PRIMORDIAL OCEAN

Supremely satisfying hardcore prog, deeply symphonic, luscious, even pornographic in its pure pleasure-seeking and masterful handling. I got aroused just hearing the first cut, fifteen minutes of well-developed assets carefully drawn out through peaks and valleys until 'The Pulse of the Earth' transitions to 'Essentially Human', a burner full of counterpoint, crosscut rhythms, varietal modulations dropped with ease, and the delicate shared lines of Ekkehard Nahm's keys and fusiony guitars of Arne Schäfer (who shares his vocal range with one Andy Tillison). Nahm packed the record with 'tron samples from his synth richly filling-in the background and Keller & Völlmar are flawless timekeepers. Weird atonal jazziness of 'Fingerprints' vacillates between highhanded piano work and wall-of-sound symph, and 23 minute monster 'Into the Vast Unknown' is terrificly angled and intricate.

Wobbler does spring to mind as well as the aforementioned Mr. Tillison, but perhaps not as intense and with a touch more maturity, the median age range of this group being about forty-five. A highly commendable issue, Primordial Ocean, and a worthy part of the millennial symphonic revival.