AISLES

'In Sudden Walks' - Aisles (8/10)

The second album by these Chilean proggers is also my second experience with them. In their debut 'The Yearning', I had a great deal of potential from Aisles, but it rarely ever felt like it was realized, despite that album being quite a beautiful listen. As is expected of almost all bands though, the act is supposed to be polished up a bit more by the time the sophomore rolls around, and in that respect, Aisles has succeeded here. With 'In Sudden Walks', the band has created a more consistent journey through their powerful take on melodic progressive rock.

The order for the day and Aisles' particular approach is that of highly melodic neo- progressive rock, with such acts as Marillion and Genesis often popping out of the band's sound. With the concept of 'melody' already being brought up a couple of times in this review thus far, one might be swayed to think that the music of Aisles is easily accessible and digested, but I found the contrary to be true. 'The Yearning' surprised me by how much my appreciation gradually grew for it over time, and the same is true here, to a greater extent. The Vergara brothers and fellow company are sure to work many hooks into their music, but with some tracks passing fourteen minutes in length, 'In Sudden Walks' is not bound to be a safe haven for any pop maniacs any time soon. Instead, the more involved tracks here cycle through a great many musical ideas, crossing a great deal of ground over their course. This can sometimes lead to a lack of song cohesion, which was something I noticed with the debut, and continue to sense here. While most prog listeners are going to be instantly attracted towards the longer 'epic' pieces, I personally find that Aisles makes some of their best statements in the more conventional work they do. 'Revolution Of Light' and 'Smile Of Tears' are both rather 'normal' in terms of length, but they accomplish a beautiful feeling to them, thanks to some keen songwriting skills and passionate performance from all members involved.

The first track 'Mariachi' is what I would most likely consider to be the weak point here, despite it having been chosen to open Aisles' music here. A mostly instrumental track save for the rather amorous panting of a latin couple a couple of minutes in, 'Mariachi' feels generally like an overture over anything else, and the lack of vocal melodies or hooks here does tend to take away from the overall enjoyment of the music. Aisles are skilled instrumentalists and can keep their performances interesting, but the opener here feels far too long for its own good, especially when considering the the first earnest vocal melody comes floating in a good ten minutes in. Mind you, that makes Sebastian Vergara's vocal introduction all the more exciting when it does come in.

Although Aisles does still tend to lose their cohesion when going into the longer tracks, 'In Sudden Walks' is a step over their debut in almost every way. The music here is certainly less immediate than it once was, but it reveals more rewards given enough patience. Even so, it still does not feel as if Aisles has reached their potential yet, so one can only wonder what sort of experience that the band's prospective third album will bring.

'The Yearning' - Aisles (7/10)

There's been no denying that the progressive rock scene has since spread beyond the confines of North America and Western Europe to the rest of the world. In fact, in recent years, some of the best progressive rock has emerged from the new wave of global proggers. One such nation that seems to have been picking up some speed with their scene is Chile, which may not be the first place someone would go to when looking for strong modern symphonic prog rock. However, Chilean neo-proggers Aisles prove with their debut 'The Yearning' that they are a band that deserves to be recognized on the international scene. While possessing a familiar sound of melodic prog in the vein of Marillion or Genesis, Aisles do what they do very well, and the result is 'The Yearning', a highly capable debut record that makes up for its lack of innovation with beautiful melodies, arrangements and performances from all involved.

Although the pursuit melody in music is certainly not at the top of most proggers' lists in terms of importance, the highly harmonious songwriting that Aisles works with this album works to their benefit. The lyrics are nothing special in terms of wordplay or derived meaning, but the vocals of Sebastián Vergara feel as if they contribute alot not only to the sound, but the composition as well. The other two Vergara brothers (keyboardist Luis and guitarist Germán) drive the rest of the music, often playing off of each other. The effect is one of beautiful harmony between instruments.

The songwriting is not as consistent as I may have liked, but from the first track- 'The Wharf That Holds His Vessel'- onwards, it should be clear that the band can write a very good piece of prog rock. By the latter half of the album, it does feel as if Aisles begins to stretch out their musical ideas a little too far, leading to one too many lackluster moments, most notably 'The Shrill Voice' and the plodding final epic 'Grey'. The best music here rests with the opener, the melancholic 'Clouds Motion', and the sixth track 'The Scarce Light Birth', which has hints of flamenco acoustic guitar, hinting at their cultural roots.

Of course, Aisles has not developed any measure of groundbreaking album or revolution in prog rock. Often, the band will sound a little too close to British neo-prog legends Marillion for my personal liking, but based on its own merits, Aisles' 'The Yearning' is a very good debut. Melody, strong songwriting, admirable performances, and enough details in the music to be worth going back to quite a few times makes the album an unlikely winner.

