OBLIVION SUN

This was one of those purchases I found on Ebay for a dirt-cheap price. These are hit-and-miss as you can imagine, ranging from fantastic discoveries to uncoordinated heaps of debris reeking of gastric zephyrs and only things that a turkey vulture could consume. Oblivion Sun's self-titled release of 2007, I'm glad to say is one of those fantastic discoveries.

This project is made up of two members of Happy The Man, guitarist Stan Whitaker and keyboardist/sax player Frank Wyatt. Having not been much of a fan of HTM, I wasn't expecting much on this album. But I was greatly surprised. This album sounded much more dynamic and energetic than anything I had previously heard by HTM. The music is complex, sometimes jazzy, and mostly rather eclectic. I love the Moog synthesizers played by keyboardist Bill Plummer, talented enough to be compared with Jan Hammer and Tony Banks at the same time.

It's really hard to pin down the sound of this band, in which I hear references to the Dixie Dregs, King Crimson, D.F.A., and obviously Happy The Man. It seems like a fine mix of symphonic prog and jazz rock/fusion, often with quirky melodies, sometimes reminiscent of Gentle Giant. The song Catwalk is an unsual number in that it reminds me a lot of Genesis, particularly for Whitaker's vocals sounding like a subdued Peter Gabriel and the Baroque interlude in the middle sounding like it was off of Genesis' Trick of a Tail album. On occasion, their sound gets harder in places. The album is chiefly instrumental, with only two tracks containing vocals.

A rather unexpected, yet wonderful discovery performed by an extremely tallented band full of intelligently arranged, quirky and mostly complex compositions. Well worth the highest grade of five stars. This one will be in my CD rotation on a regular basis.