TWICE BITTEN

For those who dig major swings in tempo and heavy jazz-like (aka GENTLE GIANT) structures and syncopation throughout their music will love A TRIGGERING MYTH. This 2 man outfit performs music to be categorized somewhere in the classical-jazz-prog school of thought. I have always loved this CD especially the 21 minute MYTHS which I think would convert all prog heads to ATM fans. ATM rely very heavily on keyboards, but add a nice variety of others (trumpets, oboe, guitar, drums). Songs are very well crafted and musicanship as you would expect is very high (some incredible keyboard and guitar work). This is precision prog which has a very warm feel to it throughout full of surprises and complexity.

Three years after their excellent self-titled debut the duo of Rick Eddy and Tim Drumheller entered the Monumental Studios in Richmond to record a follow-up release.James Newton and Steve Williams remained in the list of guest musicians, which was now expanded to five members on bass, drums and classical guitar guitar.The new album ''Twice bitten'' was again released on Laser's Edge.

This time the two multi-instrumentalists decided to even perform a long suite, the 21-min. ''Myths'', divided in seven movements, which is a complex instrumental journey full of piano interludes, Electronic segmets, dreamy Classical soundscapes and complex Prog Fusion, very much along the lines of HERMETIC SCIENCE.While not being as consistent as one should expect from the project's debut, this composition contains plenty of nice ideas, especially the changes between ethereal passages and more energetic offerings is more than welcome.The rest of the tracks, much shorter in length, define the overall approach of A Triggering Myth.From keyboard-drenched emphatic Electronic/Fusion to sampled orchestral sections and from smooth acoustic deliveries to more grandiose arrangements with a Soundtrack feel, all are well-crafted with a light sense of melody and a heavy tendency towards dissonance.But even so they sound pretty nice with lots of shifting moods, however the sampled parts of the album sometimes sound very cheap and certainly lower the quality of the music.

''Twice bitten'' does not exactly next to ''A triggering myth'' in terms of musical value.Still this is a very good album of keyboard-driven Progressive Rock with massive Classical, Jazz and Electronic Music references.Recommended overall.