ALMAGEST

In the very few moments you begin listening to this album, all of your life, all of your thoughts and existencial problems just get behind. You are absorbed by an intense atmosphere, summoning all kinds of feelings inside you, from fear to sadness, from love to celestial hapiness. Sometimes you may think you are in heaven, other times charmed in the cosmic eternity, you may even not be able to stop crying... It is, like the most beautifull masterpieces of classical composers, an ode to the Human feeling, a true statement of the most beautiful,the most positive and magnificient things Mankind can do. But it is also a warning, invoked specially in the multifaced epic Low Mass Stars, taking Sagan's quote "Out there in the Cosmos, an inescapable perspective awaits (...) we see your planet in a fragile new present, fading to became an inconspicuous point of light (...) there are not yet obvious signs of extraterrestrial inteligence, this makes wonder wheter civilizations like ours rush inevitably hit long to self destruction.. I dream about it, and sometimes there are bad dreams...!". It makes us wonder, how can we, who can make such wonderfull things, be capable of such atrocities the history shows us ?

It is virtually impossible not to be touched by it. It is original and, far more important, it's... like they put their souls to make it. A true compact epic album, flowing naturaly, from piece to piece. It is, marbellously, a key to mankind soul, a tremendous trip to the interior of your being. Will you be afraid of what you'll find?

Egyptian Kings is a new and promising band from Portugal that are playing music with influences from No-man and Pink Floyd on the space rock side, Labradford and Sigur Ros on the post-rock side and Tangerine Dream and Brian Eno from the Electronic side. The results are a very interesting and captivating album.

As you can tell by the art cover and the tittle of the songs, They're aiming at a very spaced out album (literally!) and I think they reached their goal quite nicely and in a enjoyable way too. To words can pretty much describe their sound and they are gentle and cosmic. The songs are very mellow and atmospheric. The synthesizers add a nice and delicate atmosphere on the whole album while the flute, as the main instrument, adds an organic feel to it and an emotional and mellow side to the music as well. Most of the song are made of ambient and atmospheric sounds rather than using instruments. The instruments are used sparsely and only when needed. The best song on the albums is obviously the 15 minute Low Mass Stars. It has all the elements of their sound in it starting with ambient sounds a la Sigur Ros and slowling subsiding to make place for the mellow flute playing that echoes Camel in its sound and quiet and chilled drum playing in the back and ends with a nice surprise at the end. After the song finishes one is left with a wow feeling. The song takes you to places deep in space all with a certain emotional charm to it. The same thing can be said to the whole album. I personally enjoy the feeling of the album. You can and will get lost in their sound and it's a nice experience.

The band shows a promising start with this album. If you enjoy bands like Tangerine Dream, Brian Eno and No-man with their delicate ambient sounds or you're a fan of space and everything related to it then this is a nice addition to your collection. It makes for a great late night and relaxing listening looking at the stars while sitting outside.

Mellow and dream like.

After seeing the praise put on this album by many reviewers, I was compelled to get it. The cover is very fitting, the album feels like a landing on an unknown sector of the universe. There's no clear melody or hook here and that's good, as we are never cheated from an otherwise pleasant journey into the unknown confines.

The epic Low Mass Stars is my favorite here, with clever use of electronics to create a spacey mood for much of the track. The whole album is clear in direction and it is all carefully crafted. The final track is a bit of a bummer, but the rest is really superb work within the confines of the genre. The only vocals are spoken words, seemingly taken from a scientific journal describing space.

I found this album to be somewhat of a soul searching or conscious awareness album. Nothing is ever forced, nothing is ever too powerful, and this allows for a great deal of introspection if one is inclined. The album is very relaxing and while their are many apt comparisons, it remains particularly unique. It's a nice album to have in your collection, and while it may not always be on the top of your player list, it has certain qualities to it that are perfect for discovery.

Good Ambient, poor Progressive Rock

I was surprised to see a product from my own country getting such rave reviews, especially being a supposed Space-Rock act (one of my favorite prog sub-genres), so it became compulsory to give them a few spins. Oh how I wished I didn't: it would be better to live in ignorance and just smile at a portuguese attempt being so fairly rated.

First off, the genre: I really, really, don't think this album is progressive rock - to start with, it doesn't progress that much (the music(?) is basicaly the same troughout the album); also, it does not rock at all. Granted it is very spacey, but that alone cannot be sufficient to make you "progressive rock". In my honest opinion, it would fit better under "progressive electronic" - if that.

