THE SOURCE

Second release of this discret and unknown band released in 2009 named Prickly pear is also a worthy affair in symphonic prog realm. This time, at least for me the album sounds little melower and softer then previous one, maybe because the guitar parts and overall instrumental sections are not so evident. The best pieces to me are Until Morning Time and Promised Land, a decent towards great tunes with excellent song writting and good performance, the rest are also ok. I like this band and I like both albums, with a plus on their first one, to me their best from the two. The Source must be discovered for sure by many prog listeners. 3 stars for sure.

The Source from USA is a young retro prog band with two albums released so far. Their first offer from 2006 - All along this land is a fairly intresting album with influences coming from Yes, specially on guitar deparment , Spock's Beard and even The Flower Kings. Symphonic prog is all about here with a retro sound and warm vocal lines. What I like on this band and particulary on their debute is that this album has plenty of instrumental parts, quite complex and well performed, for example the title track All Along This Land clocking around 22 min, divided in 5 small pieces is a monster of a pice, here the band gathred all the great ideas and puted in music, the result is fantastic. Lots of nice smooth guitars , remind me a lot of Stewe Howe sound and manner of playing, elegant keyboards and fine druming. Very warm voice coming from Aaron Goldich who done a good job fiting perfect in the overall sound.I will give 3, 5 stars for this little known band , this is a great debute that fans of symphonic prog must discover.

When hailing from Los Angeles nowadays,playing progressive rock,it is nothing less but a miracle.This young The Source band was formed in the US show-capital in 2004 under the forces of largely self-taught guitarist Harrison Leonard and singer/keyboardist Aaron Goldich,who has been influenced by prog,classic rock and classical composers.Paul Long and Isaac Watts were given the jobs of bass and druumer player respectively and the band with a stable line-up recorded ''All Along This Land'' in the fall of 2005,released finally in summer of 2006.

The melodic Pop Rock opener ''From the start'' is not representitive of the band's style,but you can only enjoy the all over the place Beatles-esque harmonies of this melodic intro.The long eponymous epic of the album is actually what The Source's music is all about: Melodic slightly Symphonic Progressive/Art Rock with extended instrumental passages,full of memorable melodies and professional interplays.GENESIS,YES,THE BEATLES and KING CRIMSON influences are evident,the track flows easily through all these melodic soundscapes and the warm vocal arrangements,while the guitar work of Leonard really stands out.This nice track is certainly a good contender against bands like SPOCK'S BEARD,BRIGHTEYE BRISON or THE FLOWER KINGS.The melancholic slow-tempo ''Bridges'' indicates the deep psychedelic face of the band.The opening notes of ''Unspoken Love'' are a surprise with Leonard performing in a Spanish-influenced soft crescendo,before the track turns into a melodic dramatic battle between THE BEATLES and FOCUS with Goldich offering some fantastic work both on organ and grand piano.''Dreams'' starts in a very GENTLE GIANT way,but the rest of the track is slow- tempo,intense,organ-driven and slightly Psychedelic Art Rock with melodic vocal arrangements and again very interesting guitar work with a jazzy edge,quite a decent closer for this all the way decent effort.

''All Along This Land'' is a pleasant surprise and a fine example of a modern progressive band with strong vintage leanings,trying to survive battling on a ground full of mainstream beasts.For these reasons and for the qualitive musicianship The Source's debut comes strongly recommended for all fans of melodic old-school Progressive Rock...3.5 stars.

Nice soft and melodic prog!

A couple of years ago I was introduced to the music of this young and talented band from the USA, I got their latest album called Prickly Pear which shows their charm and their symphonic tendencies, I liked it, and fortunately later I was introduced to this which is their debut album. "All Along this Land" is the title of this record released in 2006, which features nine songs and a total time of 50 minutes.

What you will find here, is a melodic, gentle, charming and warm album with compositions that in moments might take you to the seventies, since The Source have taken some elements and inspiration from those older bands, and develop them into their own sound. The first track is a soft and nice piece entitled "From the Start", here we can listen to that gentle and great voice of Aaron Goldich which might be so light, so soft, but it is so good to me.

