PSYCHOPULS

Lizard is one of my most pleasant late prog surprises - it's been only a few weeks that I've purchased my "Psychopuls" copy, and this first experience with Lizard's music has been genuinely amazing. In no small degree has the stamina of this band what has appealed to me in a special way, but here we've got more valuable items: catchy musical ideas adorned with clever arrangements, tight interplaying, robust combination of modern psychedelic sounds and traditional prog (mostly, Wetton-era and contemporary King Crimson). The final result turns out to be as solid as, or even more solid than that of their illustrious compatriots of Riverside. I would even go further enough as to say that Lizard surpasses Porcupine Tree (one of their major references) as purveyors of modernity into the world art-rock. Although violinist-keyboardist Krzysztof Maciejowski is still not a band member, his guest interventions provide some of the group's magic on his own - he is so well integrated. A special mention has to go to drummer Mariusz Szulakowski, whose precision and inventiveness turn out to be crucial elements of the band's stamina. After a cybernetic intro ('# 001 Part 1'), comes '# 001 Part 2', a splendid exercise in modernized Crimsonian vibe: the main motifs and riffs are repeated without getting boring, on the contrary, creating an increasing exaltation among the powerful turmoil. The synth and violin solos bring interesting colors to the fold. '# 002 Part 1' states another weird brief prelude before '# 002 Part 2' brings the "real thing". Being a bit less frenzy than track 2, it still shows off the band's energy quite well. Starting with a mixture of funky and hard rock (a-la "In Absentia"-era PT), things get a bit more neurotic within well-constrained boundaries. That is until the final adornments come along: a Belew-styled ballad interlude, a heavy metal riff, techno ornaments, brief Frippian soundscapes, and finally, a soft coda of the song's main motif. The guys have taken good advantage of this track's length, indeed. It sure would be a breathtaking task to keep up with the momentum accomplished so far. but they do! The series of three 'Psychopuls # 003' tracks consists successively of: a distant, creepy prelude; an acoustic ballad filled with controlled melancholy; a counterpoint-based instrumental that partially brings back the neurosis of tracks 2 & 4. '# 002, 0A7' is really weird: as ridiculous as it may sound to some, I only feel capable of describing it as a bizarre hybrid of RIO and chill-out. This is real 21st century prog!! The 11 ½ minute long instrumental 'Psychopuls # 004' closes down the album in full splendor. The well-ordained excursions portray an unmistakable modern Crimsonian flair, providing hard rocking motifs filtered through oppressive electronic textures. The track's coda sounds like a simultaneous homage to 'Red' and 'Fracture'. The Crimsonian influence is clear but Lizard is not a derivative-freak band - they have really something new to say in the world of prog and art-rock while exhibiting their musical roots. I hope that everyone who is yet to discover this band feels as pleased as I did myself when they do: "Psychopuls" is an excellent prog item for the new millennium.

The record I thought of while listening to this album was "Power To Believe" from KING CRIMSON. Others have mentioned CRIMSON'S "Red" record. There are Polish vocals on the 3 tracks while the 6 other tracks are instrumentals. This is my favourite LIZARD album, in fact if there were no vocals on this one i'd give it 5 stars.This album is quite dark with violin and synths helping to create this atmosphere, and there is a synth guitar used as well, that really can be mistaken for mellotron at times.

Songs 1 is a short, dark and experimental intro track that blends into song 2. This song really sounds like a KING CRIMSON tune. The Polish vocals here remind me of Roine Stolt from the FLOWER KINGS, and this song features some great violin. Incredible tune ! Song 3 is another short track that blends into song 4.The vocals in this fourth song are a little harsh, but this is still a good song, but it would have been so much better without vocals. Song 5 opens with children talking as a dark soundscape starts to take over.

