KALABAN

1. "Intro" (1:49) nice instrumental album intro. (4.25/5)

2. "Between the Lines" (4:43) very pretty music over which singer David Thomas performs a nice STYX Tommy Shaw-like vocal. I don't understand the complaints over David's vocals: he does a remarkable job of hitting and holding notes, of creating catchy melodies, and conveying convincing emotion. (9.25/10)

3. "Grayslayer" (2:37) an instrumental of nice sophistication and excellent performances that reminds me a lot of the work of band HAPPY THE MAN. (4.75/5)

4. "Procyon's Demise" (9:52) some timing issues with the opening (unless they're actually trying to express the instruments in a polyrhythmic weave). Unfortunately, all of the instruments sound as if they're being generated from or feed through some fairly cheezy effects boxes or engineering console. Again, the musicianship is top notch, the composition fairly sophisticated (and without question proggy), it's just the sound that suffers (the first four minute section being the worst). The slowed down, spacey middle section that begins at the four minute mark is quite IQ-like before going slightly over toward FOCUS. The Jan Akkerman-like guitar play over the piano and synth strings is quite lovely. At 6:35 begins a bit of a tarantula rhythm by piano and percussion. The lead guitar joins in and shreds us into another section--first fast, then slowed down. Nice keyboard performance throughout even if the sound is flawed. (17.75/20)

5. "Mutants Over Miami" (12:17) almost avant/RIO in its tongue-in-cheek comic feel. Reminds me of the debut album from Uzbekestani band FROM.UZ, Overlook. Nice instrumental performances over some very sarcastic (Frank Zappa-like) music. (22.5/25)

6. "Midnight Comet Dreams" (12:56) spacey intro forming into YES-like "Machine Messiah" start, turns quickly to classical guitar finger-picking display on heavily-reverbed electric guitar. Interesting! David Thomas joins in, singing over the guitar as bass, keys, and drums join in. Switch at the chorus to a not-unpleasant, more dynamic STYX-like sound and feel. The next section, a fast-moving rock section provided to allow the instrumentalists to display their dueling skills, is okay (a step down, actually). I really like the drums and keybaord strings support here; the soli are okay (too much reverb). Back to the vocal sections for the 8th minute--the vocalist's story-telling style (and maybe the story itself) are getting a little tiring. Then a Andy Summers-type of strummed synth-guitar interlude ensues over the ninth and tenth minutes, sadly turning into a kind of blues-rock, STYX-like jam as the band slowly spews forth over the gradually speeding up music. (21.5/25)

Total time 44:08

Solid and sophisticated Neo Prog from America that could have used some better sound engineering (but feels right for the 1980s--which this came out of). There is a nice diversity of prog styles attempted here--all fairly adequately composed and performed. Sound is the main issue.

B+/4.5 stars; a near-masterpiece of progressive rock music and a fairly surprising debut album.

But this album falls really short. I know it's creative, adventurous and more original then what most bands since 1980, but I really prefer Saga or It Bites. The songs are a big chaos, and it seems nobody listens to each other. They are in eachothers way all the time. Reakky annoying, to hear all the instruments constantly fighting for attention.

Also the drummer is all over the place. He's not tight and should have played with clicktrack. It's frustratingly untight and he chances tempo all the time. The keyboard-leads are really ncie though (sometimes remind me of Mark Kelly). The guitarsound is also horrible.

The production is really amateurish and sounds like a demo rather than an official album. I'm glad that bands like The Flower Kings eventually emerged, so that I can just forget about Kalaban. It's no suprise this band never made it big.

I want to underline that Kalaban has been a kind of pioneer in the rediscovery of a more complex, elaborated, creative prog music just before the emergence of the great phenomenas we well know today (Spock's Beard, Flower Kings, Arena and so on). Of course, it's not a major group. They only released two albums. But they contributed to keep the torch in flame during a somber period for elaborated prog music.

The influences on their first record could be found in different styles : UK, ELP, even King Crimson... and it also contained a lot of jazz-rock elements (some parts make me think about Allan Holdsworth)... This second one is more mature : the imperfections and clumsiness of the preceding one, more especially concerning the guitard sound, have been solved. The musicianship is quite good, David Tomas' voice is fine, between Geddy Lee and Robbie Steinhardt, but he makes it swing more !

The music is rich, full of ideas, alternating beautiful intricate epics (Hotash slay : 14,02 mn ; Eyes of a seer : 21,13 mn) and more compact and rythmic pieces : the very jazzy "Topspin" (4,32 mn) and "Possible worlds" (5,29 mn) after its aerial introduction. Epics are very elaborate, often impressive : full of rythm breaks (good rythmic section) and technical guitar and keys' fast developments.

This record does not diserve 5 stars but between 4 and 4,5. Though, I shall give it the highest rate for having played, in my opinion, an important intermediary role in a period in which the most inventive prog music was not reborn yet. Maybe they came too soon...

The odd tracks are the ones to pay special attention to. "Dance of Shiva" is a short piece with a very cool piano riff that builds to an over-the-top spacey and expansive ending--a fun opener to the album. "Hotash Slay" and "Eyes of a Seer" are lengthy pieces that build slowly and effectively, with plenty of interesting twists and turns, and satisfying conclusions. But my favorite song on the album is "Sleepless," a reverie of soaring melodies over lush keyboard textures.

At some points the band is a little overmatched by their music, and the album production has some flaws. Stout's drums, while competent overall, could be tighter in their patterns, there are a couple of obviously missed notes in the keybaords, and the vocals drift a bit out of tune in spots. But the production does manage to cram in all that keyboard goodness with clarity and presence, ready for your headphones to pump out. And given the fact that we're basically talking about the underground of the underground here, that it exists at all for you to enjoy should be cause to celebrate.

I would love to see a new generation of prog fans discover this album.

It's a short album, alas, because I can always really appreciate when you get something like 70 minutes of music for the same money as 45 minutes, simple statement but true, isn't it ? But ok as long as the 45 minutes are good enough, then that's good compensation. I think, it's really the case here ! This is very good though then I am actually talking about the last three songs on the album which happen to be the three longer ones but they are of very high quality to me. The first three are no more than a warm up I believe and because of the short total time and the fact I slightly had to overrate the other one by Kalaban (see my review there) I will round this one down to 3 stars. (3,5 it really is).

About the 5 shorter tracks: I like Topspin and Possible worlds best, they are fairly accessable. The other three aren't really the jewels of this album. But altogether this is in fact a 3.5 case to me. Very hard to decide between 3 and 4 stars because this is in fact a unique band with a very nice sound but it's less than most of my 4 star ratings. But becuase I can't agree with the term non-essential becuase of their originality I will have to give 4.