MAJOR PARKINSON

''Major Parkinson'' is a weird but inventive piece of art.It combines the Heavy/Stoner Rock idiom with elements from Circus, Cabaret and Theatre Music in a charming and quite original blend.The tracks of the album are very short, but contain dense, rich and quirky musicianship.The music of the group is based on schizophenic groovy parts akin to SYSTEM OF A DOWN and heavy, attacking, furious vocals by singer Jon Ivar Kollbotn, interrupted at moments by dual guitar workouts and psychedelic textures.Actually the theatrical approach of the group reminds of a less melodic and keyboard-based A.C.T. with an overall darker mood.Among the uptempo grooves the sextet offers plenty of sudden breaks, while the gears return all of a sudden in a powerful and passionate package.Multi-vocal harmonies are also in the menu, adding sometimes a poppy and more accesible taste to an album, which is nevertheless an entertaining and pleasant listening.

With their debut Major Parkinson manage to come up with a genre of their own.Heavy Cabaret Prog?Stoner/Circus Music?Quirky Art Rock?Whatever you call it, this is definitely a nice listening experience with its own identity.Good band, warmly recommended album.

Musically, this album is at least equal to their next album, "Songs From A Solitary Home", which was my #1 album from the year 2010. However, in some ways, it's a bit less adventurous. The band sticks to the more upbeat tracks, with only a few exceptions (Casablanca, Awkward as Drunk, Greatest Love) that tend to take a relatively laid-back approach. Guitar is definitely the dominant instrument here, although the tracks are for the most part lead by the bizarre yet amazing vocals of Jon Ivar Kollbotn. He typically sings in a deep, throaty voice that sounds like it must come from a gigantic man, but he stretches his vocal chords into some twisted high-pitched vocals on several songs. In fact, there is a bit more usage of his non-standard singing voice on this album then in their follow-up.

It's really difficult to pick a top track from this album. Every track has something about it that makes it stand out, be it the wicked, thundering bass in the middle of "Bazooka Mirror", the ridiculous speed and energy of "It's a Job", or simply how catchy and varied each song ends up being. My favorite track is "I Am Erica", though, which has grown on me consistently since I first started listening to the album. It demonstrates the best of pretty much everything about this album - the vocals are great, the song has at least three or four separate themes catchy enough that they should be songs of their own topping pop charts, quirky instrumentation, and amusing lyrics. Furthermore, like every song on this album, the song contains multiple distinct "sections", yet the skill with which the band moves from one to the other is purely organic, there is no sense of the band trying to bend the music to suit their new music idea. As well, what would be considered a "chorus" does exist in the song, but it's not really used in the way of a typical chorus; it is not the catchiest part of the song, nor the part that stands out the most; it is simply repeated the most.

Despite the fact that this band is unabashedly catchy pretty much from the beginning to end, and although I desperately wish this is the kind of music played on the radios, the music is a bit too weird to be truly popular on the radio. The vocals are too out there; the band is not afraid of tossing in some atonal notes here and there; this is almost avant-rock-pop.

The bands music tends to have a darker slant to it, with somewhat cynical lyrics; It's a Job is a song about a murderer dealing with the consequences of his actions, despite trying to live a wholesome family life outside of his job. Silicon Hips deals with a love of plastic perfection; Death in the Candystore about equating love with material gifts. Awkward as a Drunk deals with substance love ("Oh, tell me why I was laughing / when you [%*!#]ed up my mind"). Yet, despite this, the album is generally upbeat in sound, and I listen to it when I want to put myself in a good mood. Go figure.

This album has a lot of strong songs, which is a distinction that I feel I must make because a lot of albums I listen to I rarely think about the individual tracks. Yet on this album, while it does sound best listening from start to end, I feel you can safely listen to any song on it's own and have a satisfying experience with it.

The music is largely based around the vocals, and Major Parkinson is one of the bands that pulls this off very well. Jon Ivar Kollbotn's voice has a very pleasant emotive aspect to it that in a way reminds me of Rikard Sjoblom of Beardfish; not so much for the sound of his voice (they are rather different) but more how his singing adds a whole level of character to the music and seems to convey the mood he wants with ease.

The music is unabashedly catchy when it needs to be, but it can also be quite tender (as in Card Boxes, a song that, if my interpretation is correct, is about the death of the protagonists parents), and the band can also effortlessly switch from the catchy to the more emotional (as on Solitary Home).

The content of the lyrics on this album are almost all dark, but with a sense of humor about them that prevents the music from being too bleak. The lyrics are also quite good, expressing emotion while leaving the specifics of the events for the listener to piece together for themselves.

This is a vocal driven, song-based album, but alas, this is not music that the radio stations near me are likely to be playing (although damn, I wish they would!). In fact, I had to e-mail the band to even get a copy shipped to me, for there are no North American distributors selling this music. The other option of course is iTunes. This is a shame, because these guys are flat out amazing and need to be heard by a larger audience.

This album is one that hit me like a surprise or to say it honest, this band took me by surprise. I randomly went to a gig where they were the headliners, I had zero expectations nor had I ever heard a song.

I left the gig with their latest album Song from a Solitary home it is as you expected from the concert lively.

Well how is this album, whimsical is one word to describe it, but also complex and this band know how to play their instruments, not in a Gentle Giant way (no one is that btw), but they are in the same league when it comes to arrangement skills, song structure and playfulness as the prog giants of the 70s. They differ by their influence not only by 70s they also incorporate 80s alternative to minor degrees and a light metallic crunch and mindset (but they are not metal by any extent).

They include a lot of different elements to their music; they have a rumour to play circus/vaudeville type of rock, in that way that it is wild, happy and playful. Tom Waits is also heard clearly by the way the vocalist sings, he is not aWaits clone but uses a similar gruff/growling singing style. The interludes/solos by ether piano and guitar shows a hint of ElP and Yes influence. Specially in songs like Solitary Home, The Age of Paranoia and Adville. Genre styles in their music is Jazz, avant-garde, symphonic prog, pop rock and folk, all of the songs on the album are short to medium in length but that do not stop them at being complex and full of nice little details.

I will by heart say that this is a strong example of 00s progressive rock that don't lack the mindset of 70s prog but never sounds like copycats but more like classy interpreters.

Excellent inclusion to any progressive rock fan