The sixth song is mellow with gentle vocals. Beautiful track. Love the guitar and drum interplay on the seventh song that closes with violin.The eighth song has an electronica feel to it. Man that sure sounds like mellotron throughout. Percussion comes in around a minute. The ninth song (11 1/2 minutes) is another favourite of mine, it opens with bass followed by dark keys then a full sound. The tempo starts to pick up 5 minutes in then angular guitar comes in as they start to let loose. So amazing ! It settles 8 minutes in then starts to build until it kicks in after 9 minutes.The drumming is fantastic !

This is an excellent record and I highly recommend it. It's really only the vocals on song 4 that are really disappointing for me.

King Crimson's fresh days of music are usually very extravagant, if we pause a bit from thinking back to their poetic, avant-rock, heavy classic years and exclude the more accessible, tiny-plotted songs of the 80s, focusing thus especially on the side of dark/stoned aromas or dynamics, jams or high improvisations and artistic/funky/heterogeneous "projeKcts" .

With a profound chemistry of bass plumpness, sharp energy and dark karma, there's a thing in hearing a KC so enticing, lustrous, devout - and their big step, if you add more metallic and heavy-sided albums like The Power To Believe, is an influence on prog bands that adopt this kind of progressive acoustic. Exsimio or Alquinbecil are pure modern "Krimson" bands, making an amazingly stimulating, hammering, speedy and complex spectacle of effects, dark riffs and interesting mixes, likewise the great band. Lizard, from Poland, finally fall devoted to their big influence in King Crimson once their second album, Psychopuls, sounds so strong, dark and electric, joining the familiy of Kcrimsoniacs.

For this band, their second album puts an end to a hiatus of studio recordings (as live concerts seem to have been part of their life) and grows on a perfect kind of art rock/nu-prog, in comparison with a very slim debut. Psychopuls, all the way from the artwork to the short-timed but tough-brewed substance, is Lizard's hope of becoming a fabulous, ahead-of-the-spirit band in many regards, with music measuring the same trippy, heavy, ingenious glow. To a point, the album is successful, worth spinning and highly-trained in the kind of hyper-kinetic or dark alembic it focuses on. That point veils a few broken strings and some gluey musicality, but after all that's crashed into this drink, the pleasure and shiver of listening to the music, of discovering its meddle gives a positive and gently amazed verdict.

From what seems a tight programmatic work, Psychopuls's composure is as tranquill as thinking about speedy improvisations, hard-mixed music and flapping vitality. The style only syncs with the one-side (but, by paradox, eclectic) bassed/dark/energizing electric jam King Crimson worked on, in their gripping metal/hard rock new albums (instrumental tracks from THRaK or albums like The Power To Believe, ProjeKcts and even the classic Red). There is a bit of pun in saying Lizard "cover" Crimson, but their own spectacle, here in Pyschopuls, is one talented work.

Psychopuls #001, #002, #003, #004 are practically concept-epics (the only quirky intermingle being the veracious #002,0A7), but again the idea of fast-improvising and huff-jamming simply shifts the musical gravity from one hi-fi theme to another. #001 and #002 are cut in three parts, in a sort of prologue-"craze"-epilogue arrangement; the instrumentality spins intense emotions, interlocks and dynamic/technical trances. #003 is made of two equal parts, which evolve similarly on hard, punching rock. The "intruder" #002,0A7 includes vocal effects and experimental slushes, while the 11 minutes imperative #004 puts the pedal of "pure Krimson punch", in a Starless feat. Larks ... part IV way. Psychopuls is not purely about dark, heavy, electric jam rock, the vocals sampling some expressions and the keyboards-guitar-bass-drums whole arrangement having more mellow spots where it simply tries alternative rock, heavy retro or low-psych music.

With Psychopuls, Lizard prog rocks! If choosing between this and the next record is more difficult, fans could actually love this one, for its fervent and artistic flummox.

