DREADNAUGHT

Dreadnaught's last album to date is a different ball game from anything they released up till now. Musica En Flagrante assures Dreadnaught is one the best bands out there, but still as obscure as an early 70's self promoted Italian progressive band. I'll give them all the credit in the world for reaching so far out and still manage to present us with such a clever and sensitive instrumental work. Where several bands get hundreds of reviews the first week of releasing an album, this one is so forgotten it makes me very sad and frustrated. As a lot of bands follow formulas and releases kind of the same album over and over again, dreadnaught is focusing on how they are going to do it differently, which makes progressive rock definition complete, not only the music is progressive it's also new! something the band haven't yet experienced with, reminding me in spirit of King Crimson.

Their previous album The American Standard is certainly one of my favorite albums to date, and I was hoping they would release something as great, but nothing prepared me for this. As the previous album was rocky, eclectic fusing elements like funk, avant-garde and was quite hard to categorize, this album is fairly less rocky and goes towards more avant realms, accessible Rio maybe, but even harder to pin point. Knowing their discography I would never thought this was the same band, without recognizing their distinct sound. What makes this release sound so different is the inclusion of more evident keyboards than before, violin, sax, piano, harmonica and more. The band's sound is absolutely stunning, bass guitar and electric guitars sounds like no other, they have the crispest sound you could ever wish for, this is actually the band's signature sound and what makes them so fun to listen to, how do they manage to create it? Don't ask me. Guitarist Justin Walton comes with all kinds of schizoid runs and licks, showing you what would have happen if Steve Howe was born in Alabama. Bob Lord also unleashes a captivating sound and is definitely a gifted and an outstanding bassists, reminding me of Les Claypool on meds.

The music never goes in the same road nor travels popular paths, it's quite new and i can't honestly compare them to any band i know, while in the past Primus or Phish would come to mind, now only tiny traces are scattered around, sprouting out here and there. There are 19 tracks here, going through different styles and moods, while maintaining a perfect balance between everything, touching each style in his turn and in the right time. Like I said it's quite hard to define the music and everything I'll say won't even get you close to understand the complexity of the music but i'll try. I can say it falls between avant-garde (nothing freaky), jazz, rock, funk, electronic, chamber and experimental, but they are all too general definitions to really grasp what's going on inside this piece. Each track goes from several mood changes easily, or slides to another without noticing, I love the fact that one moment you are in a quirky rocky interlude and the next you are swept by orchestral breaks, or grooving to the coolest harmonica. While in the previous album I was struck by the phenomenal playing of the trio, now i'm amazed by their progressive writing, for they are not trying to shine at all, relying on their self playing prowess, they give a lot of credit to their hired musicians giving them a lot of space to express them selves. Compositions contains a lot of ideas and the playing is nothing less than top notch. Just check out 'Tiny Machines' which brings to mind The American Standard material, featuring their distinctive quirky playing and very imaginative writing, grabing you tight and not letting you off the train until it's safe. 'Northern Pike' follows this, but shoots you from a cannon to the other side of the scale, at first you don't know what to expect, but they hold you down with their subtle and exquisite playing and when that harmonica sweeps inside, you have to applaud them for they certainly knows the job. 'Big Cats' and'Threnody for the Victims of Brother Theodore' are two more highlights which I fail to describe cause there isn't anything quite like it, incorporating all the elements mentioned before and giving birth to something new. Fabulous really. 'The Sirens of Titan' is a short suite which demonstrates just how diverse and imaginative they can be, playing an avant-garde intro which breaks to a beautiful violin and goes back to the avant through the back door, throwing some beautiful saxophone to the mix and some more violin, you have to hear it to believe it. 'Royal Jelly' ends this ride with a great performance of what this trio knows best, another rockabilly or should I say progabilly excursion of freak out sounds, riffs and memorable playing.

Musica En Flagrante is a modern masterpiece of progressive rock, no doubt about it, and although I would prefer 70's progressive rock just about any day, this band is one of the few cases where I can question this statement. It just has it all from phenomenal playing, great sesibility, varied instrumentation, out of this world arrangements and just about 5 tons of creativity.

it's been too long since the band released anything, so I took the liberty of writing Bob an email, saying just how I enjoy their music and what the hell is taking them so long? he answered me saying thanks, and how hard it's been since he travels a lot and producing other music, but they do visit the studio, he also said and I quote "Know that you are interested will push us! Not enough positive feedback these days..." It's a real shame this kind of professional music does not get the right amount of attention, so if you do not own this, do yourself a big favour and buy a copy. 5+ stars!! a mark i give to very few releases. Thanks.