Chilean progressive rock group Aisles delivered a sophomore album entitled In Sudden Walks in 2009 that is in no way sophomoric. From moment one, the album reveals a unique composition of sounds which display an understanding of music and a depth of theme and creativity that many other bands lack. Don't be turned off by the number of tracks on the album (there are only six) because four of them are quite lengthy making the overall length of the album more than worth the cover price.

The sound of this album fuses a number of different styles into a rhapsodic whole that makes it a joy to listen to. Especially in three of the longer pieces, "Mariachi"; "Summer Fall"; and "the Maiden", the instrumentalists are punctuated by the vocals which separate different motifs throughout each track. There's a strong emphasis on acoustic guitars as well as synthesized sounds representing everything from Sci-Fi sound effects to pianos. This variety, primarily seen through the use of synthesizers but also including trumpets and flutes, present what is likely the most progressive part of the album.

Despite their South American home, Aisles sings primarily in English. In fact, the group only uses Spanish during spoken word sections of the first track, "Mariachi." This dialog, spoken between a man and two women, is provided in the liner notes as if written for a play ?even including some basic stage directions. There's a nod to a director of this short theatrical piece, as well, though I was unable to find any video or translation of it, and my understanding of Spanish is such that I hesitate to try and do so myself. One other note about "Mariachi:" at times one of the actresses in the dialog moans in a dramatic and sexual manner. It might make the track NSFW depending on how loud you like your music!

The two shorter tracks of the album?the second and fifth?are far more traditional than the longer ones. It seems like the group lets their creativity flow a little more strongly when they have more time in which to do so. The longer tracks can quickly shift from rock to blues to jazz and back again sometimes changing every few seconds. Add to that key changes and a variety of atmospheric sounds like wind, sounds of leaves rustling, and what I can only call "sonic accents"?short bursts of synthesized sounds used to separate different sections of the pieces?make the longer tracks the highlight of the album over all.

The singing is provided by a number of the band members who are all men and who are all tenors; there are some female vocals provided by guests during the fourth track appropriately titled "the Maiden." The lack of vocal variety, in contrast with the almost frenetic variety of instrumentation, is made up for by the strong harmony sung within the band. The strongest vocal piece of the album is likely "the Maiden" though "Revolution of Light," the second track, is a close ? err ? second.

Pulling in at fifteen minutes, the final track, "Hawaii," is unlike the others. Much of the album is upbeat and sounds optimistic. This one has a mournful, repetitive quality to the piece that makes it more cerebral than the rest of the album. Interestingly, this track has a story behind it, provided in the liner notes: one of the 200 surviving humans escaping a war-torn Earth brings with him a gramophone, ostensibly by which to remember music. Throughout the introduction to the piece, hissing and popping as if the track is actually played on such a device accompany vocals and accompaniment in the styles of decades past. Certainly, "Hawaii" is intellectually stimulating but it does have long stretches of slower, simpler sections with a soundscape feel to them as if simply listening to the piece lacks a visual or thematic portion of the piece. These sections happen in between the vocals, and effort must be taken in order to remain focused on this piece throughout. While this in no way indicates that the track is bad or even simply a low-point in the album, it does make it probably the hardest piece to understand on In Sudden Walks.

Aisles is a group I was happy to add to my music collection. In Sudden Walks has comfortably found a home as one of my favorite albums in recent memory. While it lacks the harder influences from the metal genres, I think progressive fans will find it a nice counterpoint to their other CDs consistently providing something new to notice with each subsequent listen. So enthusiastic was I about this one, I bought their earlier album, The Yearning released in 2005, and was similarly pleased. Unfortunately, try as I might, I was unable to find a good comparison for the group's sound itself, perhaps because I'm not familiar with many other South American progressive groups or perhaps because they truly do have a unique quality that is wholly their own. If you're intrigued by this review, I suggest sampling some of their tracks online to see if they suit your taste.

To very loosely quote Oscar Wilde, to squander one album may be regarded as a misfortune; to squander both looks like carelessness. Such is sadly the case with uber talented AISLES from Chile. Their musical schooling is undeniable, yet they persist in their initial tendency to kill a buzz before it has a chance to flourish. Add to that the short running time of the album and the fact that the two tracks that consume almost half are at times more ambient or narrative than rock and you have another disappointment.

On the plus side, the "sound" is simply impeccable, the acoustic and electric guitar timbres invigorating, the vocals appealing, and the South American influence even occasionally apparent. The highlights are the almost AOR like "Revolution of Light", the uneven but ultimately winning potpourri of harmonics "The Maiden" and the brief but rewarding "Smile of Tears". The remaining tracks all have their moments but fail to gel, and even the best here could have been better, had AISLES been willing to splice and dice here and there.

