STEAM THEORY

Steam Theory is the personal musical project of Jason Denkevitz, through which he creates prog that takes in various styles and influences at different times, and so creating unique sounds and songs. "Asunder" is an excellent collection of such tracks, generally in the realm of a very compelling and enjoyable power prog, but open to a whole landscape of sonic mixes and experimentation. To wit, most tracks are driven by electric guitar, either light or somewhat heavy, but often belying some wonderful acoustic guitar - some of Denkevitz's best playing is through that instrument - and some orchestral strings, variously in the vein of classical or exotic sounds, the latter variously bringing to mind deserts or East Asia. On top of that, "Intar" delves heavily into Indo-Arabic-Asian territory, and "Shyft" immediately after is heavily indebted to the New Wave revival. As a whole, the album is a great collection of prog that features some other excellent tangents, altogether well played and put together. The aforementioned "Intar" and "Shyft", as well as "Adrift" and "Spectres", are my personal favourite tracks - I so lean towards the second disc. But still enjoyable all around, and recommended to modern crossover fans.

Another one-man project, responsible for which is American multi-instrumentalist Jason Denkevitz, based in Baltimore, Maryland.Except for the music lessons he took already from his young age, Jason graduated from College Park with a double deegree in Biology and Anthropology, then moved to Phoenix to attend law school.Since 2003 he returned to his homecountry and started this project on his own.For his first album ''Enduring Delirium'' he received limited help from drummers Karras Johnson and Roger Stewart in a pair of tracks and keyboardist Sherif Shalaan in another one.All the rest of the album is performed and arranged by Denkevitz himself.

Incorporating influences from Folk, Classical, Jazz and Rock music and influenced by the likes of 70's Prog masters, Steam Theory's debut is a beautiful journey into the world of challenging instrumental Progressive Rock music, having a superb diversity, while Denkevitz has made an excellent job in wrapping these inspirations in very tight and well-crafted compositions.''Enduring Delirium'' is hard to describe.It is a Fusion album, but not in the sense of Jazz/Fusion, more like mixing up different influences in long arrangements.Main sources of inspiration seem to be bands such as YES, KING CRIMSON, PINK FLOYD as well as MAHAVISHNU ORCHESTRA and ALLAN HOLDSWORTH.Combine this material and you will have a nice idea of Steam Theory's music.There is too much going on in this album.From powerful orchestral textures to more psychedelic and spacey grounds, from fiery guitar-led Fusion stuff to more rural/acoustic soundscapes, some of them even have a Spanish influence, from melodic and sensitive passages to aggressive riffs with a pounding rhythm section.The acoustic and electric guitars of this man lead the way with some incredible grooves and solos, the keyboard work is also very good, including Mellotron waves, smooth piano lines and soaring synth beams.From the modern bands there are definitely echoes from the music of 4FRONT, THE FLOWER KINGS, SPOCK'S BEARD, QUANTUM FANTAY, RESISTOR or FARPOINT, depending on the source of influence.What is most surprising is the fact that Jason has made a great job on mixing this album, which sounds like a fantastic team work, as most of the tracks are very long with strong variations and shifting moods.

Almost 70 minutes of nice instrumental music.Maybe a bit too long, but ''Enduring Delirium'' contains tons of interesting moments to catch the listener's attention.For all fans of flexible, all instrumental Progressive Rock...3.5 stars.