From the second to the sixth song you will listen to a five-part piece with the name of the album: "All Along this Land". In the "Overture" we can feel pleased with the great symphonic music that the band offers, the guitars are reminiscent of Steve Howe and that along with the cool keyboard sound, make this music pretty enjoyable. Then in "Over and Under the Stars and the Sun" vocals appear and the music turns faster and more intriguing. But later it changes when "We Are Here" begins, now it turns mellower and gentler.

A cool piano introduces "Fall of Babylon", a song that produces several things due to its different atmospheres and moods, here I really enjoy both, the instrumental and the vocal part. And the last part of this epic is "Inside this World" which is a nice short piece with cool bass sound and again a gentle piano. Later there is a guitar part that again reminded me of Yes or some 70s prog; the peaceful voice makes this music easier to listen and to dig.

The next tracks are longer; actually the three of them are in the seven minutes average: "Bridges", "Unspoken Love" and "Dreams". In these compositions we can enjoy the beauty of their music, the soft and pure sound might even relax you and make you have a moment of tranquility. There are several passages where you can just sit and enjoy the music, create some images on your mind and transport yourself to another realm. The work of all the musicians is pretty good and accurate, because they transmit things and create cool atmospheres.

If you like this kind of melodic prog then you can try this band, otherwise I believe you might get bored soon. This is a very good album, though it is not something I would highly recommend, I believe it is worth listening every now and then. My final grade will be three stars.

Enjoy it!

The most intriguing album today. To be complete, I have to say that this is also my first album to review today. And to say the terrible truth, this is also first to hear this rainy day. But it sounded good at the first time.

Anyway, except joking mood, I have to say that this is one of these albums, where you know you've fell in love on first sight. Transformed to prog perspective of course "heard", but pattern is the same. Not just after one minute, but I was hooked after first seconds and during whole album. Goal almost unable to accomplish, to attract you through entire what, 45 minutes ? Impossible may some say, but this music is both melodic (I suspect them to use some well known melodies under veil of prog complexity).

When listening these songs, I feel like very depth of my heart is touched. Harmony element is beyond maximum level on scale, it's far more than what you're used to listen (I suppose), almost spooky, how well it all goes.

5(+) Time will show if this decision is right. But I feel it like that.

EDIT: Time prove my decision right, I still admire every (fuc_in) aspect of this music. And it is really hard to catch my attention with every sound here, believe me.

Another thing. It revokes my childhood melodies, long lost melody fragments (beginning of Star Dreamer for example and then all over the song till the end). Or Until Morning Time which again, is almost forcing me to close my eyes and dream. I've never encountered so strong feeling as ones shining from this album. It is so dense and trying to get attention (rightly) that I'm surprised how anybody can feel not affected. Because this is good thing about prog, when you know it's good music (no good, perfect, masterpiece like music), you can flow away and surrender yourself to music, to enjoy it completely and without any limitation. And you know that you're doing right thing. And amongst these promising elements, the most charming one would be vocal part.

Thrilling album.

The Source is a young progressive rock band based out of Los Angeles. Prickly Pear is their sophomore album and shows development within the band from their first release. I regard them and Moon Safari as great new, young, fresh progressive acts amongst a lot of older, more established bands. I feel that the vast majority of prog bands are a lot older and it is refreshing to see young people closer to my age be inspired by progressive rock and provide a more youthful perspective. That is one of the main things I love about The Source, their sound is very refreshing in what can sometimes feel like a stale genre. I am in no way dissing progressive rock because I love more established bands, but it is a nice change of pace to have such a young band.

This album was a difficult one to review. At first, I was not that impressed by it. There were bits and pieces that caught my attention, but as a whole I wasn't moved by it. But, on repeated listens, I've really grown to love this album and now consider it a considerable improvement from their debut album. This album is definitely a grower, and I recommend that you listen to it numerous times to give it a chance before you make your final verdict on it. In fact, I still feel it is too early for me to form a final opinion, and I feel that it will only keep getting better as I keep listening. This album has become truly addicting for me and I love it.