Just one or two moves from 4 star status, AISLES remains a generally mellow neo prog group with a lot of unrealized potential. "In Sudden Walks" does represent a slight improvement in consistency over their debut even if it lacks a true standout track, so, as much in the hopes of further improvement as anything, I will round up and walk on.

"In Sudden Walks" is the second album from Chilean proggers Aisles, a band that has matured quite a lot in 4 years.

This time around a central trait of their compositions is that they very much defy a clear defining sound, and while the symphonic aspects may arguably be said to be dominating there's much more going on here as well.

From the opening numbers spoken theatricals set against musical backdrops with rather sophisticated and varied instrumental passages in between to the neo meets lounge jazz meets dreamy psychedelic creation ending this disc in the shape of the tune Hawaii, this production is something of a tour de force from a band that has managed to incorporate great diversity to their musical ventures.

And while not quite managing to pull of the truly brilliant tracks yet, Aisles show promise of managing to do just that, possibly in the near future. Worth checking out of you might enjoy a sophisticated melodic and most often mellow and subdued variety of progressive rock touching upon early 80's Rush as well as neo progressive rock from the same era, spiced with psychedelic, spacey and jazzy touches at times.

Promising initial effort from this Chilean band. Lush, melodic symphonic progressive rock is the name of the game here, with more than a few nods in the direction of the neo progressive part of the stylistic expression. Gently wandering guitar textures and multiple layered lush keyboards forms the main foundations for most tracks here, slow in temp and high on atmospheric qualities. Good quality lead vocals that suits this style leads on in the verse and chorus parts, while atmospheric guitar soloing and the occasional drawn out heavy guitar riffs come and go to add some contrast and variety.

Personally I found my enjoyment hampered somewhat by a curious compositional trait though. Aisles are very fond of a start and stop effect in their compositions, and often utilizing that effect both for dramatic shifts but also in passages where several intriguing fragmented themes are started, then stopped and alternated with another one before the first one settled. This, and that the few tunes where this effect isn't utilized are the most gentle numbers taking on a heavily explored part of this genre without establishing a strong identity leaves me with an album that shows promise, but that ultimately doesn't manage to come across the "good but no cigar" as far as my personal taste goes.

There's lots of promise here though, and I gather most fans of vintage neo progressive rock should find this a pleasant effort.

AISLES' second album, "In Sudden Walks," is brilliant! It is symphonic, melodic, ethnic, emotional, well performed, well engineered and recorded, beautifully sung, and very fresh and new feeling--very much, I think, (like MAD CRAYON's beautiful "Preda,") due to its ethnic influences. Three of the album's six songs clock in at around 10 minutes with a fourth at nearly 15--and all are of the highest caliber symphonic prog. Only one song--one of the shorts, "Revolution of Light"--falls short of the standard and feel set by the rest of the album.

I love "Mariachi"'s exploitation of the overt sexuality so typical of Latin American television. "Summer Fall," and "Ice Maiden" should, IMHO, be in everyone's playlist of prog classics. Their multi-layered instrumental interplay is so pervasive and playful, with so many twists and turns yet with equally as many returns to very catchy melodic hooks, while all the while threaded together by some great, almost mythic, lyrics sung in absolutely beautiful vocal performances. "Hawaii" is often pacifying, calming, dreamy, though it too has it's frequent tempo and mood changes.

Overall, an incredibly enjoyable and engaging listening experience. Highly recommended!!

I quite agree with Cesar Inca: this little gem was one that was sadly overlooked from among the 2009 harvest. But: It's not too late! Get it NOW!

AISLES are a band from Chile and this is their debut from 2005. They now have a drummer but for this album they used programmed drums. I'm a big fan of many bands from Chile but this album really has been a disappointment for me. I do like the fact that there are two keyboardists here but they didn't really take advantage of that. Vocals are in English with an accent.

"The Wharf That Holds His Vessel" kicks in quickly to an uptempo keyboard led soundscape. A spacey calm settles in after 2 minutes. Reserved vocals 3 1/2 minutes in as it picks up. The tempo continues to shift. The guitar is prominant after 7 1/2 minutes then it ends with a spacey calm. "Uncertain Lights" features acoustic guitar and laid back vocals. It's fuller a minute in. "Clouds Motion" is led by piano, drums and vocals before a minute.

"The Rise Of The White Sun" is light with vocals. It's fuller before a minute and contrasts will continue. Not a fan of this one. "The Shrill Voice" has a strange intro in fact the whole song is like that. Very patchy. "The Scarce Light Birth" opens with acoustic guitar as fragile vocals join in.It gets fuller as contrasts continue. Not a fan. "Grey" is the over 16 minute closer. It's fairly aggressive early then it settles when the vocals arrive. It kicks back in as contrasts continue. A much better sound when it kicks back in before 9 1/2 minutes.

