III OF DREAMERS

Nurkostam is a neo-prog band from Finland that is virtually unknown to the progressive rock community. However, the band has been around for over a decade and has to date released three albums. They play a brand of psychedelic-influenced proggy alt-rock influenced by various classic bands like King Crimson, Pink Floyd, and Genesis. Mix a little alt rock and doom rock in the vein of Anathema and even post rock traces akin to Sigur Ros to the music and you have a pretty accurate portrait of Nurkostam's music. Sounds pretty good, right? For the most part, no. The main problem with the band's debut full length album III of Dreamers is a sad, simple, and much too common mistake amongst independent bands: the production is terrible.

The compositions, although in many places rather simplistic (may be a tip of the hat to the simplistic philosophy Floyd kept through most of their career), are for the most part good, but the fuzzy and unprofessional production butchers the music. As a drummer, the drum recording grates against my skin, as it seems that they were either recorded with a single microphone or by someone who is terribly unskilled with recording. Whether this effect of muffled, cruddy recording was intended I don't know, but I could never imagine that being a desired effect. Luckily the drums are not a very essential part of the music, but when they do appear, they are certainly a painful aspect of the music. Although I try to ignore production when reviewing albums, when a case like this presents itself, when the music is seemingly effected by the production I have a hard time pulling myself through a whole listen, it is a necessary measure.

Now musically the album isn't terrible. The music isn't the most sophisticated and is almost surely not neo-prog in the sense of neo that Marillion, IQ, and Pendragon have made us accustomed to. This music is more the lo-fi, mellow type of neo that pops up once and a while amongst the mass of neo-prog artists. The music implements heavy use of mellotron, melodic guitar noodling, and sparse but apparent bass lines. The vocals are to be taken with a grain of salt - at times they are mellow and melodic and complement the music well, while at other times they are harsh and rather difficult to listen to.

In the end, this album is a pretty mediocre release from this promising band. Sadly, it's only a few major errors that really put this band in the spits. Quite terrible production, overall uninspired compositions, and the lo-fi style of neo-prog that to be honest really isn't my cup of tea make this album a rather undesirable album in my opinion. The band's diverse and interesting combination of influences give the band a really great potential, but I think they need to iron out these errors before they will go anywhere in the progressive rock world. Potential and all, this album isn't anything special. 2+ stars.

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