AGAPANTHUSTERRA

Not a common band name, not a common cd title and the music itself on this album is not so common anymore in the circuit of progressive rock. QUANTUM FANTAY delivers progressive space rock, sometimes psychedelic, sometimes a bit heavier, then again ambient, references to 'OZRIC TENTACLES' become obvious immediately. This Belgian group from Lokeren is the brain child of keyboards player Pieter van den Broeck (alias Pete Mush) of Ghiribizzi, a very busy guy, because he is also member of Instant Blue and Gemini Season.

The album starts with an ambient 'electronica' track in the vein of Jean-Michel JARRE and VANGELIS, but accompanied with very intriguing flute and the only vocal part on the album by means of a vocoder, but when the guitars are entering, the OZRIC influences are imminent. The pace is raising considerably on "Lantanasch" with fast keyboard play and spacey effects (widely spread throughout the entire album), but there is enough variation to keep the track interesting. Surprising are also the reggae intermezzos in "Spral Flame" and "Trip Escape". And sometimes the music can be compared with the instrumentals of CAMEL in their early days.

The title track and longest track on the album starts surprisingly with a bass riddle and accompanying drum beat like on 'Are you Ready' of PG&E, but I guess this is purely coincidence, although the 'spacey' sounds are mixed with rock patterns. And in the middle of the track you can even discover some MARILLION influences, indeed a lot of variation right here.

You can hear Eastern influences in different tracks but especially in Wais Dame Dilamp (what a strange title?), here they are using a typical Turkish string instrument, the sax. In combination with the omnipresent flute this gives an exotic flavour to the space rock of QUANTUM FANTAY. Technically it's of a high level, although the creation of a certain atmosphere seems to be more important than individual tricks. The guitar solos of Dario (of Ghiribizzi) are very nice, although the keyboards are far more present than with OZRIC TENTACLES for instance. And in the same manner I would have preferred some 'double bass' drum playing on certain occasions, this could add some more variation. The album ends heavy with flashing guitar solos on 'Chase the dragon', you could call it 'space hard rock', no idea if this really exists!

'Agapanthusterra' is a very strong debut album, the biggest with this kind of instrumental space rock is to keep the listener 'fascinated, in this case it works out fine. But maybe for the next album they could try to add some new elements, especially to avoid the eternal comparison with the aforementioned group(s). But anyway, this ends to be a refreshing album, little by little there is totally brand new 'progressive' wave of bands standing up in Belgium, no complaints from my side :-).

My rating: 8,5/10

Review by Claude 'Clayreon' Bosschem