I wish this was the american standard!

Did you know that this masterpiece exist? Where great known bands from each genre here gets their fair share of reviews, some bands are left aside and does not get promoted. I would rate Dreadnaught the no.1 overlooked band here at PA, taking into consideration the amount of reviews they got against music quality. Dreadnaught are not new in the prog biz, 'The American Standard' is their third album and their first to go all the way to heavy funky prog rock town. They are a 3 man totally insane american band who seem to be exploring a niche that no man have gone before, although sometimes remind in spirit bands like Primus or Phish. Their music on this album can be described as avant-garde country funk prog rock ( yes it's a genre now! ). But actually describing their sound and music with words is useless cause it seems they are coming from out of space. Basses and electric guitar sound is totally refreshing, they have that crisp sound of new strings on your guitar only enhanced and distorted. guitarist Justin Walton comes out with some weird noises in addition to some groovy fast guitar licks, he does not have to solo because he's guitar is already doing so much, moving from strange chords to quirky runs, always with such great taste and totally rocky too. Bassist Bob Lord comes out too with sounds from hell, he's playing is always noticeable and is a crucial part of the overall psycho sound, together they are incomparable. Drummer Rick Habib has no problem keeping up with his two buddies and adds some great fills along with the off beat rhythm they are creating.

The music like i said has a southern US feel, very complex and progressive moving from beautiful melodic parts to avant-garde to hard rocking funk stuff and punky outbursts coming from god knows where, everything is well balanced and there is no way to know where they gonna go next, one moment they are dark sounding and the other they are the happiest band alive. The album starts out with Ballbuster which is an accurate title for the nuclear bomb dropped on your ears, a full power high voltage rocky tune that grabs you and doesn't let you go leaving you uncertain of what the hell just happened, and in the same time so intrigued to continue. As good as the opener was it doesn't really prepare you to the next exhilarating, brilliant 20 minute piece, divided into 4 parts that takes you on a journey incorporating all of those styles mentioned before. The piece is very dynamic and holds lighter parts against heavy complex rhythms, reminding you some wacky King Crimson Red era fused with Zappa that will make you drool all over the floor. I mean a band that takes some disco beats and turns them into prog rock got to be special enough. The rest of the album continues in that line taking you on a roller coaster of sounds and intricate out of this world tunes, as they incorporate violin and piano notes just too be sure you are still on the train. Vocals seem to be goofy sometimes but sound good and side by side with the already crazy music. It's interesting that the music has a light feel to it but it's all serious too.

Knowing this album for a few years now makes me realize that i haven't heard something so challenging and invigorating in 20 years ( except for a very few albums maybe ) , while other bands are playing it safe and releases the same album over and over again, Dreadnaught seem to remind everybody what's progressive rock is all about, taking all the risks and coming out with an album full of new ideas and sounds. Every genre has to evolve except progressive rock is a statement taken by the band and crushed to pieces. Being compared to other bands doesn't really do it cause dreadnaught is on their own. Their next album 'Musica En Flagrante' see the band evolve further more and is worth checking out too. This is one of the few albums i would rate with 5+ stars along with other masterpieces of the genre. The very high rating for the album is accurate, an essential masterpiece of progressive rock, don't miss it for the world!

Dreadnaught is an entity unknown for me until I got the promo for this double CD compilation.

With a career spanning more than 10 years now they have to be seen as veterans, and their chosen musical field is one they are pretty much alone in exploring, seemingly. The music is progressive and experimental; but with aspects to the music rarely found in other progressive acts.

Most songs are short; and the progressive elements are numerous changes in pace, style and mood in all songs; as ell as mixing elements from different types of music. The staggering 28 tracks on this CD goes from blues based quirky rock to industrial electronica in style, with influences from indie rock, glam rock and country thrown in the mix. Quirky guitar playing is a central element in all songs, and a chunky hard bass in many.

Musically I'd guess fans of Frank Zappa and similar artists will find this quite appealing; as well as others enjoying music not confined to conventional styles and structures.

Avant-Garde?? Fusion? Never mind! Certainly an awesome masterpiece in progressive music!!

