LONDINIUM

Incredible harmonys, definitely their best album.... I still don't understand why they changed their singer(s)....... The singer of the last two albums is so out of tune that it just breaks the musicality......

I was keen to investigate into this band since I read in their bio that if one was interested in Floyd, Radiohead or PT, this band deserved a close listen.

Ouch! This debut is hurting quite a bit, actually. I don't particularly like the hip-hop feel which is sitting at every corner of this CD. To try and find some prog elements in here is like looking at the Holy Grail.

Gosh! Just listen to "So Few Words". Over six minutes of a rap / insipid combo. Press next, I guess.

The ratings are quite high for this album, but only one with a commented review before mine. It should have warned me. There are no tracks that are appealing to my prog ears, because this album doesn't feature one minute of the music we all praise.

Rythm'n'blues (at best) with "Headspace" is none of my prog expectations but is far much more "digestible" than most of this hip-hop oriented album ("Dark Room", "SkySraper", "Beautiful World" and so on). It is hard to believe that this debut is so weak and has virtually NO relation AT ALL with prog. But maybe that future albums will change this perception.

As such, this "Londinium" has nothing to do on this site. One star is my rating (can't go any lower). Let's expect better things in the future even if there are reviewers that believe that this is a masterpiece of prog music?

I don't like this album at all. Not even one song drew my attention. The only positive moments are the ones which feature a nice violin play. "Organ Song" is actually the only good track here. Less than three minutes out of sixty!

Before Archive became one of the hidden gems of modern crossover prog, they were one of the many hidden gems of the '90's glory days of trip hop. But, even then it seems they had prog on the brain: Keeler's programming on this album involves a lot of sounds that come out more like mellotron and Hammond organ than any other keyboard, which they are played alongside via sampler. Hmmm... I wonder what this band could do in a few years... Anyways, for what it is "Londinium" is one of the greatest ever trip hop albums, partially on the strength and use of mellotron and organ sounds. This adds an extra, extremely unique angle to most of the tracks on the record. Otherwise, this is some nice, smooth, tight trip not afraid to have both rapping and singing. The beats are well done, and well supported by Rosco John's drumming. Keeler's various keys are all excellent, not just the proggy ones. Roya Arab sings beautifully, and John raps wonderfully. As such, mainly a massive recommendation to trip hop fans, but adventurous progheads may wish to hear what prog keyboards sound like in a radically different genre.