SIMON SAYS

Simon Says has a great vocalist in Daniel Feldt. With his virtually accent-free pronunciation, he navigates through the lush compositions of the album. His expressive singing style gives a distinctive character to the band's sound, and it's reassuring that he never overextends himself. However, it's the instrumental passages that stand out the most. In any case, it's the musical elements that make "Tardigrade" what it is. The band makes its statement in a whopping 74 minutes, and it's completely captivating. That's the strength of this album; everything is compelling to the core. Full- bodied organ chords, stately Mellotron sounds, sultry Moog riffs, sharp electric guitar bursts, atmospheric acoustic guitar picking, booming bass work, decisive drums, and creative tinkering with a vocoder make up the ingredients of this sonic dish.

All compositions are spawned from the mind of bassist Stefan Renstrom, noting that he shares credits with guitarist Jonas Hellberg on a few tracks. The lyrics are written by Feldt himself, enhancing the overall intensity. It's easier to empathize with your own writings than with someone else's. Whatever the case may be, "Tardigrade" showcases a rich range of creativity. The album features three epic tracks of 14, 10, and almost 27 minutes, respectively. Holy moly. As compensation, there are also a few short interludes on the album. Particularly beautiful in that regard is the 2:32- minute Moon Mountain, where electric and acoustic guitars embrace each other.

Let's start at the beginning, as "Tardigrade" prompts us to do so. If you were to make a list of the most convincing opening tracks in the prog genre, the nearly fifteen-minute Suddenly The Rain deserves a high ranking. Just consider the strong intro where the bombastic organ chords are fuller than fat. This complex chunk of retro-prog is blessed with a fantastic vocal line in the choruses. We are eagerly taken into a lush, almost instrumental interlude where acoustic guitar and later piano pave the way for a kilogram-heavy pot of prog extravagance. This adventure concludes with a guitar solo, followed by a repetition of the chorus that blows the track away.

Despite Simon Says exuding a serious degree of originality, it's the resemblance to IQ that just keeps the band from brilliance. The short title track demonstrates that, although the nitpicking comes from abundance.

The subsequent The Chosen One starts moodily with acoustic guitar, Mellotron, and vocals with backing vocals. Midway through, the mood shifts towards a happy, peppy vibe, complete with vocoder. Another unmissable track is As The River Runs, a composition that starts dark and eventually builds into euphoria?a beautiful piece of songcraft.

The amusingly titled Strawberry Jam is nothing more or less than a showcase for Renstrom's enormous talents as a bassist. It sounds challenging and daring. It's gratifying that the track reaffirms Renstrom's status as an exceptional musician. The voluptuous Brother Were 'You Bound? showcasing Simon Says at their best for almost half an hour sounds like a logical consequence. Describing it would be futile. Some things you shouldn't try to analyze. There's so much beauty that defies expression in words; it's better left to the imagination.

It's truly regrettable that there has never been a successor to "Tardigrade." Let's cherish it, as we are accustomed to doing.

Orginally posted on www.progenrock.com

Simon Says did not abandon the long forms of Progressive Rock music and still produced stretched and interesting compositions, they did update though their sound a bit, moving somewhat from their old-fashioned GENESIS stylings for a more contemporary style, which still involved huge analog echoes on Mellotron and organ, delivered with a cleaner and more modern production.They were caught though in the trap of sounding extremely close to SPOCK'S BEARD and THE FLOWER KINGS, offering arrangements with alternating synth and Mellotron/organ textures, strong symphonic tendencies and some lighter poppy tunes.The material is still well-written with captivating melodies and professional executions, ranging from pretty dramatic themes with atmospheric instrumental passages to more optimistic and accesible tunes.Lots of bombastic keyboard parts, sudden shifts in tempos and a few jazzy vibes result a work, that has been written with intelligence and passion till' the last detail.Good and sometimes adventurous guitar parts with melodic and post-psychedelic leanings and an efficient rhythm section complete the picture of the group, that now seems influenced by a wider spectrum, including GENESIS, YES, KAIPA and FOCUS.However the resemblances with SPOCK'S BEARD''s or THE FLOWER KINGS' music get a bit disturbing in the process.

