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Dave Greenslade - The Pentateuch Of The Cosmogony CD (album) cover

THE PENTATEUCH OF THE COSMOGONY

Dave Greenslade

 

Crossover Prog

2.40 | 48 ratings

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Finnforest
Special Collaborator
Honorary Collaborator
1 stars For a very limited audience

You really need to be a complete synthesizer devotee to commit hard-earned funds to this title. There just isn't a compelling reason to go near it otherwise. What you have here is 78 minutes of inoffensive and ineffective synthesizer rambling that neither impresses or inspires. The most creative way I could think of to describe this painful ordeal is that it sounds like the creation of a middle school music teacher who won a contest to write a backing track for a condominium promotional video. The video would show a couple having drinks watching the sunset on their porch and this is the background music. Sarcastic perhaps, but this album is really pretty weak and the prog audience deserves to be warned. To recap this album is an instrumental (almost entirely) conceptual album in which Greenslade plays every synthesizer in the book to create the imagery behind a convoluted Sci-Fi epic that is nearly enough to make even the most dedicated progger trade his collection for a Ramones t-shirt. Problem one is the cheesy sound of his synth choices which are often paired up with some almost disco-beat drumming. The songs themselves and the keyboard playing is rarely satisfying or compelling. Second, there is little apparent correlation between the cheesy synths and the elaborate story presented in the booklet. Since there are no vocals, the story must be told and communicated by the music and it fails in doing so. These keys impart no mood, warmth, or imagery that even get close to what I'd hope a prog musician might do trying to sell a grand story like this one. You would think that with all of the high-minded concepts and certain emotional dramas playing out in the story, you might hear some wide-ranging instrumental and vocal arrangements expressing these moments.but no, just another section of noodling synths and boring melodies. Last, the thing just drags on for 80 minutes with very little variation in the approach. Besides a few guest percussion or vocalization tidbits there is nothing but poorly executed composition and poor selection of instrumentation. I can't imagine what possessed Phil Collins to participate in this, there must be a personal friendship there. The one bright spot is the incredible art work presented in the generous booklet but I am rating the music here, not the artwork. I rarely give an album one star but I really can find no reason to give it anything higher. This was a complete waste of my time and money and fails even as "background" music. I do not recommend this album to anyone unless you are a huge keyboard enthusiast interested in all the various machinery being tapped here. Or unless you are a collector of cool album art. For anyone who ever thought Tales from Topographic Oceans was pretentious and uneventful...oh my God...you ain't heard nuthin' til you hear this.

This is a harsh review. Perhaps I've got it completely backwards and this strange work is a masterpiece for reasons over my head-I will always be one to admit that I could be wrong. If so, my apologies to Mr. Greenslade.

Finnforest | 1/5 |

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