TRANSFORMATION

Sometimes I wonder what kind of a career can one have if carrying the same surname with a legendary figure of the same music path.American keyboardist Tim Morse, who has no relationship to the legend of Neal Morse, prooved to have a decent one.A prog enthusiast already with two books on his back ('' "Yesstories" and "Classic Rock Stories"), Tim Morse came in touch with multi-instrumentalist Mark Dean through Magna Carta's Mike Varney and released indepedently his debut ''Transformation'' in 2005 along with lead vocalist Richie Zeller.

A rich and at time pompous Progressive Rock album with tons of changing climates, ''Transformation'' not only prooves that Tim Morse is an excellent musician and composer, but the album will certainly have a great impact to all these searching for releases that have both modern and vintage elements.Influenced by GENESIS, YES and U.K., Morse presents a fresh prog approach with passionate vocals, superb and powerful bass lines by Dean and some incredible keyboard parts, including organs, synths and piano.The tracks show inspirations from SPOCK'S BEARD-like modern Prog, Symphonic Progressive Rock with a few more Fusion-esque keyboard techniques added for good measure, but they all sound extremely tight and well-crafted.Especially keyboard lovers will find this album more than satisfying, as Morse's work is characterized by bombastic organ passages, grandiose pianos and atmospheric synth textures all the way.''Transformation'' is highlighted by the 16-min. ''Apocalyptic visions'', a beautiful composition with variation on themes, alternation between highly technical and more spacey/Electronic parts and nice shifting moods.

Additionally the album unfolds around a concept about a man and his life's transformation through time with strong autobiographical sections.Nice discovery for all fans of modern and well-arranged Progressive Rock with evident references to the 70's.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.