Rich and interesting Progressive Rock by a work, that could be seen as emblimatic regarding the style.Far from original, but very interesting with a few nice highlights like the great title-track.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

This is especially true of the two epics - opening 15-minute Suddenly the Rain (maybe just itsy- bitsy repetetive and Yes-inspired) and ending 26-minute Brother where you bound. The latter is one of my favorite epics because there is so much crammed in (no 3-minute spacey intros here, no sir) and yet it still flows naturally, going thru a plethora of crying lead guitar lines, folkish sections, some devilish piano, false endings etc.

But there's also so much variety on this album. Shorter rocker Tardigrade with its frenetic guitar licks and start-stop rhythms, folk-ish Circles End, mesmerising acoustic-electric duet Moon Mountain. Every song is distinct. Another distinctive feature are vocals. Unusual. Theatrical, accented and slightly nasally, yet somehow infectious.

I know that we reviewers must use 5 star ratings sparingly (and we use it here much too often - come one, do you really think this is an essential masterpiece and not just good?). But so much effort and diversity went into Tardigrade, that I don't hesitate here.

This album contains ten tracks, all of them are good, some of them are really good. The almost 15 minutes long starter "Suddenly the rain" is marvelous, it reminds me of a (Gabriel)Genesis song, now I can't remember which, and that feels awesome. It is not theft, just inspiration I guess. It starts exuberant and vital and the vocals are great. "Tardigrade" is a little poppier but very dymanic piece. "The chosen one" is calmer with pretty guitar work and it becomes faster later on. A great track. "Moon mountain" shows us guitar collaboration between the acoustic and the electric guitars, very nice result. "As the river runs" continues this symphonic excesses with excellent piano play as an example. "Your future" is a tranquil futuristic prayer and "Strawberry jam" shows how a progressive rock band interprets the concept "jam". In "Circle's End" I think the singer takes his task to another level when it becomes so varying. The last piece is short "Beautiful new day" praise the new day and hopes you will listen to this record again. The largest composition on this record is perhaps overwhelming the first time I listen to it. "Brother where' you bound?" begins directly, just like Genesis' "Supper's ready"(no other comparisons) and takes us on a symphonic journey. This is calm sometimes and fast sometimes. It feels right in many ways but I think it needs relistening.

This could have been even better if they tried more new things. Perhaps this is a tribute to for exemple Genesis and then it's a very good one, much better than some form of cover record. Simon Says shows us great symphonic music and also honest music, but they could have taken it to another record with some strange instruments and vocals in their native language(English is trite). But I will listen to this again, I promise and maybe I'll raise it to five stars. Right now I am proud to give it four.

Third album of this discret band from Sweden from 2008 named Tardigrade is a great follow up of Paradise square. Another 6 years gone until Simon Says released a new album. To me this is better then previous work, the passages and the overall arrangements are more intresting and mature. Great musicianship as before with plenty of great interplays between musicians, specially the keyboards are fantastic here. Long album clocking around 75 min with long instrumental passages, well performed and played in a pure symphonic prog tradition. Suddenly The Rain and the longest track Brother Where You Bound who has over 25 min are the best from this album, beautiful passages quite complex but yet accesibele most of the time. Little better then previous works but again doesn't fully impress me as other symphonic prog works let's sat from thet period. fans of Spock's beard, Transatlantic, The Flower Kings can easely love this band. 3.5 stars.

So of course, in the parallel universe the band sold millions and became household names, but in this rather more boring reality they split up. Stefan stayed with The Moor, touring Europe, and then in 2001 he contacted Daniel saying that he wanted to get Simon Says going again. They quickly got a band together and recorded 'Paradise Square', which was released on Galileo Records in 2002 (which I haven't heard) but again the band was shelved. It is hard to find out information on the band and what has been going as neither of their websites have been updated in a number of years and that is a crying shame as this new album is nothing short of brilliant.

This is music that belongs in the Seventies, but it is very much of the present as well. Keyboards can be dominant, or just piano, guitars can be overpowering or non-existent. It has swathes of mellotron and Hackett/Howe guitars with wonderful vocals. Imagine Genesis and Yes moved in a time machine from thirty years ago to now, and then were allowed just enough time to hear what was going on and to get used to modern equipment and then thrown into a studio with Derek Shulman to record an album, and this is what you get. This is a prog lover's dream ? and every home should have this CD. What concerns me is that this band appear to have dropped off the radar again since this release and that is nothing short of criminal ? this is the sort of music that got me involved with the genre in the first place. Modern progheads need bands like these. www.progrockrecords.com