Quite frankly, after listening to it 5 times or so, I can't say this album is more than fiddling with keyboards, flute-blowing and video-game talk. At points it just sounds like one of those ambient CD's you pick out at your local supermarket. Certainly, there are a few nods at early Porcupine Tree - perhaps too much: in fact, the whole album sounds like the song Light Mass Prayer from PT's "Signify". It does manage to feel nice, if you are playing it in the background while doing something else. But its merits don't strech much further than that.

All in all, its good ambient, but poor progressive rock. I give one star for the production, which is very crisp indeed, half a star for being national, and another half for being available for free. Sorry guys.

space rock is my thing. i firest watcehd ozric back in 86 followed them ever since. i may be against hte grain here but egyptian kings just does not cut it at all for me.

it shows no originality,it offers nothing new. It's easy space prog listening. It pales into mediocrity when compared to Ozric or the new finnish band Hidria Spacefolk.

If you haven't encountered Space prog before then you will be impressed, no doubt. However, if this is your scene then this album is not going to cause any seismic tremors. Good, not bad, but by absolutely no means exceptional or essential.

Music is most interesting when different styles are combined into one album. "Almagest" is an album like that but you may never notice. There's an emerging of psychedelic music, electronic music and postrock. Nevertheless the style that's handled on this album sounds very natural. This is a very laid back record where the atmosphere is more important than the compositions. The sound of the atmosphere is a gorgeous landscape of lush and mellow keys. Therefore it could be filed under the ambient/electronic flag. Brian Eno must have been an important influence in creating this music. This album could be used for different purposes than just the listening experience. You could use it for mental healing or just to create a restful atmosphere in a room. I suppose the same thing goes for a lot of music in this genre, it depends on the reason why you're listening. The rhythms are slow, very slow. This is not the genre I play everyday. In fact sometimes I find this kind of music a bit boring. After repeated listens I started to like the album more. Especially "Pale dot" because of the succession of different excerpts. From a compositional point of view, there's also some noticeable postrock influence due to the slowly development of the melodies and sounds. Moreover it's not hard to trace psychedelic elements from the calmer parts of the first Porucpine Tree albums or No-man, most notably on "The spirit of the water" . When compared to PT, there's a flute on top of the astral atmosphere instead of a guitar. Like in these bands, you can find some samples of conversations integrated in the atmospheres.

To state that "Almagest" is one of most important releases of 2006, would be a lie. This music isn't really new or original. The atmospheres are nice but the compositions aren't outstanding with the exception of "Pale dot". This is a good album for people who like to listen to a soft mellow album every once in a while.

I'll have to include myself to the group of people admiring deeply the music of album, though I think there was slightly distasteful marketing related to it, and I believe it is a studio project of a one musician in spite of listed band personnel. I don't see the records as very revolutionary in its style as its musical elements are familiar from the other cosmic releases. But the records simple calmness and pureness of feeling made a really big impression on me. The celestial cosmic harmony and ocean of calmness could be described as a imitating the sound of pre-"Ricochet" Tangerine Dream with more softer and modern sounds. The slow discussions of flute and keyboards holds the modern version of the same sound texture found from Yatha Sidhra's "Meditation Mass", which certainly is still yet more singular diamond than this "2nd century astronomical bundle of Ptolemy." If senses are open, these long explorations of subtle themes can make the listener feel like a cosmic voyager, slowly drifting through space-time, and admire its celestial objects. You can also hear on some moments Carl Sagan telling about how he sees the third stone from the sun.

After much buzz about this album (and one especially enthusiastic recommendation) I decided I had to check this out. I may not be a big fan of ambient music, but there is some that I enjoy. Unfortunately, this is not one of those cases.

The first two tracks hold some promise, and I do find them enjoyable. However they don't offer much more than that. By the third track, my mind starts to wander off, and I have to remind myself that I am supposed to be listening. Near the end of "Low Mass Stars," there is a speech about national boundaries not being visible from space. This gives the impression that they may be leading up to something (perhaps a concept?). Near the beginning of "Spirit of the Water," there is a sci-fi style recitation about corporate control of water. Given that any hope of a concept is ended there, these inclusions are almost laughable. The rest of the music is very similar, and does not peak any further interest.

If this is your type of thing, then go for it. It is well crafted. For me, it is so dull that I can't play it all the way through in one sitting.

H.T. Riekels

Very cool and relaxing cosmic ambient piece from this young band. EGYPTIAN KINGS' music is inspired by space rock and electronica, but also by ambient and trip-hop music in the veins of THE ORB and ALPHA. The whole disc could be a soundtrack gathering echoes from lost and mysterious regions of the universe.

Mostly instrumental, "Almagest" uses trance loops, synthesizers, guitars, flute and explosions in the sky to transform the listener into a cosmic traveler. The music is so calm, delicate, magic and enchanting and reflects sometimes ancient civilizations and oriental landscapes. An empty space between the planets and the stars.