While I feel the star of their debut was keyboard player/singer Aaron Goldrich, I think the star here is guitar player Harrison Leonard. I am drawn in by his playing which sounds an awful lot like Steve Howe at times, and very jazzy at others. I also love some of the acoustic guitar work as well that pops up on a few tracks. By highlighting Leonard, I in no way am downplaying the other members of the band. I think the playing is top notch all across the board. So, that being said, I'm not sure what bothered me when I first listened to this album. I thought Goldrich's vocals were perhaps too whiny, but I am now quite impressed with his style and love certain vocal sections. I think my main problem with the album is that there doesn't seem to be as much heaviness as I usually like in my prog. I don't mean that they have to have heavy, fast Dream Theater like sections, I just felt that sometimes they get a little too light in their approach and I would like a little more bite.

But, that being said, I've come to appreciate the more "light prog" elements of their sound. I absolutely love the opening track, "Promised Land" and have loved it from the start. The opening reminds me of the opening of "Close to the Edge" by Yes. It is chaotic and beautiful at the same time. I also love the instrumental bits at the end that lead the listener on quite the musical journey. I was actually a little dissapointed when it started to fade away because I was ready to be taken to the next part of the musical journey. The two shorter tracks, "Star Dreamer" and "Thin Air" are both favorites of mine as well, especially "Thin Air". I love the jazziness of this track and the "ooh, la la las" that make this such a fun listen.

The two longer tracks have been the most difficult for me to get into. "Until Morning Time" is great, but once again it seems to drift along without getting to a really hard hitting place that I expected it too. "Castles in the Sky" I like a lot more, and I especially love the ending which for me resembles the ending of "I Want You (She's So Heavy)" by the Beatles. This really is a great piece and I have grown to love it more and more with each listen.

So, my verdict on this album is that I have really grown to love it and my score for it has gone up and up as I've listened to it again and again. I still feel I have a ways to go to truly appreciate this record. At first I thought that the compositions sounded chaotic and messy, but I am starting to get how the compositions fit together and flow and it is making for a much more enjoyable listen. So, my conclusion is that this is a remarkable band who have created a great album of music. There are parts where I get a little bored, but for the most part I am fully entertained and even blown away by some parts. This comes highly recommended and I look forward to getting to know this record even more.

Good choice in ever groving prog arena ladies and gentlemen, you should check this record. But beware, hard/heavy/metal prog lovers will be probably disappointed.

From a humble piano beginnings of first track, indeed named "From the Start" we can start to listen nice piece of soft prog. Well, as you probably know too, it's hard to define genre of music. Britney Spears will be pop for sure, but this can be said about Michael Jackson too. And difference in quality is clearly to see. Same with this one. Crossover prog, one can imagine something similar to eclectic.

This one has mostly acoustic guitar(s), but not limited only to them. There is of course electric guitar too and typical prog instrument, keyboard or some kind of synthetizer. But acoustic feeling overwhelmed me. There is also some kind of suite, "All Along This Land", spanning over first half of tracks. Some good melodies, some good improvisation, don't expect lyrics everywhere. By the way, pleasant voice.

Great Source!

Once again, thanks to a site like this we can discover to some new acts that are meaning to keep prog rock alive, if we turn to any side of the globe we will find some young bands trying to put their grain of sand and leave a mark on this realm, some of them fail, some of them have success, but the beauty of this is that there is always prog rock. Now, and thanks to Uwe I could listen to this young band that come from the United States called The Source, who had released one album previously, which sadly I have not listened yet, but this year they came up with their second record called "Prickly Pear" which contains 5 songs and a total time of 49 minutes, so a song average of almost 10 minutes.

