MOTIONS OF DESIRE

4,5 stars really ; One of the finest albums of 2005. "Motions of desire" has nothing specific new to offer, it's just that the music on this record is extremely enjoyable. The compositions are very well crafted, the melodies seem vivid and inspired and the musician ship is awesome. On "Motions of desire", you'll find a powerful kind of prog which includes meaty old fashioned organs, powerful guitar riffs all over the place, fizzling Moogs and beautiful harmonic vocals. Their major influences are obvious. Especially the heyday of Kansas & Deep Purple comes to mind when hearing their mind blowing sound. When focussing on the harmonic vocals, Styx & Echolyn also come to mind. Despite the energetic sound, many musical details can be spotted in the elaborate guitars solo's, excerpts of acoustic guitars & flute. Despite the complex changes in moods and rhythms, this albums needs not too much spins to get into and maybe this is the reason for its brilliancy. I guess the awesome chords and the dominant melodies add to the accessibility. The melodies are inspired and dominate the tracks but again, the arrangements that enwrap the melodies are great.

Let's take a look at some tracks. "Change" is a complex epic which has a lot of varied musical excerpts and a marvellous chorus. For me, the highlight of this album is "Full circle poetry", another extended piece of a complex nature. Some familiar sounding Yes elements are noticeable, especially in the vocals & guitar parts. The very different parts include a slice of reggae. You'll hardly notice the different flavours of the several sections cause they flow into one another so smoothly.. The title track shows an atmospheric side of the sound of the band. Here, the tempo is much slower and gradually more sounds are added to the basic melodies. The Deep Purple & Kansas influences are undeniable on "Without knowing why", the most accessible track of the bunch due to the appealing melodies. The second part of the song is built around an appealing keyboard/guitar line. "Dream vision" must be the oddest song of the bunch due to the dark atmosphere & the mix of calm & vivid excerpts.

Conclusion : a highly enjoyable album with sparkling sing a long melodies and exciting instrumental parts. It's almost unbelievable this is a debut album, expectations for the next album will be extremely high. I can't discover any flaws at all in "Motions of desire". Maybe the vocals could use a tad personality but that's only a minor complaint. The production is decent, quite similar to the seventies albums of other bands mentioned above. A modern sound wouldn't fit in on this kind album anyway. Some may call this music old fashioned but I would prefer to call it timeless. Just like the seventies albums from Styx & Kansas this music has an uplifting mood. If you like music that's complex, melodic and powerful at the same time then you should check this one out.