music of Giant The Vine.

If you are up to a captivating blend of Mellotron friendly Classic Prog and intense modern prog, this is an album to discover!