Very original and breathtaking, apart from HAWKWIND and OZRIC TENTACLES, the music from the EGYPTIAN KINGS will make the happiness of all space and ambient music lovers. Refreshing, a band to discover!

In my opinion, this is not the masterpiece you are being told.

One of my most passionate interest is in ambient music, which is a much wider genre than is represented her on ProgArchives. And I can report that EGYPTIAN KINGS, while promising, are mere neophytes in this broad and compelling genre.

Their music, in the vein of Steve Reich and Pete Namlook, has few of the subtleties characteristics of the masters of the genre. Progressive electronic music from giants such as FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON and THE ORB, neither of whom feature here, contains humanising characteristics to give the listener access to the music. However, 'Amalgest' offers a soundscape and little more.

A final thought: note that in the reviews here people talk about themselves and their experience while listening, and say very little about the music utself. That is because the tracks are insufficiently distinguishable from each other. Their length is arbitrary, as is their placement on the album. I wish the EGYPTIAN KINGS well, and hope they go on to great things.

This wee release, almost EP length by current standards, is not exactly what you'd call space rock, not if you are looking for big riffs and cosmic guitar solos. It actually borders on ambient, but unlike some other reviewers, I think it actually achieves its aim fairly well. The album is dominated by waves of synth and gentle flute solos. Don't look for lots of melody, and especially don't look for virtuoso drumming...the beat is here just for the beat, slow and ponderous, as all the pieces are. A brief futuristic monologue by a lady with an American accent neither adds nor detracts. The closest reference I can find is some of 90s Hawkwind's synth instrumentals, like "Going to Hawaii" on Electric Teepee...since I always enjoyed those pieces more than the actual songs on the albums, this is quite a treat for me. Not particularly strong as ambient music or as space rock, but still quite pleasant to listen to, I think it bodes well for this group as they develop in the future.

Ambient music with imagery of outer space that while pretty and of high sounnd-quality, it gets incredibly boring and non-eventful fast, making the second half of the album very dull, even if the album isn't even forty minutes long. The music is generally driven by ambient washes of sound, gentle synthesizers, and the flute. I think the album cover with its image of the Orion Nebula is appropriate, since this music sounds very spacey.

The highlights are easily the first 3 tunes, because it's the beginning of the ambient that gets old quick and is also the most eventful and musically interesting pieces.

Murmurs is well-done ambient music that serves as an introduction to the album. Believe it or not, it is the heaviest section in the allbum. Pale White Dot is dominated by a nice gentle flute at the beginning, then a soft minimalist electric guitar, and finally, the flute returns nicely in a more ambient finale. It's my favorite song in the album. Low Mass Stars starts losing my interest, it's nice, but it's way too much ambient, more than I can swallow at the same time. the first five minutes are generally boring to me until the flute starts, though it doesn't seem to have the same magic as in "Pale White Dot". At around minute 10, there is a quite ethereal drone sound that goes off for a while and a slow percussion eventually joining in, resulting in my favorite moment of the disc. The last two minutes are kind of boring though.

The rest that follows kind of bores me though. Spirit of the Water after the second minute sounds the same throughout until the neat percussion at the end. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors is even more monotonous and very similar to the previous track, with a slow-tempo and basic drum pattern, and synth/flute soundscapes. Cosmos Celestial Movement is what's left after I've already lost complete interest of the album, aimless boring space noise with no memorable quality whatsoever, probably even worse than what preceded it.

If you want to get into the 'space rock', 'ambient' and/or 'progressive electronic' sub genres, this album is just not special. There are many better things waiting to be heard than this dull album.

1. Murmurs (2:03) - (B-)

2. Pale White Dot (9:31) - (B-)

3. Low Mass Stars (15:15) - (C)

4. Spirit of the Water (D)

5. Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors (D-)

6. Cosmos Celestial Movement (F)

Portugues Pharaohs

Portugal's "Egyptian Kings" sole release to date is this 2006 album. The band have successfully hyped the album by making it available for free download (witness the astonishing number of ratings and reviews on this site for what is essentially an unknown band). Hype alone though does not a good album make, so what of the music?

The album opens ethereally, with floating, spacey sounds on the brief "Murmurs" leading into the 9½ minute "Pale white dot". The opening flute on this track soon gives way to further drifting keyboard driven passages, with intermittent lead guitar inflections. By the time of the slightly oriental "Spirit of the water", the album is becoming rather predictable. The occasional brief narrative message offers a point of intrigue, but the band fail to exploit such interventions adequately.

