AUDIOCRACY

Audiocracy is a "collective" of musicians pooling their talents to create a greater whole. The collective is lead by the massive keyboards of band founder Tobin Mueller, a Wisconsin- based composer and theatre producer, and the 5-string bass and soaring vocals from TwØn from New York City. Joining them is Bob Piper on guitars from the band Pleaides, Darren Chapman on electric guitars who performed with the group Out of the Blue in the early 1990s, Rob Thurman on drums from the band Real Eyes (He also has an all original progressive rock band Navigator), and Tadashi Togawa on electric & acoustic guitars.

Revolution's Son comes across as a symphonic whirlwind of passion and sensations following a young man's post-apocalyptic journey. With their tight, gorgeous arrangements, the songs used every hertz of my sound system with organ, mellotron (synthesized, I think - please prove me wrong!), heavy bass and percussion. Vocals are akin to David Sylvian, Fish, and even David Bowie at times. The overdubbed vocal arrangements stray into early Echolyn's territory and eventually maintain the forefront of each song, wringing emotional nuances and strong character from each track. TwØn's vocals stay strong, even when climbing into high registers or scraping low growls.

The intense, minutely-arranged segues in "The Survivors" results in incredible build and release songwriting. This was my favorite song of the album. My car was swaying back and forth as I attempted to keep my mind on the road while being caught up in song's emotional rollercoasters.

Some of the latter songs have musical ties to Bill Nelson's free flowing psychedelia. "The Confrontation" opens with the basso voice like Hackett's Darktown. Innovations on this track include a bass workout like a Victor Wooten live date and the use of archival radio recordings and Celtic melodies to evoke the background and texture to the story.

It is hard to find fault with the musicianship or recording. This frees the listener to enjoy the quality and craftsmanship of the songs. The album flows from idea to idea like birds winging from tree to tree. I predict you will return to this album time and time again, gaining new insights and following along as I did to its emotional highs and lows.

Numerous small and many minor matters went quite wrong on this debut album - at least as I see it. Which is kinda sad, the ideas in themselves aren't too bad - what is lacking is in execution.

Basically, what they are trying to do is make an album with music sounding very much like Yes; in a slightly modernized version. The synth layers, guitars and synths mix, high lead vocals, vocal harmonies, slight jazzy leanings at times, and very, very melodic.

But the instruments fight each other for space rather than filling out the soundscapes, the vocals come across as a tad off, especially compared to the melody, the chosen tones for the tunes are too low, and the vocal harmonies doesn't quite match up.

Some nice moments, but the sum of weaknesses is much greater than the sum of the strengths for this one.