The album kicks off with "Promised Land" song that caught my attention since the very first notes due to it's dense and complex musical style, the guitars and keyboards take the leadership, and after a couple of minutes the song slows down and vocals enter, and during it's 10 minutes we will find several little changes, the song is very rich, and in moments causes a sensation of happiness, there are great moments here full of complexity like in minute 7 when it turns a bit faster, and despite being a new band, their style takes some older style, I mean kind of retro prog.

"Star Dreamer", has a dreamy feeling indeed, with a soft and calm harmony and some mellow vocals, this is one of the shorter songs on this album, but it also have it's little changes and it's complexity, in some moments it may turn to a catchy and poppier song, but it is good anyways.

"Until Morning Time" is another of the epics on this album, and that retro prog feeling returns here mainly due to the keyboard sound and guitars, that sometimes remind me a bit to Yes, I can imagine Howe was an influence to The Source guitar player. Being a long song, it is obvious that here we will find several changes, all of them following a proper style that will take you to one short moment to another, at the half of the song a piano enters and gives a radical change to the melody, but again in some moments I reminds me to Yes, very nice song.

"Thin Air" is the other shorter song on the album, and begins again with a soft sound along with the melodic vocals, suddenly some heavier guitar appears, there are also some backing vocals there and a kind of funky guitar later, at the middle of the song drums and a nice piano sound appear creating a cool song.

"Castles in the Sky" is the last song of this album and it is the longest track reaching 15 minutes, the start is a bit slow but it is growing and progressing of course, there are some background organ over there , good guitar notes and after a couple of minutes it makes a stop in order to return with acoustic guitar and then vocals, after all the song remains very calm in moments it actually sounds kind of a ballad, but then there is another change with a guitar riff, I like a lot epic songs, and normally I put them as the best songs on the albums, this time it does not happen, this is a nice epic but that's it, there are better tracks on Prickly Pear, I believe this track would be better if they cut some redundant moments.

After all, it is a very nice album, with some symphonic moments but I believe this is a clear example of the so called "Crossover Prog". Claps for the band and keep the great work. My final grade is 3 stars.

Enjoy it!

Second album from the Los Angeles based band THE SOURCE. It took three years to present the follower and the sound has evolved unmistakably. 'Prickly Pear' holds five songs which are provided with a quite complex structure but also presented in a special relaxed mood, symphonic oriented, spiked with some references to wellknown prog dinosaurs too. Especially Harrison Leonard's guitar is partially showing a stylistical conformity with Steve Howe. The band is provided with a new bass player as for a major change. But former member Nico Photos was responsible for the album art work at least and he has contributed to the initial song writing before the decision occured to quit the collaboration.

The Promised Land is only reachable when using a road consisting of many curves and turns. Aaron Goldich's keyboards are leading the band with safety though. This is an interesting diversified track by all means reaching the ten minute mark - even coming near to the typical YES style sometimes. The vocals are nicely mellow - the whole music sounds very harmonic. Surprisingly this song is faded out just reaching for Star Dreamer which is somewhat dreamy indeed where Goldich concentrates on electric piano with a jazzy note and you can enjoy a nice guitar solo excursion by Leonard. Thin Air appears mysteriously to me a little bit because bordering some rare heavy rocking moments but also 60's similar vocals reminding of the Beatles. This is amazingly blended in a successful manner.

Until Morning Time comes up like a mini symphony with changes and surprises en masse where I first thought: this is overproduced unhappily. But now after listening to the album during a longer period it doesn't take effect anymore - on the contrary - I would say this song is the album's highlight ... if not ... Castles In The Sky in active competition is probably a bit more catchy presented like an extended ballad. Here we have an impressing start with excellent bass contribution - lots of acoustic and electric guitars afterwards, funfair organ, convincing polyphonic vocals.

If you are already familiar with bands like IZZ, Big Big Train, Salem Hill, Spock's Beard and like this stuff you will act in the right way when deciding to explore this album. The band delivers high quality. Not adapted for easy background listening - I could listen for another couple of times and surely would detect some new impressions. Take enough time to explore - as many others it needs space to unfold. Listeners of cultivated prog music with retro references to the 70s should pay attention.