UNITOPIA

Unitopia is an australian progressive rock band, having released 3 original works and this album that is filled with covers and two original works that are very orchestral. Having heard the album, these interpretations have a very modern spin on the original songs. Including songs from bands like Genesis, Marillion, Yes, Supertramp and so on. These covers bring a new feel to these songs with a fresh perspective on the original versions. With modern production on their side, they managed to cover the songs listed above with a brand new take on what the artists did long ago. The album cover was made by prolific digital artist Ed Unitsky, his artwork usually consists of very unnatural images such as aliens, alien objects, distorted cars (such as the volkswagen bus fish on the cover of The Flower Kings 'The Sum Of No Evil'), and abstract pieces of land, ocean, etc. While the production is very modern, the songs themselves are all masterpieces from various artists and faces in prog. Unitopia was able to make an album full of very modern takes of the well pieced together covers of songs that they said inspired the bands music.

Overall, a very new version of all the songs on this album was able to come out from an Australian progressive rock band with a bunch of original work. This album of covers features a lot of covers I find to be better than the original versions.

5/5: Fantastic work by the band.

Disc 1 (49:33) 1. "One Day" (2:27) (4.5/5) 2. "The Garden" (22:35): (42/45) - The Garden Of Unearthly Delights - The Dragons Lair - Underground - Realization - The Way Back Home 3. "Angeliqua" (9:50) (17.5/20) 4. "Here I Am" (3:19) (8.5/10) 5. "Amelia's Dream / I Wish I Could Fly" (6:51) (13/15) 6. "Inside The Power" (4:31) (8.75/10)

Disc 2 (51:24) 7. Journeys Friend (16:28) (24/30) - Journey's Friend - The End Of The Beginning - The Need - The Main Attraction - The Path 8. "Give And Take" (5:09) (9/10) 9. "When I'm Down" (5:41) (7.75/10) 10. "This Life" (4:47) (8/10) 11. "Love Never Ends" (3:48) (8.75/10) 12. "So Far Away" (2:11) (4.25/5) 13. "Don't Give Up Love" (7:49) (12.25/15) 14. "321" (5:31) (8.75/10)

Total time 100:57

B-/3.5 stars; an album replete with mixed signals and oddly blended sounds and styles. Still, there is one excellent prog epic here, the title song, which is well worth checking out.

More Than a Dream starts with a slightly attacking song 'Common Goal' that features programming and horns in its dense soundscape. A cool soprano sax solo opens the next song 'Fate' which unfortunately starts repeating the sticky chorus way too much. 'Justify' is a near 13-minute prog piece. Its colourful arrangement is finished with a lovely child soprano voice of vocalist Mark Trueack's daughter Holly. The passionate composition 'Take Good Care' features a gorgeous orchestration. 'Ride' is based on a drum machine pattern that Sean Timms's liner notes call Genesis-esque for a good reason (compare 'Duchess' or 'Man on the Corner'). A pity that it's more or less buried under the wall of sound. All in all, one really hears that the album was worked upon for several years from the late 90's onwards, and occasionally that brings a sense of pushing things a bit too hard. The first disc ends with two pop songs that were excluded from the original album. According to Timms 'Unitopia' was influenced by Prefab Sprout, and 'There's a Place' was a commisional piece in the spirtit of 'Don't Give Up' by Peter Gabriel. His then wife Neusa Georgiou sang the ballad beautifully.

The second disc contains re-mixes and re-workings of the album tracks. Normally I'd consider this kind of disc rather pointless, but many songs actually sound better here. For example, 'Ride' has been freed of the most disturbing chorus repetition. There are enough differences to justify various versions. -- Disc No. 3 begins with epic tracks done for multi- national [Colossus] projects on the literary concepts of H. P. Lovecraft and Giovanni Boccaccio. After the previously unreleased 'Haunted Storm' comes four Dance Mixes of More Than a Dream songs. "I guess these songs could fall into the category of 'what were we thinking???'", Timms writes, but what the heck, it's funny to have at least this much of pure EDM on my record shelves! Finally there are two previously unreleased 1996 demos and a brand new song 'The Dream Complete', with which Trueack and Timms offer a parting gift to their loyal fans.

Yes, this set is pretty pompous, but if the price isn't too high it can be recommended to a wider audience than just to the most dedicated fans of the band.

My first encounter with Unitopia happened years ago, from this very album, which was casually playing in my friend's car when he was giving me a ride. I still remember that 'I Wish I Could Fly' was playing and I was really mesmerized by the duo of guitar and flute, which somehow made me think remotely of the 'Firth of Filth' from Genesis' 'Selling England by the Pound' (predictably, any flute, used in progressive music, makes me think of either Genesis or Jethro Tull, depending on the extraction of sound). And, even though the rest of the 'I Wish I Could Fly' didn't impress me that much, my friend proposed playing the album from the very beginning, claiming that this is so far, the best Australian prog rock band for him.

