MARTIN VENGADESAN & THE STALEMATE FACTOR

This is the first Stalemate Factor album and while it's enjoyable, very little of it is progressive rock. Rather it's more of a singer-songwriter folk and blues rock album that doesn't give much indication of the prog direction that would be showcased on later songs like The Battle Of Emerald Skye and The Horizon Myth.

That said, I still have a lot of time for the songwriting here. Of interest is Across The Moors which rolls along for more than 7 minutes which no sign of percussion. Instead it relies on classical guitar, harpsichord, violin, viola and organ. Another highlight is Wisdom Of A Lie which gets very psychedelic towards the end.

Aside from that there is socially conscious material like the blues-tinged Affirmative and the heartbreaking Song For An Abused Child. Snow Sculpture is an engaging ballad and the Beatles influences are clear on Petunia and Baby Doll.

The Stalemate Factor always stood out on the Malaysian rock scene, and one listen to the album will show you why.

It's also noticeable that this album has a lot of guest performers behind the core trio that make up the band. I have to say that one or two songs seem to suffer from weak production but overall I really enjoy this album. Just that it's not very prog at all. That comes later.

The Bishop's Sacrifice is the second album by this band, and with one notable exception, it's not really very prog rock at all.

While the first album is folky, the third one psychedelic and the fourth the most consistently progressive, this one is generally a hard rock album with songs that are largely about politics, philosophy or religion.

The core band for this record is Martin Vengadesan on vocals/acoustic guitar/bass/keyboards, Joshua Rayan on electric guitar and Andrew Sagayam on drums.

So I gotta say, everything really rests on the 22 minute long song called The Battle Of Emerald Skye. It begins with a solo acoustic guitar performance, and has several notable subsections as an anti-war tale unfolds.

You will be able to spot the influence of Pink Floyd in its more melancholic moments, as well as bits of Led Zeppelin and maybe even Iron Maiden. It's got loads of Hammond organ, some Moog synths and a fantastic sitar guest appearance from Kumar Karthigesu. It all ends in an epic chaotic garage punk like jam!!!

It's got its flaws too. Parts of it feels draggy and not all of it sounds well recorded or mixed. So full marks for ambition, but not all there for execution.

Elsewhere you have a funk rocker called Hazard A Guess with some nice electric piano and an excellent double tracked guitar outro. Thirty Pieces Of Silver and Stained Glass are catchy rockers that deal with religious/agnostic themes. Both songs also have Eastern-sounding guitar solos from Joshua. I guess that makes sense for a band that has ethnic Indians from Malaysia!

Then there are a string of in-your-face socialist songs like Call To Arms which has some heavy organ that owes a debt to Jon Lord's sound. The Peasants' Revolt is set in 1381 when the farmers and workers of England rebelled against the authority of teenage king Richard II and his oppressive nobility. It begins with a bass solo but does send up sounding increasingly frenzied and slightly ackward.

The Revolution Will Devour Its Children is another historical tale, specifically about how the French Revolution fell apart with different factions like the Girondists and Jacobins taking turns to fall to the guillotine. Musically the song has classical motifs and a duelling electric piano/electric organ solo, as well as more prominent drums.

And then there is a subtle ballad called The Final Hours Of Salvador Allende which was written in memory of the late democratically elected Marxist president of Chile. It's quite moving although it's yet another song that makes you think the band could do with a stronger vocalist.

Overall it continues the pattern of gradual improvement, although I would always ask newcomers to start with The Rook's Siege album before wandering this way.

— First review of this album —

The third Stalemate Factor album is The Knight's Flight and it is unabashed psychedelic rock, from a most unexpected source - a Malaysian band full of journalists.

The album is very influenced by the trippy music of the late 1960. Obviously there the The Beatles's Sgt Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band and less obviously Pink Floyd's Atom Heart Mother and Traffic's self-title albums are influences.

While the previous album was hard rock and the next album is more directly progressive, this one stands out for the way it pays homage to the sixties!

Lyrically there is a fair amount of exploration of hedonism, enlightenment, daily realities and the good and bad of hallucinogenic drugs. The core band is Martin Vengadesan on vocals/keyboards, NR Lohan on electric guitar/vocals, Edward Gomez on bass/vocals and Andrew Sagayam on drums, all of whom were journalists at The Star newspaper. Sagayam was replaced by producer Ashwin Gobinath on half the tracks, and having two different drummers also adds to the album's vibe.

Highlights are many and they include the opener The Doors Of Perception (Lost Weekend) which depicts the chaotic beginning of a psychedelic trip with a lot of surreal detours.

There are massed vocal harmonies and a blistering organ solo to round things off. The song makes a return near the end of the album - but this time with some avant-garde piano and a killer slide guitar/drum duet featuring Lohan and Ashwin.

