BANTAM TO BEHEMOTH

The music on the album is a very eclectic mix of progressive rock, prog folk and jazz rock/fusion. I hear influences from as different acts as Gentle Giant, Frank Zappa (1973-75), Kaipa and Genesis in the music, but it's hard to pin down one specific influence as the music is very diverse and quite intriguing too. The variation is great and there are both beautiful symphonic passages, mellow prog folky ones and some really challenging jazz rock/fusion parts too.

The musicianship is outstanding on the album. Keyboards, saxophone, flute and clarinet colour the music in addition to the more regular rock instrumentation of guitar, bass and drums. The music is mostly instrumental and that's probably a good idea because when the male vocals occasionally pop up they sound a bit like a drowsy John Wetton. It helps a bit when they put some psychadelic sounding effects on the vocals but still the vocals are the weak link on the album. "Chronicle of the Invisible River of Stone" features female vocals which unfortunately arent´that interesting either. Fortunately the tracks are all of high quality and the pretty standard fare vocals don't ruin my listening experience even though I wish the band would have chosen a more interesting vocal style.

The sound production is really well sounding. It's seldom that you hear an album from 2008 with a warm and "authentic" 70s influenced sound like this. Great production job indeed.

Despite my minor complaints about the vocals, "Bantam To Behemoth" is an extremely impressive debut album by Birds and Buildings. It´s obvious that these guys are pretty seasoned musicians and composers and a 3.5 - 4 star (75%) rating is deserved.

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