ARKHAM

If you're addicted to Egg or Soft Machine like I once was, I would suggest you track down this album. The sound quality isn't great, but there is some very beautiful Canterbury-esque music on here. Arkham is HEAVILY influenced by the Softs. The keyboard player even has a Mike Ratledge persona! They do have their own sound though (sorta..). H.P. Lovecraft serves as an inspiration to the band and can be showed in the darker aspects of Arkham's compositions. Daniel Denis' drumming blew me away. The bass guitar is ever present but isn't terribly noteworthy. Jean-Luc provides gorgeous soloing timbre with his Clavioline in many of the songs. Two of my favorite songs are 'Brussels Shortly After' and 'Tight Trousers'. 'Brussels' opens cleverly with 2 arpeggiated major 7th chords on electric piano, the second keeping the first major 7th's 7th, creating an unexpected dissonance. The composition goes further into light electric piano-led delight-fullness. Jean-Luc provides an absolutely gorgeous Clavioline solo. The song then goes into some diminished riff and eventually returns to the delightful chord progression with some more Clavioline. My other favorite song, 'Tight Trousers', is a favorite because it isn't a Soft Machine copy like the majority of the other songs on the album. There are plenty of unique atmospheres being sounded in it. Shame Arkham didn't last too long. Songs like 'Tight Trousers', 'Eve's Eventful Day', and 'Brussels Shortly After' showed where Arkham were heading (out of Soft Machine jams and into tight RIO outfits).