SUMMER IN TOWN

This disc just made my day. That the seeds of Western dissent could travel into Russia, take root and produce such a faithful facsimile of our own revolutionary rumblings proves that progressive rock knows no boundaries. Horizont would have themselves billed as a "chamber instrumental ensemble," and not as a point of pretension. The side-long "Summer In Town" is avant-garde classical music built around the core of a rock band, something that Frank Zappa fans will already be familiar with. Not that it isn't harrowing stuff, but you see I've got this real tiny brain, and after so many notes it sort of gets filled up. (I know, that's two sentences ending in a preposition, but after reading the reckless English translation of the reissue's liner notes I'm a little disoriented.) If you thought that Frank's fustian arrangements were a little slice of Heaven, more Heaven awaits you here and especially on Portrait of a Boy. What won me over to Summer In Town was the first side of music, however. When the liner notes trumped out the old heroes (Yes, Genesis, ELP), I kind of yawned and thought "yeah, everyone says that." I've seen people use those bands to describe Supertramp, Kansas, Kayak and anyone else who's ever rented a mellotron. But Horizont sounds exactly like Genesis (or more specifically, Steve Hackett) with bits of Yes and ELP tossed in for good effect. "Snowballs" and "Chaconne" are musical objects that might have been constructed entirely from bits of those band's works. Vladimir Lutoshkin is a careful student of Steve Hackett's style, and the first side of music comes as close to replicating the sound and spirit of Voyage of the Acolyte as anything I've ever heard. (Since I've never encountered a suitable followup to that masterwork from the Genesis guitarmeister himself, interested parties may want to skip straight to Horizont instead.) Sadly, Horizont has only released two discs to my knowledge, and as I said earlier the second eschews prog rock for dissonant, brain-draining music. But for twenty minutes anyway, Horizont raises the standard of the old gods, and prog's salving benediction once more settles on the misty earth.