MAGIC MACHINE

This instrumental Progressive band took 7 years to release this new album after their first album. This time, 13 musicians are playing including Roine Stolt and Jordan Rudess. This release is displaying great musicianship with a huge variety of instruments too long to describe here. The music is covering plenty of musical styles and contains sudden rhythm changes from the fast djent metal to a completely opposite direction of music in a slower tempo, giving to the whole thing a range of moods and instrumentation. We can appreciate the distinctive bass sound of Jonas Reingold. They pushed the envelope a lot more than Haken did in the past in this kind of patchwork music. Zach Karmins must have some fun to put together parts of about 10 styles of music. So I can imagine that a lot of Progressive fans will enjoy this experience too if you can find any cohesion in this work.

The polished, computer-supported cinematic sound of Guitar Hero contributor and Berklee School of Music grad Zach Kamins here finds contributions from more than a dozen well-known professionals. The problem is that I have a little trouble connecting to all of this super-fast-changing music. It sounds like modern compressed, sound byte- oriented music, intended for masses who have attention spans of no more than 20 seconds, not the prog rock that I am used to or comfortable with--much in the same way Jem Godfrey's FROST* project has evolved into compacting 7- and 8-minute songs into four minute blurts. Stylistically, Zach reminds me of ANTHONY PHILLIPS's keyboard work only speeded up to 45 or even 78 rpm. I find no really weak songs, per se, but a lot of disjointed or cheezy/computerized shifts and structures--that is, half the time I feel exactly as if I'm listening to a video game soundtrack--albeit a high quality, highly skilled, complex soundtrack--and the other some nice cinema soundtrack music composed and performed by highly skilled musicians.

1. "The Departure" (5:54) powerful, dynamic, hook-filled opener (is a little fast and sudden in its shifts). (9/10)

2. "Magic Machine" (5:04) opening like an overture to a Broadway musical, employing some very nice transitions and instrumental performances--up to the 1:30 mark when two ridiculously cheesy sounding keyboards take over-- taking us into the Outer Limits. The guitar work starting at 2:50 tries to right the wrongs accrued and the song does play out fairly well. (9/10)

3. "Galactic Tactic" (3:06) playing out like a monster film soundtrack (9/10)

4. "Finding The Falls" (5:35) a delightfully cinematic piece in the vein of ESTRADASPHERE, LEBOWSKI and ATOMIC APE (9/10)

5. "The Assembly" (5:14) another pleasant cinematic song turned on its heels in the fourth minute by "popcorn" like metal turns of events--such a mishmash of moods and styles (7/10)

6. "Agile Descent" (4:15) starts out gently, then gets funky, even jazzy, before going bonkers at 3:35. (7/10)

7. "Sky Run" (8:54) an example of how Zach can create some really good songs if he were to stretch things out over a longer period of time--this despite his typical impatience or intolerance for long, drawn out passages. (9/10)

8. "Through The Fog" (4:19) the first half of this song remains quiet, subtle, and slow--signs of great restraint--but then it all breaks loose into the typical Mario mayhem (8/10)

9. "Sea Voyage" (2:54) whimsy and good mood (8/10)

10. "Impulse II" (4:27) This is the best song on the album but it still sounds like a video soundtrack to me. (10/10)

I'm a little unsettled that this could be the direction of progressive rock music for the future. I am a creature that loves space, pregnant pauses, even silence, stillness, and slow development. I find the quick stop-and-change formats here to be quite unsettling, sometimes unnerving, though, again, I truly appreciate the talent and skill required to both compose and perform these challenging pieces.

A very good, solid four star album.