Driving down the highway, cruise control on another 6 hour long trip, with Lizard's Psychopuls in the CD player, sunglasses repelling the glare, hair flowing in the wind, freedom. Not a single worry in the world, will I sell another system tomorrow? Who knows, who cares right now, I am zooming on Prog Highway. BWOOOP! Rear view mirror, State Trooper on my tail. Pffff! My Quebec license plate must have set off the alarm bells! Immediate stop, roll down the window, hands on the wheel, the smiling young policeman comes over. Officer Kaz Kaminski! Here we go: license, registration and what have I done all lined up like ducks. "Hello, sir! Just wanted to let you know that your trunk is open and hey, what's that cool music you're listening to?" I reply "Well it's a progressive prog band from Poland that.", "From Poland, where my grand daddy came from? And you said Prog? You mean like Glass Hammer? I listen to "Lex Rex" and "Culture of Ascent" all day! The guys at the station think that I consume some of the stuff I bust but I just love that band.." Well needless to say, I made myself an unexpected friend that day and we listened to this album in its entirety and asked him for his comments. The following are his impressions with a little help from Uncle Shakespeare (Cop grammar is a little lax!). Album starts off noisily with electronic confusion segueing into heavy KC -Red period pyrotechnics, full of shock, swagger and brutality. This is polyrhythmic dissonance in all its blazing glory, with Mariusz Szulakowski's percussion oddly metallic, Damian's evocative singing with shrouded Polish lyrics and with musical missiles fired off in all directions, like CNN scenes of Baghdad under air attack. Psychopulse indeed, the title is quite revealing. The eerie shimmering violin brings a dose of much needed elegance and emotion to the rather stark proceedings, soaring with gusto and wailing in agony. Lizard certainly does not shy away from their Crimson influence and frankly, why should they not wallow in the glory of the King? Another brief electronic meditation massages the atmosphere, getting in the mood for another resilient romp into the deepest realms of progressive insanity. On Track 4, Janusz Tanisztra's rumbling and reptilian bass carves out a simple furrow with the others simply following for the ride, again with a very Starless & Bible Black groove that is more honorific than outright plagiaristic. A gentle middle section only heightens the contrast between the soft and the steamroller parts, with the bass bopping along frenetically and nice mellotron waves make this a highly exhilarating outing and a rather cosmic finale. After another sonic interlude, the Lizards return with a rather jazzier affair, full of warm laid-back charm and cosmopolitan ennui, a slow sizzler completely at the opposite end of the raunchy meter. Track 7 starts ratcheting up the level of passion and commitment to some wilder territories that are best summarized by a brief nightmarish 'tron passage on track 8, gloomy almost electro-noise, highly minimalistic and strangely psychotic with whispered insanities ebbing oddly into a maelstrom of controlled confusion. The final piece is an 11 minute epic that finally raises the roof, full of hard electronic drone (Like John Foxx or Mark Shreeve) with slippery synthesizer bubbles, absurd lead lines and progressively morphing into a decidedly heavier expanse and booming drum patterns shrouded in deep electricity. The guitar lines represent severe madness and verges on being a soundtrack for a loony bin commercial. We serve the people: Glass of Wodka, a citation for DUI and 3.5 Demerols.

Another interesting and modern progressive rock band hailing from Poland,LIZARD were found in 1990 and spent the first six years of their existence on live performances,while they also recorded a demo tape.In 1997 they recorded an interesting debut named ''W Galerii Czasu'' with main influences being E.L.P. and KING CRIMSON.Almost seven years passed before the band released their sophomore work at the dawn of 2004,entitled ''Psychopuls''.This time their sound seems heavier and less polished,but the musicianship remains at a top level.As the name of the band indicates,LIZARD are much inspired by KING CRIMSON,especially by their ''Red''-era phase.The album contains lots of complicated guitars,sometime flirting with the roughness of DREAM THEATER,heavy use of synthesizers and mellotron (listen to the absolutely fantastic violin strings that pop up here and there),supported by dark yet gentle Polish vocals.If you could imagine a mix of complex mid-70's KING CRIMSON with a touch of neo prog in the vein of COLLAGE or ALBION,then you're very close to LIZARD's style.''Psychopuls'' is a work that requires a lot of careful listenings to be fully appreciated.An essential find for lovers of intricate,passionate music!