ARAGON

''Rocking horse'' is actually the track that dominates the album, clocking at exactly 20 minutes, and featuring some very interesting work by the band.Its first part is dedicated to a very lyrical Neo Progressive Rock with limited instrumental parts but a great performance by Dougan on vocals with both sensitive and more aggresive singing.The second part though is exclusively instrumental with floating keyboards, powerful grooves and some more dreamy passages, a bit too long but still decent.The ''Other Short Stories From the Past'' of the title refers to the next sum of tracks, written in mid-80's, and offering catchy and lyrical Neo Prog with good breaks, incredible theatrical vocals, decent keyboard work and an overall nice performance by Aragon.A couple of these though suffer from flexibility with long hypnotic keyboard parts close to Electronic Music and distorted vocals, not what one would expect by the Aussies.

Despite its flaws this album is another pleasant listening experience by Aragon, mainly because of Les Dougan's superb vocals and the deep atmospheres the band could create with ease.Recommended.

Combining a Marillion-inspired theatrical neo-prog approach - singer Les Dougan rivals Fish when it comes to emotionally expressive vocals in the neo mould - with more prominent and varied keyboard work, at points drawing more on the progressive electronic genre than on the symphonic prog keyboardists most neo-proggers found inspiration in, the band come up with a truly original and haunting sound which is express perfectly in the songs collected here. It's rare that I feel inclined to give what is essentially an odds-and-sods collection a high mark, but in this case I feel compelled to. The band's decision to hold back this material - only releasing it after the neo-prog high water mark had come and gone - must surely go down as one of the greatest strategic blunders on the part of any neo-prog band.

While the ingredients are all OK (a great vocalist,a cool production,good drum programming despite the absence of a drummer),something went wrong in the total mix.The guitar work is strong and melodic,the keyboards create superb atmospheres and the voice of Les Dougan really shines,but the whole blending doesnt always work succesful.Some nice passages are followed by monotonous choruses and while you find yourself thrilled,the next time something spoils the listening.Good thing is the album is too short,so it flaws generally nice and easy...and for me Aragon succeeded to become a very personal and recognizable band already for their early years.

''The Meeting'' isnt an essential listening but it is a good album.It wont be everybody's cup of tea so anyone into Neo Prog will love it,the rest should give a couple of listenings before moving on a buy...This goes for exactly 3 stars in my books.

It is sadly not an easy task to find the albums by Aragon, and indeed their previous, fifth, album, Mr. Angel, still eludes me. This sixth, and to date latest, release of the band took some effort to track down, but it was well worth that effort. After having reviewed the whole discography of Aragon (minus Mr. Angel), I feel that The Angel's Tear is the album that best brings together the respective strengths of all their previous releases while at the same time avoiding most of their flaws and also at the same time introducing something brand new into the band's sound. All this helps them to sound more confident and also more original than they did on their early releases. The vocals of Les Dougan have never sounded as passionate and powerful as they do here and the same must be said of the guitars of John Poloyannis that get a more prominent place in the sound than ever in the past. The lyrics are thoughtful and often existential in nature.

The "mechanical" rhythm section of songs like the opening track, Growing Up In Cuckoo Land, and the midi-like keyboards of the short Discovery might trouble some people, but both tracks grew on me significantly after repeated listens. Indeed, all of the eight songs featured on The Angel's Tear are very strong. Favourite tracks for me include the nine minute In The Name Of God and the almost folky album closer The Silent Field with its Celtic-sounding drums. The album's longest track is the 13 minute title track while the shortest track, the aforementioned Discovery, is just under two minutes. The latter does indeed end rather abruptly and might perhaps have been extended somewhat. Another very short track is the weirdly titled Copper Bob And The Pirates At The Gates Of Dawn. This is actually quite weird musically too and features some notably theatrical "pirate" vocals and an almost Metal-like beat!

There is a nice flow and a good balance throughout the album between acoustic and electrically based songs and between upbeat passages and more serene ones. This makes for a very appealing variation that keeps the album interesting from start to finish and invites recurrent listens. Thankfully, Aragon have also avoided the common pitfall to put too much music on the same album just because the space available on a compact disc allows for it. A running time of just over 40 minutes is often optimal.

If you want to check out Aragon, The Angel's Tear is a great place to start. Let us hope that the band will return with another album in a not too far distant future and that they will also tour and perhaps record a live album/video that brings together songs from throughout their whole career.

Excellent addition!

Many years in the making, Aragon's Mouse finally appeared in 1995. This lengthy conceptual album in eight 'acts' had already been discussed by the band as early as straight after the release of their debut album in the late 80's. Due to pressure from fans and record companies, they decided to release act five of Mouse separately in 1992 as The Meeting even though the whole was far from finished. The original 1995 version of Mouse did not include the previously released act five, but a re-mastered re-release appeared in 1999 that contains all eight acts (as well as new art work, the story of Mouse and an audio interview with the band about the making of the album). As I have rated The Meeting tracks already (with three stars), I will concentrate on the rest of Mouse here.

My first impression of this album was that it was fragmentary and disjointed. Many of the tracks are very short and intended to function as link pieces. The problem is that there is not much for them to link to! Many passages feel like transportation and this reviewer's opinion is that there is just too much of that. Excluding the (very good and) previously released The Meeting tracks, there are not that many 'full-fledged' songs on Mouse. Having that said there are some good moments here also, but generally they are too few and too far between. Maybe there was a conflict between two very different objectives; that of telling the story, on the one hand, and that of making good music, on the other. Both the story and the music seem to have suffered as a result. There is certainly a shortage of memorable melodies.

