TIME DOESN'T MATTER

Belgium is just across the border from where I live. Belgium is also the country where Pink Floyd, Gary Moore, Led Zeppelin, Fleetwood Mac, The Doors and Lynyrd Skynyrd live. They all live in the house of Stef and Yolanda Flaming, and the houses of their band members in Murky Red. Actually, in the dark 1960's and 1970's I suspect various members of aforementioned bands got together in some weird orgy that led to the procreation of Stef, Yolanda and their fellow band members Patrick Dujardin, Luk Lantin, Rene Marteaux and Marie Vancamp. There is no other way to explain the influences of all these bands in the music of Murky Red.

The starts immediately in the first track, I Came A Long Way, which starts as a rock song, but quickly goes into a slightly psychedelic mood, topped by a Pink Floyd like instrumental section, with a guitar solo in the same vein.

In the follow up On New Year's Day, Stef sings about what we all want - peace on earth and fireworks to celebrate on New Year's day. This is accompanied by another mellow, slightly psychedelic acoustic guitar initially, but a wall of guitars is quickly build up to make this into a very solid, dark rock song.

The slow dark guitar track Galadriel is something completely different. There is a guitar riff in the opening that reminds faintly of Black Sabbath's Iron Man, and the feeling of the song is as dark as that one, until suddenly not Iron Man but Iron Maiden takes over, with a Wasted Years like guitar supported by a growling bass. That builds into an almost symphonic piece, with keyboards, bass and a choir like backing vocal support a melodic guitar solo and the voices of Stef and Yolanda repeating the list line of the song.

Then the scene changes and we find ourselves in the land of the blues, with Cold Outside. This song starts as a slow blues, where the guitar seems to be based on a marriage between Gary Moore and David Gilmour. How much mo(o/u)re can you put in single song? The deep, and slightly raw voice of Stef tells a real blue story, making this a great blues rock track.

I give my soul puts another set of options in the mix. This is a 70's rock track, which reminds me of Pink Floyd and Led Zeppelin, but with Yolanda on vocals it also brings to mind Fleetwood Mac's Christine McVie. And again... a Gilmouresque guitar solo.

Then it's time to leave the planet, on a spacy trip to Saturn. This is a somewhat heavy psychedelic rock track, with lyrics that seem like a prayer to the planet with the rings. No Moore or Gilmour here, but loud, dirty guitars near the end, and a surprising little piece of horror movie piano after everything else falls silent at the end.

Back on earth, we jump in Stef's car and drive off to Last Chance Hotel, which is best described as a 'Lynyrd Skynyrd meets The Stooges and The Doors on their craziest tracks'. Up tempo, with a fun guitar riff, this track is all over the place. We can only thank Yolanda for taking us to a more quite place on the next track Willow Tree, so that we can dry up from that sweaty road trip. A beautiful, relaxed track that makes you think 'who was Sally Oldfield'? The backing vocals by Stef are so subtle, certainly for such a big man, that they almost go unnoticed, but have to be there at the same time to make the song complete.

The last three tracks are the best part for me, starting with the dark, sturdy and slightly heavy Boots for Hire, yet partly inspired by (really, Stef said so!) Father Abraham's Smurph Song. Listen carefully, and see if you notice... This track starts as slow psychedelic rock, but develops into a heavy blues rock, with great driving bass play, while Stef utters the weirdest lyrics on this album. What do you mean, 'plastic bitches in repair'??

Heal My Bleeding Heart starts a 6/8 blues rock track, with vocals that initially remind me of Ozzy Osbourne, but it quickly develops into something that is more in the vein of Pink Floyd's The Wall. Maybe this is where the band decided to describe their music as 'Pink Floyd meets the blues'. Yet again, a song featured by a very slick guitar solo. This track features Colin Tench on guitars - who also is responsible for the superb mixing and mastering of this album.

Closing track Black Beast Rising once again confirms the link to psychedelic space rock. It's slow, dark, yet melodic in a way and builds up what some would call a sound scape underneath Stef's vocals.

Murky Red have their own sound, which is a mix of all of the above, in different combinations. Still, everything seems to fit together, resulting in an album that contains varied sounds, but always recognisable as Murky Red. We had a discussion on coherence on albums on ProgArchives.com recently - I think this album would've been a good show case here.

Tracks that impressed me most are, as said, the last three and Cold Outside. I'm curious to the next album, which is due later this year if all goes as planned. Recommended for anyone who likes to try something new, but also likes the old.

Belgium band MURKY RED was formed in 2010 by Stef Flaming, Yolanda Flaming and Tom Kockelmans, and for the next year or so a settled line-up slowly but surely crystallized after the often customary comings and goings of band members in a formative phase. As soon as they had cemented their line-up they hit the studio, and towards the end of 2012 their debut album "Time Doesn't Matter" was released through US indie label Melodic Revolution Records.

I'll readily admit that finding the suitable words to describe this production is a challenging task, and one that I might never really be able to truly master. This is due to the vast myriad of subtle influences these guys and gals pulls in from here, there and everywhere, the majority of which resides well inside the so-called classic rock universe in general and the 1970's section of this one in particular. A musical universe where I have limited exposure, while I'm pretty sure that most if not all band members of Murky Red know that part of the rock universe just about as well as their own trouser pockets. My small write-up is limited to what I'm familiar with myself, which will make my associations and observations a bit of a hit and miss affair. Just to get this to the table straight away.

In general I'd describe the style of this band as one that by and large is Pink Floyd influenced though. Dark, melancholic guitar textures combined with longing, light toned guitar soloing in warm, organic arrangements kind of makes comparisons of this kind a given. Subtle but clever use of keyboards emphasize this association, although in the case of Murky Red the cosmic inspired sounds are by and large missing. They do venture out into slightly psychedelic oriented waters at times though, but when doing so they come across as a band much closer to The Doors actually, but the deep-timbered vocals and distinct delivery of Stef Fleming just as much responsible for that association as the instrument part of the arrangements admittedly. Murky Red will also take on a harder edged expression at times, and on compositions such as Boots For Hire name-dropping Black Sabbath as a more than possible influence should be fairly safe. But this is a band and an album that first and foremost has a Floydian atmosphere to it.

What sets this band apart from many others exploring similar waters is the emphasis they have on the blues though. There's a firm emphasis on blues oriented musical details through and through, and by the string based instruments in particular. Gary Moore is mentioned as an influence by the band themselves, but it's tempting to throw in some Mark Knopfler and Chris Rea to that pool of names as well, the former perhaps more than the latter. One might say that Murky Red is a Pink Floyd inspired band that have opted to replace the cosmic instrument details with the blues. At least that is a description that I'm fairly comfortable with. I'll know soon enough what the band themselves feel about that one too I guess.

A last tiny bit of comparison to make is one that too me a while to recall. While I listened through this rather impressive debut by Murky Red, my aging brain cells kept sending signals to my mind to dig into my musical memories for a band with a similar although not directly comparable expression. The band in question is now defunct Norwegian outfit Madrugada, and specifically their debut album "Industrial Silence". A production that share many similar features to this initial creation of Murky Red, the dark and longing moods in particular. Without being directly comparable, but at least on an emotional and atmosphere level I suspect that fans of one will like the other as well.

My conclusion is that "Time Doesn't Matter" is a strong debut album that should have a wide appeal. Fans of late 70's Pink Floyd appears to be something of a key audience, especially those who tend to enjoy the darker side of this universally well known band and in particular if they also have a certain affection for the good, old blues. In addition I'd recommend fans of Norwegian band Madrugada to give this one a spin, and in particular those who find their first album to be the most intriguing of that band's release history.