In terms of influences, the band's own acknowledgements of ENO, TANGERINE DREAM, (earlier) PORCUPINE TREE and PINK FLOYD pretty much sum things up. The first two of that list are the most obvious, the compositions being based more upon effects and sounds than on strength of melody. There is generally an avoidance of pulsating rhythms or strong back beats although "Low mass stars" does have a slow, heavy, steam engine like industrial beat in places.

The post rock influences the band claim are less apparent. There is none of the driving, swelling excitement of that sub-genre to speak of, a repetitive element being the only real common denominator. Likewise, suggestions of space rock and trance need to be tempered by the recognition that this album is devoid of the fast rhythms which define such music.

"Algamest" is both a difficult listen, and perversely a very easy one. On the one hand, the listener can easily drift off into other thoughts with the music as little more that a background indulgence. On the other, if one tries to listen in depth to the album, there are no discernible melodies rendering the sounds and atmospheres demanding.

For those who enjoy the less accessible, mood dominated side of Tangerine Dream, this album will be of interest. For me, it is a pleasant diversion but not a masterpiece by any means.

Peace.

There are some people whose last word in a review is peace, i have stolen that word in order to write it at the very beginning of my review, since peace is what i have and feel while listening to this album. I remember this was one of the most recommended albums from 2006, actually if i remember correctly, it caused a fuzz inside PA and its collaborators, so i joined to the group of people who wanted to listen to it, and i can say happily that it was a good choice.

A couple of days ago i was looking for some mellow or relaxing music, i mean in the prog side of music not New Age and remembered this album, so i put it in my cd player along with some Vangelis and Explosions in the Sky which normally put me in a nice mood when things are difficult or i had a bad day and i want to feel calm and better, since then i have listened to Almagest more than 5 times and i will do it again today`s night and tomorrow`s morning for sure, but wait, let me tell you that with these words i am not saying that you should listen to it 5 times in a day, not at all but its calm and mellow sound can inprove your day.

This nice and promising band from Portugal has a cosmic/space orientation in their music, while some may find it really boring, others (like me) may join to the cosmic trip, close your eyes and let the music take you completely, that is what i really like of this album, the fact that i am inside the music, hope you understand what i mean, maybe the songs here are not outstanding tracks, but this is that kind of albums that you simply cannot skip any song, once you start playing it, you have to finish it.

Almagest features 6 song and a running time of 40 minutes where you will be caught by the space and ambient sound of it, as i said there are no outstanding songs, however, you will notice the difference from the opening track to the main theme of the album, "Murmurs" is a nice introduction to the album, it shows you the cosmic vibe since the very beginning, "Pale White Dot" is the first long song of the album, it includes a nice flute, some gentle guitars and the cosmic atmosphere as always, very comfortable and musically pretty nice, then it continues with "Low Mass Stars" which is probably the main theme of the album, being a 15-minute epic, which gradually captivates your attention and your mind into a spacial journey, let the song take you, but this is a two-edge weapon, you wil either be caught or bored with this song. "Spirit of the Water" is my less favorite song, though i have no favorite one but maybe this sound a bit repetitive and it may need a change in the album, "Shadows of Forgotten Ancestors" is the last song before the short epilogue, and it has the same characteristic as the other ones, very nice mellow atmosphere with great use of synths, oh i almost forgot it, this album has some vocals but there are only spoken words, not sung,and this album finishes with with "Cosmos Celestial Movement", which is just a song to finish this cosmic trip.

I like this album and enjoy it very much, but it is not a masterpiece at all, as i said before, you could either love it or get bored with it, so i personally would give it 4 stars, but for the site i believe it is more accurate a 3-star grade.

Enjoy it!

This may be progressive, but don't expect it to rock (unfortunately like I did). This album is basically nearly forty minutes of keyboard/synth drones and sound effects, with flute and guitar (albeit rarely) melodies interspersed. I have nothing against ambient music, though I have to say that I often find the distinction between music and sound blurred with this genre. There certainly is no virtuosic playing, no choruses, few time signatures, and little else that I need when I listen to music. I'll be the first to admit that I prefer a Western version of song structure, and for those who don't, this may be up your alley.

I won't review each song, because to my ears, each song sounds like the others, with some being longer, and some being shorter-- that's the only real difference I can discern. Some parts have simple drums, some parts have a melody, and other parts are just keyboard chords and effects. Needless to say, I find it quite boring.

The only thing that I use this album for is falling alseep. That's not meant to be a backhanded compliment: there is a serenity and restraint to this music that even I can appreciate. However, if I want to actually pay attention to the music, this one consistently fails to satisfy. Two stars because this is relatively boring, but on the positive side, there's nothing truly grating or terrible.