DREADNAUGHT is a very interesting unique band and as far as I read none of their albums is similar to another, moreover there are no comparisons possible to any other band. Nevertheless when listening carefully to their music one can detect direct influences like Zappa, King Crimson, Country, Hillbilly, Blues, Jazz and modern electronic as well as some modern chamber music. Actually their sound is in a way impossible to describe. I would call it something like Avant-Fusion if there would be such a thing, not really like the mostly hard to be digested stuff usually presented in Avant-Garde but some innovative music that can be absolutely enjoying for anyone with an open mind and open ears.

"Musica En Flagrante" contains 19 tracks most of them being shorter than 3 minutes. This fact might bring to mind artists like Mike Patton or Mike Keneally showing similar structures on their albums. But I've to say that Dreadnaught's music is much more pleasant to the ears and I dare say (without putting those musicians down) it is of superior quality. Although styles are being changed at times within seconds the seemingly constant flow of the music is not disrupted at any moment. One could say that they thoroughly reconstructed their influences by adding them up to their very own material and created like this an entirely independent truly self-contained music style. Sometimes there are motifs placed next to each other that never have been joined in that way and even no one before would have thought that they fit together. But like a big wondrous surprise it really works and the result is just astounding. Though it's really almost impossible to describe the music offered here I'll try to give at least a rough overview of the CD. But anyway I'd like to advice everybody just to listen to it and to expect the unexpected.

The slightly ambient opener "R. Daneel Olivaw" (title taken from a novel by Isaac Asimov) is with its laidback groove a perfect introduction to the band's sound. Thereafter the styles are going from surf sound over some type of semi-improvised avant-garde with moderate dissonance played on piano and brass to the highly playful "Tiny Machines" sounding like a weird alienated modern and rocking version of ancient movie score track "The Clou" (if I'm not wrong). Then comes one of my favorites on here the kinda acid jazz piece "Northern Pike" with an amazingly cool harmonica revealing a bit the style called "Progabilly" they had become known for after their album "The American Standard". This is the longest track on here and really great stuff I just can say. The short "Gulf of Tonkin" is rocking off to something called "Pants Down" (in two pieces) that sounds again quite avant-gardistic, dark and rather industrial-alike. "Big Cats" and "Threnody." are opening in a way second half of the album which is overall less upbeat with a more orchestral and film score like approach. Some people call the second half somehow weaker and less interesting than the first one. I would say it's just different, not as quirky as the first couple of pieces having a more lush and symphonic atmosphere but without any apparent decrease in quality. "Fanfare for a losing team" is a kind of Zappa-tinged modern chamber rock whereas "The Boston Crab" is returning to a more guitar and bass dominated sound with some metal-alike eruptions. "Elba", another one of the few longer tracks is another favorite of mine, a piece dominated by a dark keyboard sound and bass. Before the album is closed by "Royal Jelly", a guitar dominated rather upbeat track there is the chamber rock piece "The Sirens Of Titan" which is subdivided by four parts and offers some great violin sound in gypsy style.

To summarize my impression of this work I just can say that there isn't any moment of boredom present neither are there any parts filled with everlasting soloing or enervating dissonance and oddity. I'm not sure if my review can help anyone to get an idea what this CD sounds like. I just hope so and possibly I could at least quicken the appetite of some people with an affinity for some innovative and adventurous music done with extremely artistic skills and talents. I can't see any reason for resisting to give the highest score for this.

