FRACTALS AND FILIGREE

They sure know their 70's as far as music goes, this US band. And FRACTAL ROCK may just be a perfect band name for an outfit creating such a debut effort as "Fractals and Filigree" as well, seeing that one aspect of a fractal is that "It is too irregular to be easily described in traditional ... language".

Which more or less can be seen as a good general description of the 17 efforts offered by this band on their debut effort. Offered in a true sense of the word, as the band has chosen to let anyone interested download this production for free from their homepage.

What we're dealing with here, is a band that explores several different aspects of 70's rock music. Or at least compositions with a strong inspiration from this decade in general, and the first half of it in particular. Laidback funk-tinged efforts, heavy blues and rock versions of classical or classically inspired compositions are the three main directions explored, alongside a few selected efforts with more of a basis in symphonic progressive rock. The organ is the central instrument throughout, guitars have more of a secondary role throughout while the bass guitar more often than not does a fine job of keeping up momentum in a neat collaboration with steady drumming. A few numbers of a more experimental non-defining nature are added to this already varied and mixed bag of treats.

Personally I found this album to be a mixed bag in general. Some numbers just didn't manage to compel my musical taste buds, others suffered a bit too much by the mix - especially in the opening parts of this album I thought the vocals had a tendency to be drowned out by the instruments.

When that is said, there are a fair number of treats to be found here too. The light, melodic quirkiness of Falling up the Well is a brilliant art rock number, and their take on Mussorgsky's Night on the Bare Mountain in second to last track The Cyclone is another gem that many will be charmed by. And with a good handful or so of other pieces that can be described as intriguing and interesting, this is a pretty good first effort overall. And yet another example of a band it will be interesting to follow, as there is a lot of promise and talent in this first endeavour of theirs.

I'd recommend anyone with a soft spot for 70's art rock and symphonic rock to spend the time to download and listen to this creation. It's a free release that contains a fair number of good tracks, and the band want their music to be heard.