Proceed with caution.

OOOOhhhhwwwww, bad start of the CD. It starts in Spanisch. I know, they are from Chili, but please... if you want something sold, don't do that. It seems a sort of play with sex as a theme. In Chile, Spain, Mexico it will go well but in the rest of the world it is a real turn off. I write this review while listening and the second number is playing.... and it is really nice, musicaly correct and most of all understandable. It reminds me of Camel with a touch of Rush. Not bad at all. So I have to make a copy without the first number ( save's me 10 minutes of agony) But you don't want to buy a CD just to edit it yourself.

Shame, the rest isn't half bad but only 2 stars from me...

Not too many prog fans and collectors have paid much attention to Chilean group Aisles' sophomore release "In Sudden Walks" throughout last year: actually, this may have been one of the 5 most accomplished neo-prog albums of 2009. Shame on us all! "In Sudden Walks" is a lovely collection of inventive compositions and bold arrangements. As impressed as I had been a few years back with their debut "The Yearning", I found it as a half-baked effort overall that didn't manage to fulfill its evidently abundant potential. All in all, a few good things were clear about the band from that debut album: they were inspired writers and they were keen on preparing bold arrangements that made the musicality prevail over the need for pyrotechnics. With a generally suave sonority, the band could sound as majestic as many other louder bands in the symphonic and neo-prog territories. Well, "In Sudden Walks" bears more stamina, equal richness of musicality and a more refined performance level ? the latter factor is in small degree due to the fact that Aisles now comprises real drums and a permanent bass player, that is, a rhythm duo that can work on its own within the global sonic architecture. The opener is 'Mariachi', a sophisticated instrumental that almost clocks at 10 minutes. Without lyrics, the vocal parts are excerpts of sexy dialogues between the male and female characters from a movie. In this way, the whole idea sets out to bear a cinematographic mood to it while remaining a genuine musical item in its own terms. Right from the start, the dynamics shows an undeniable appeal. If you notice some peculiarity about it, that is due to the powerful inclusion of Latin-fusion undertones through the instrumental development. Symphonic neo combined with Latin cadences? This equation works, believe me. Once the slow interlude emerges and settles in, the guest trumpeter adds a extra colorfulness to the ceremonious atmosphere: there is also a guest on contrabass adding occasional nuances to the rhythmic scheme. Eerie passages are predominant until we get to the 7 ¾ minute mark, which is when the initial extroverted ambiance is solidly retaken. After this impressive opener, 'Revolution Of Light' shows the band going for the standard of moderately complex catchiness that the most impressive neo songs usually go for: shaded of early 90s Marillion and late-80s Pallas can be traced here, but the time signatures are more demanding (in spite of seeming an almost danceable rocker). 'Summer Fall' partially aims at preserving the agile mood that dominated the extroverted preceding track, but now, in a more ambitious framework, it gives more room to elaborated landscapes of nostalgia and reflection. The now dominant soft passages are patently gentle, making it easy to link the motif shifts through fluid, well-constructed transitions. As soon as the opening motif returns (at the 5 ¾ minute mark), the track's architecture concentrates on extroversion and color, including an elegant climax that ends at the 8 minute mark. The last 115 seconds are based on a pastoral descent that bears Camel inspirations. 'The Maiden' is a different beast, something more akin to late-70s Oldfield, classic Anthony Phillips and Renaissance. For this piece, the band leaves the neo-prog standard behind in favor of a more focused vintage symphonic sound where the bucolic environment is dominant. There is also a reasonable utilization of Latin nuances for good effect, making the lovely melodic motifs enhance their natural warmth. Even in those occasions when things are spiced up, the track retains its romantic magic in intact form. With its sharp 4 minute span, the eerie 'Smile Of Tears' is the shortest piece in the album. The featured presence of digital cosmic textures in its main theme openly states a contrast against the preceding song. The piano coda is just lovely. The shortest song is succeeded by the longest one, the 15? minute long epic 'Hawaii'. Right from the start, the ceremonious overtones prevail with a certain mysterious mood. Mixing the cosmic spirit of the preceding track with a powerful melancholic aura, the piece delivers a long-term sense of calm majesty where neo-prog, old-fashioned symphonic and new-age unite. Later on, after the halfway, the track sets a crafty variation, even intensifying the sonic atmosphere a bit for a while. The dual guitars' textures are lovely, and so are the synth lines and harmonic developments that softly go on until the fade-out ends. Like I said earlier in this review, shame on us all who overlooked this beautiful album during 2009: now, our redemption can be assured by purchasing this album and enjoying its plenty of musical qualities. Aisles can be safely regarded as a totally matured band.