CYNOSURE

Genetics is a 4 piece instrumental Australian progressive band that incorporates sections of spoken word amidst a barrage of heavy riffs, speed lead guitar licks and ambient passages. Their new album is Cynosure.

The band consist of Jay Orr on Bass, Luke Spies on Drums, Shane Leadbeater on Guitars and Samuel Joseph also on Guitars. There is a guest solo by Simon Dawes on The Chandrasekhar Limit. The guitar sound reminds me of King Crimson on Larks Tongues in Aspic. The riff is fractured and is accompanied by a frenetic lead break with string bends and speed picking beautifully played here. There are also some passages of duel lead harmonies that soar in wonderful resonance. The percussion has some grooving hi hat work and the bass lines are well executed. This is definitely my pick of best track on the album.

The album is primarily instrumental and guitar driven with a distinct progressive metal sound. There are some jazz elements such as on Kin when the metal riffs cease and a beautiful section with jazz guitar and percussion is heard.

The album opens with Pale Light with a spoken intonation by Carl Sagan about the demonstration of the folly of human conceit that is the distant image of our tiny world. The lead guitar dominates the track as it does the whole album and is enhanced by strong rhythmic bass and drum and some keyboards. The atmosphere on this track is rather tranquil despite the wall of sound. It captures a beautiful dreamy feel that the spoken sections interpret for us as deep cosmic contemplations.

Episteme has a jazzed up rhythm that switches signature a few times. The main melody is the lead guitar punctuated by outbursts of drum and bass. The vocals speak about what is the point of Science and making something work does not make it right. Art forces us to reassess our place in the cosmos and art and literature does that. Yes, this is some heavy thinking.

Samsara has a solid rhythm and howling lead guitar breaks that make it one of the heaviest tracks on Cynosure. The spoken section speaks of how kids treat the subject of Science. Quite amusing and so true. Then later we hear a lecture on the atoms that make up the universe. I will leave that to you to ascertain the meaning of this as it is rather deep and reflective. The music switches to metal riffs and then a spacier keyboard to close it.

The tempos shift dramatically from fast to slow and steady on tracks such as Mephisto's Lullaby that opens with crunching distorted guitar with an odd time signature. Then suddenly sweeps into glissando strings before breaking out on a hyper tempo punctuated by the drum beat. It locks into soaring guitar melodies and spoken vocal intonations are heard about bigotry and racial prejudice. It has a political tone speaking of the pigmentation of the skin that has nothing to do with the person inside, and I can concur with this thought. It is followed by a frenetic lead break played with passion and zeal.

Entheogen has a jazzy tempo and guitar with some spoken words that sound like someone having a discussion about types of music. The guitar on this is sublime accompanying the jazz rhythmic percussion. This track stands out among the rest as it is so unique in style, more like Carlos Santana.

Bijuu closes the album with a quiet free form jazz style, subtle in its structure and builds in tempo with an off kilter rhythmic guitar. The lead guitar begins to shred into pieces the serenity for a while with very fast picking, and then it breaks into an ambient sound. A myriad of guitar styles permeate the track with fast sweeping arpeggios to slow bends. The spoken section speaks of how the world is, but it stops suddenly and the album is over.

The instrumental sections are often augmented by the spoken word sections that at least give the album an overall conceptual feel and maintain added interest. I like how the words concise a melting pot of ideas about the perils of man amidst the triumphs of Science. This is a contemplative album that is empowered by outstanding musicianship. The lead breaks on this are stunning at times and showcase a tight structure. For those who love their instrumental albums guitar heavy and injected with jazz fusion Adrenalin - Cynosure is one album worth checking out