DREADNAUGHT is a relatively new 3-piece American band. They consider themselves a "Progabilly" band, but their music bursts with dozens of different musical styles. The most noticeable influence in this band is PHISH. DREADNAUGHT seem to have been influenced especially by JUNTA-era PHISH, back when PHISH wasn't afraid of creating complex progressive music and Trey Anastasio loved to sing about all sorts of oddball topics. Guitarist Justin S. Walton has studied Trey's guitar style well, yet he takes that style to a new level with all sorts of schizo-guitar runs/licks, interesting chordal shapes, and avant-garde jazz-guitar techniques. He very often jumps, as a loose example, from Anastasio/Howe-like Rockabilly vamps, to dark KING CRIMSON-ish guitar licks, and then finishes the theme with a gentle Django-esque acoustic guitar melody. This is some of the best guitar work that I've heard in years. Another influence that comes to my mind, when listening to Justin's guitar work, is the HAMPTON GREASE BAND. If you are familiar with this incredible southern American prog band, Justin's guitar style is like a modern version of Glenn Phillip's style on that album. The other two main musicians in DREADNAUGHT are also worth mentioning. Bassist Robert Lord adds some rather unique bass work all over the album. I can't really compare him to anyone else, but his presence is heard throughout the CD due to all sorts of cool sound-effects and bass licks. Drummer Richard Habib somehow keeps up with the two other guys by playing non-cliched grooves, and very often matches complicated melodies note-for-note. The music, as I mentioned, is well-balanced and features all sorts of styles (some surprising styles too). This band loves to play complicated PHISH/HAMPTON GREASE BAND-like sections of music that are sometimes as frantic as some of YEZDA URFA's music on "Sacred Baboon". I even hear a subtle hint of RIO (5UU'S, UNIVERS ZERO, and HENRY COW) in some sections. But these guys also like to sing poppier, yet oddball, songs that could definitely get airplay on a college radio station. Overall, though, the catchy vocal-based tunes balance out the crazier instrumental moments on the CD. Once in a while, violin, piano, flute, and even French Horn are added to various tracks. Some of those guest musicians add interesting colors to the arrangements; especially the violinist who reminds a bit of Stephan Grapelli. Anyway, "American Standard" is killer. I'm not sure what neo-prog, and sympho-prog fans are going to think of it, but if you love early PHISH, the HAMPTON GREASE BAND, Trey Anastasio's poppier song writing, Steve HOWE's rockabilly influences, YEZDA URFA's instrumental sections, then you will definitely love the music here. Okay, I think I'm going to pick up my guitar now, and try to figure out what the hell Justin is doing on most of this album.

"And now for something completely different..." Introducing the best band you've never heard in your life, Dreadnaught. This musically insane 3-piece band hails from New England, (New Hampshire to be exact), and has unleashed a sound and style on an unsuspecting prog world that will not just knock your socks off, it will blow them across the room. They have been described as "Yes meets Zappa at Willie Nelson's BBQ" and "King Crimson at a hoedown." The band itself has proclaimed their style as "prog-a-billy." And for all you old-school-I-heard-it-all-before prog heads out there, let me make this clear...you ain't ever heard nuthin' like 2001's THE AMERICAN STANDARD before! This largely instrumental, endlessly fascinating CD features chainsaw-fuzzball basslines driving diverse and complex compositions with all the subtlety of a good olde-fashioned Blitzkrieg, interweaving with usually clean, unusually intricate, eccentric guitar parts and rock solid drumming. The album starts out with BALLBUSTER, an aptly titled, out-of-control exercise in sonic acrobatics and dynamics that'll have you giggling like a little school girl as it slams you to the floor and doesn't let you go . And that's just the beginning. The 4 part, 20 minute opus DEUS EX MACHINA starts out innocently enough with a Stray-Cats-on-acid melody that soon rockets into the stratosphere with a bassline from country bumpkin hell, groovy guitars, bouncy pianos, and more rhythmic and melodic changes than you can shake a fist at. But it's not all in-your-face thunder. THE AMERICAN STANDARD possesses a dynamic that the Crimson King himself would be fond of! The quiet and subtle beauty of DERBY DAYS, and the quasi-techno sound and feel of DENEB, sound right at home beside the sonic fury of JAMES THRESHER INDUSTRIES, the latter of which features multiple kazoo parts. BUNNASCHIDT is a beautifully constructed tune that could be played at a QUALITY alternative station, if one exists, and features a la-la-la (literally) chorus that is guaranteed to get stuck in your head for days.CLOWNHEAD features an opening guitar riff so greasy, it should just slide out of your speakers and fall on the floor. This is one of those albums that will grow on you. All killer, no filler. Melody after melody will start to tattoo themselves to your brain. You will hear new things with every listen...slithering violin parts, multiple time signatures played simultaneously a la Zappa, nuances and interactions between musicians who favor integrity over commercialism, even some goofy lyrics and a CD cover featuring a previously unpublished piece of art by the brothers Hildebrandt. This is 55 minutes of pure fun!

And now for the bad news... unfortunately, you can't just walk into any record store and find THE AMERICAN STANDARD. Your best bet is to go to dreadnaughtrock.com, redfezrecords.com, ZNRcds.com or cdbaby.com to get a hold of this state-of-the-art 21st Century Schizoid band. Just do it! You will NOT be disappointed!