There's also the electric piano/Moog combo of Groggy Doggy and a bunch of other Beatles-influenced tracks like Shanny On A Sunday Morning, A Cafe in TTDI Park and Fragrant Hills, which adds Chinese and Indian influences to what is clearly a hallucinogenic adventure!

Another dope track is Crystal Meth & The One-Eyed Man with an incendiary guitar solo from Lohan over the massed chorus and Firewater Blues which touches on the impact of alcohol on Native American populations.

Your Runaway Mind (Syd Barrett, Peter Green & Me) is the longest track on the album and my personal favourite. It has a number of sub-sections and is a tribute to the men who were at the heart of the early success of Pink Floyd and Fleetwood Mac respectively but had very high-profile drug-related breakdowns and left their groups ? and the world - behind. This song has classic keyboard moments like a rollicking Moog solo and mellotron overload towards the end. And that's alongside harpsichord, piano and organ, as well as a lyrical guitar solo and great melodic bass work.

Another song A Thousand Moons has some stellar performances from backing vocalist Joanne Timbuong, Carnatic flute from Sridhar and violin by Karolina Sustova.

Scream In Pleasure is a grinding psychedelic blues stomper, with a mid section organ solo that is graced by a percussion orchestra from Balamurugan, while Opium Den is another rollicking trippy psych tune. Finally Grass Cutter Jam is an excursion into a little psychedelic jazz, and To The Carmine Sea is a beautiful folk song that turns into a twin lead guitar extravaganza that would make Wishbone Ash proud.

Not quite the most progressive album by The Stalemate Factor, but quite possibly it's best.

Interesting effort from this chess-themed prog band from Malaysia. Behind the dark and brooding album cover of Martin Vengadesan & The Stalemate Factor's "The Rook Siege", the fourth album in their catalog, its opening track "The Horizon Myth" shows off the best of Vengadesan's talents, taking us on a sonic journey that is explorative in nature in this playful 11-minute-50-second suite. A fun lengthy song by Stalemate Factor.

I was particularly taken by the acid-soaked track "The Heretic" told from the perspective of a person struggling with late night depression. Its beauty is in its darkness, as is much of this album. The mood of the song flickers like a light switch between verse and chorus, brilliantly depicting the violent throes of manic depression in its lyricism and arrangement.

Its chorus stood out. Anyone who has identified as an outsider at some point of their lives would be able to see themselves in the lines:

Am I a heretic if I do not think like you? Or just a broken man who knows not what to do? All trace of this life I guess will soon be gone No one needs to know that I never belonged

This eventually builds up to a spirited jam between sitar, keys and electric guitar.

Check out "The Forest Of Thieves" for its Ian Anderson-reminiscent flute lines and blistering guitar solo, and "Ashes" - a charming piano-forward song, heavily backed by mellotron, telling a tale of betrayal.

Another piano-forward track is "The Tomb Of Osiris", which reminds me of Iron Maiden at its best, rocking and rolling with soulful backing vocals supplied by I-Shan Esther. Notable mentions are tracks "Citadel Of Twenty-Six" for its fantastic outro and medieval imagery and "Death Comes As The End", which I believe is a nod to Agatha Christie's work of the same name.

A very pleasing hour spent on "The Rook's Siege" indeed.

The Rook's Siege is the most recent album by The Stalemate Factor, which is a rare progressive rock band from South East Asia. I have all four albums but this is the most progressive overall and by far the best place to start.

The obvious draw is the opener - a great track called The Horizon Myth. A 12 minute piece that ends with a superb Moog solo it also has some fine guitar work by LK Wong and outstanding drumming from Ashwin. There are bits of the song that remind me of Rush, King Crimson and even The Beatles and Traffic. The lyrics are all about warriors and wizards, poisoned blades and a half-prince in the shadows!

Another highlight is the blistering Ashes which has some fantastic piano and organ interchanges by keyboardist/singer Vengadesan. I would also recommend The Tomb Of Osiris which blends heavy metal and jazz while ruminating on the fate of the last priest of an ancient religion. Similarly The Forest Of Thieves touches on Jain mythology, and has a captivating midsection on flute and another great outro solo by Wong.

Then there's The Heretic which is an all out brooding jam featuring electric piano, guitar and sitar by guest performer Kumar. It also has a schizophrenic Beatles-like chorus.

The album is full of hidden moments like the violin solo in The Ballad Of The Latter Day Saint and the maudlin string and flute exchanges in Death Comes As The End. I also like the vocal duet on Citadel of Twenty Six, and there are great female vocal contributions from Joanne, Alena and I-Shan Esther.