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Amoeba Split - Dance of the Goodbyes CD (album) cover

DANCE OF THE GOODBYES

Amoeba Split

 

Canterbury Scene

4.06 | 99 ratings

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DangHeck
Prog Reviewer
4 stars Canterbury Sound out of Spain? It fits the bill!

And from the get-go, Amoeba Split has the quirk and the knack and tenacity to fit the mold of my personal favorite Prog idiom. "Dedicated to Us But We Weren't Listening" is a great introduction indeed. Happy start for maximalismo. They fill every nook and cranny in your headphones, most notably driven by synth and organ (rightly so, I'd suggest).

Soft female vocals head off in the quieted "Perfumed Garden" performed by flautist Marķa Toro. Very modern feel, despite the majority of the classic instrumentation. It should be noted that not only are keys the dominant force, but the guitar specifically is mixed surprisingly low throughout, in my opinion. Regardless, everything is working together, again, to fill your headphones totally. It will keep your attention, in the least. All picks up in the middle section of this track, not unreminiscent of middle-era Soft Machine (i.e. post-Wyatt, pre-true-blue-Fusion). The latter half is soft but optimistic.

"Turbulent Matrix" is a much welcomed shift, the beginning of which is very jazzy [the whole song is jazzy haha], like a cool Post-Bop. And around the 2-minute mark we finally hear some guitar in nice soloing. Certainly still in a sort of Canterbury style. Most notable is the muddy and fuzzy bass playing here, of course reminiscent of Mr. Hugh Hopper. Around the midpoint is this very lovely synth solo. And the build at the end should appease (it does fall into something that reminded me of "Stolen Moments" which was lovely).

"Blessed Water" didn't immediately impress, but around 8 minutes, there is a slight shift, but only for a moment. And then *wham!*, 10 minutes in and we get a huge burst. Enough to yank me over to the side of the track? No, but [the part was] satisfactory in and of itself.

A Hatfield-style sub-minute interlude is found in "Qwerty"! Well done! The synth and organ is once again the driving force, but in Miller-meets-Stewart fashion the guitar is thankfully riding right alongside. Wonderful. And that opens immediately into the 23.5-minute epic "Flight to Nowhere", starting with psychedelic wavering then nice, simple guitar lead atop dancing piano arpeggiation. The saxophone section around 5:30 is excellent and the section it introduces is very nice. Complex rhythmic something going on here, too. Definitely picked things up. Good track.

DangHeck | 4/5 |

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