To be honest, I am grateful that back then I took his advice, bought the CDs next week and dedicated myself to listening to 'The Garden'. Which I love till today. Well, some parts of it.

The thing is that there is a great BUT with this album. The BUT begins when 'Give and Take' starts playing. For me this song signifies that the Australian authentic magic came to an end and commercial melodies are coming to spoil the impression, which was so carefully built throughout the first hour of the album. Yes, the arrangement is still very professional. Yes, the sound is still great. Nevertheless, it feels like the band has already planned creating a double album and didn't want to refuse this idea even after realizing that there is an obvious lack of an original music material (and, to my honest opinion, the same approach took place when 'Artificial' was created, as it lacks original and rich diversity of melodies. I am also surprised 'Artificial' is ranked higher by the Progarchieve users, as, for my humble opinion, 'The Garden' demonstrates better the composing talent of the band).

To sum up, I am rather critical to the CD2, even though my claim for 'bitter disappointment' in the first paragraph is, of course, exaggeration. Exaggeration, which is coming from an idea that the title song, 'The Garden' (with its interesting composing paths, which include a combination of fragile and touching melodies, masterly followed by the aggressive guitar invasions and, later on, some impressions of a tropical summer jungle or jazz), and 'Angeliqua' (which, with its sensitive intro somewhere from Sahara Desert, sets a mood of mystery and intrigues you to find out what is it about that woman, and hits you in your face with first guitar riffs) are setting a very high benchmark for the rest of the album. A benchmark, which, in my opinion, wasn't reached by some of the pieces of the second Unitopia album. Still, my ranking would be a 4 for absolutely great, rich, inventive arrangements and professional sound, which, for me personally, makes worth listening CD2, even taking into account the critics written above.

First of all I want to say they do a great job and their performance has a flow of honesty, great instrumentation and vocals. What I don't like so much is their selection of songs, I can't find it so astonishing and I don't find this very interesting. It could have been better without those Genesis and Yes medley's. They didn't got my acceptance, perhaps because of their structure or just the thought to "destroy" a couple of good songs. No, certainly I'm wrong, but THOSE medleys were'nt what I wanted them to be.

I shall praise the record's best moments. "Even in the quietest moments" (a Supertramp song) is perfect and gives me as a listener a wonderful time. It is also full of new thinking and in the end we can hear an exotic tune of perhaps didgeridoo but it also sounds Tibetanian or Mongolian. I like the record's prelude "Sign of Life Prelude" and the Marillion cover "Easter" is great. I also like Led Zeppelin "Rain song" very much which they did their own thing of and "Speaking the truth" is also more than approved. "Calling occupants of Interplanetary craft" was also a song I liked. But the rest is unfortunately quite disappointing.

I recommend you the mentioned songs, especially the Supertramp song, but perhaps not the whole album, certainly not the two medleys. This will get three stars from me.

The crossover prog label is very apt here. Basically, Unitopia play sophisticated pop rock with prog elements, deep baritone vocals, occasionally crunchy guitar and a pastoralist philosophy. After repeated listens, it grew on me that songs like Artificial World, Gone in a blink of an eye, Not human anymore have great variation between instrumental parts, verses, pre-choruses and choruses fully utilizing their five minutes. Great reward is a lush slow burner, maybe kinda typical, but saved by the deep vocals, and bonus track What kind of world is a great sing-along closer to listen while driving your car.

This album begins rather uncommonly with Common Goal with its almost hard rockish vibe and quieter vocals. Highlights here are the irresistible pop rock of Fate with an ethnic brass leads, the first stab at an epic, 12-minute Justified with both reflective and powerful sections, Afro-beat Take good care, and More than a dream, similar in tone and infectiousness to Fate, but slower. Both that song and Justified end with strong guitar solos.

The best melodic symphonic I've heard for the last 3 years with soulful vocal, which fit to the music perfectly, and with so much twists and turns, changes, inclusions, fresh ideas and influences, that they name it crossover prog. The songwriting is top notch. 'Nothing Last Forever' is amazing tribute to The Beatles. But the most impressive is little masterpiece 13 min 'Tesla'. From Flamenco guitar and lush sax to full bodied orchestra, from vibraphone to prominent bass lines, and everything so tasteful, in right measure. Some complained that lyrics are to preachy. Who cares about lyrics, if music is so beautiful? Where these guys are from? Australia? Thank you Australia for bringing such a talented musicians to us. Sound quality is also very good. To describe this album in one word, I would say: "A Must". Will stay on my shelf next to Ad Infinitum. 5 classic prog stars.