Some spoken word passages seem out of place and distract from the flow of the album, rather than enhance it. As I mentioned above, the booklet (of the 1999 double CD version that I have) features the story of Mouse, but to be honest I have not managed to get through it. In the bonus interview on disc two, it is mentioned that the story is a layered one about (1) life in general, (2) about a character called Mouse and (3) about the history of the band! Maybe they just bit off more than they could chew?

Musically, Mouse is clearly inspired by Genesis' The Lamb Lies Down On Broadway. There is even a track called The Waiting Room (but there is no further connection between the two tracks as this one is just a short piece of pointless dialogue). Aragon do have their own approach but I think that it came to its right much better on both some earlier and some later releases of theirs. While the 1999 re-release of Mouse is now (I suppose) the best and easiest way to get hold of The Meeting (act five), which is well worth hearing, I cannot give Mouse as a whole more than two stars. If you have The Meeting already as a standalone release, this overblown concept album is recommended for you only if you are a fan or collector.

As a side note, I can mention that the artwork (which is different from the one displayed here on PA, which I suppose is the original 1995 artwork) reflects the band's Australian origin. It features a photograph that (I suppose) was taken somewhere in the red Australian dessert.

To fill the gap between 1992's The Meeting and 1995's Mouse, Aragon released Rocking Horse And Other Stories From The Past in 1993. This album contains material that dates from before the band's debut album, Don't Bring The Rain. This means that the material featured here goes back to the band's early days sometime in the 80's. It is unclear to me whether it is the compositions only that date from before the band's debut album and that the present recordings of these songs were made later, or if even the recordings themselves date from before Don't Bring The Rain. Regardless of which, the sound quality of these recordings, though not perfect, is actually better than that of the debut album itself. Interestingly, and this is the important part, the compositions also by far outshine those that actually made it onto Don't Bring The Rain. Indeed, to have such great pieces as the 20 minute Rocking Horse and the haunting Ghosts on their hands and decide not to include them on their first album release cannot be explained by anything else than bad judgment or possibly by pure madness! The songs featured here are generally excellent and certainly include some of the best songs the band ever did.

The song Ghosts appear twice, first in a studio version and then in a live version. This emphasizes the compilation nature of this album and distracts somewhat from its inherent qualities. If I allow myself to dream a bit, I would say that had Aragon released a full-length studio album containing the best songs from the present collection plus good-sounding versions of the very best songs from Don't Bring The Rain and The Meeting, they would doubtlessly have a truly excellent album on their hands. As they stand, however, none of these releases deserve a higher rating. Still, I would say that at least Rocking Horse (the track) is essential listening for any fan of Neo-Progressive Rock.

Recommended, but not excellent all the way

The Meeting was Aragon's second album, following the promising but immature debut Don't Bring The Rain. Interestingly, the contents of the present album constitutes act five of a much longer conceptual album called Mouse (that would be released in its full form as a double CD in 1999). Probably, the band felt they needed something to release to retain interest in the band at this point (that is, in 1992) even though the whole of Mouse was not ready for release at that time. I should say upfront that this review is based on the last six tracks of disc one of Mouse rather than on the original release of The Meeting (the tracks are identical, but the more recent release has been remastered). Another thing to note is that act five (that is, the music featured on this release) is by far the best part of Mouse (in fact, the rest of Mouse is very disappointing but I will get to that in a later review).

Compared to the band's debut album, this second release was a major improvement both in terms of composition and production. The sound (at least on my remastered version) is clear and powerful here and almost all of the songs are of very high quality. Aragon are hardly the most original band you'll ever hear, but I do think that they have something of their own. The musical influences certainly include Genesis, both the more progressive 70's Genesis and the more commercial 80's/90's Genesis. The latter's influence can, for example, be felt in the more rhythmic approach in The Chant and other tracks. The lead vocals of Les Dougan resemble those of Geddy Lee of Rush (but Dougan is more versatile, to be honest), and it is fair to say that that band also has an influence on the music of Aragon, particularly the late 70's/early 80's period of Rush.

There is a nice diversity to this album with two pleasant acoustically based numbers in the middle in Midsummer's Night Dream and Tugging At The Heartstring. Apart from the almost ten minute The Changeling, most of the songs here are of the shorter variety. The album as a whole is also very short. Clocking in at only 27 minutes, it is really more of an EP than a full length studio album. Still, this is certainly a worthwhile set of songs.

The only way to get hold of these tracks now is, I suppose, through buying the full Mouse album (of which, as I said above, The Meeting is but one - the best - part).

Aragon is a quite obscure Australian Neo-Prog band that started out somewhere in the mid to late 80's. Don't Bring The Rain was their first album and it surely carries some potential even if the final result is less than one might have hoped for. To give a crude description of the band's sound, one could say that they are a mix of Marillion and Rush. They fit well into the UK- dominated Neo-Prog category, but they also have slight elements of American acts such as Saga, Styx (some of the tunes on this album are very melodic with emphasis on the chorus) and, particularly, Rush. The vocals of Les Dougan sometimes remind a bit of those of Geddy Lee. As such, the music of Aragon, can be compared to that of British neo-proggers Galahad.

The sound quality of this recording is unfortunately not the best and, to be honest, neither is the instrumental performance of Tony Italia on the drums and John Poloyannis on guitars. But if you can look beyond the less than perfect sound quality, you will discover a set of nice songs. The only embarrassment is the Christmas song Solstice that should have been left off the album in my opinion.

The highlight of the album is the two-part epic Crucifixion which foreshadows the kind of music Arena would do a few years later on their two first albums. The drum frenzy at the end of the second part is interesting, but could surely have been better executed and so could the guitar work.

As I said, Don't Bring The Rain is a promising debut, but the promise is largely unfulfilled at this point.