THE ADEKAEM

The Adekaem were formed in January 2013 by Andrzej Bielas (keyboards) and Krzysztof Stefan Wala (guitars), inspired by the progressive and psychedelic rock of the 70's and 80's. This means they were working with the same inspirations as the 90's neo prog scene so it is no surprise they come across as being very much from that era. This is their debut album, released in 2015, for which they were joined by guests Szalony Iwan (vocals), Marcin "Budda" Pekala (bass) and Darek Goinski (drums) and together the quintet have brought back to life one of my favourite eras of one of my favourite bands, Galahad. Again, it can be argued this is no surprise as Galahad have quite a following in Poland, and often work with a Polish label, and here The Adekaem are looking to that early Nineties period when Galahad had recently had success with 'Nothing Is Written', and had yet to truly formulate what would become 'Sleepers', and mixed that with melodic rock to create something which brings in elements of Styx.

There is no way that one would guess this was a 2015 album from a Polish band, as it feels very much like an undiscovered British Neo album from 30 years ago, when the scene was vibrant and exciting and way more underground than it is now. To anyone who lived through the scene all those years back this is actually like a breath of fresh air as it really does bring those days back to life where we were all going to tiny venues and supporting are favourite bands through word of mouth and fanzines (the internet and Prog Magazine were not even a distant dream, they were fantasies). Iwan has a nice clear style, the guitars are clean and vibrant, the rhythm section is direct and punchy, while much of the album is based on keyboards and the songs are all short and direct. I am coming to this album rather late in the piece, and there have been a few more since this one, but if Neo is your style then this is definitely worth investigating.