AN ENDLESS SPORADIC

This is the debut release from this amazing duo that originally wrote music together across a distance and shared it over the internet. Their music has been featured in many video games, in fact 3 of the 4 tracks on this EP are from video games. it is fast moving music, and it is also very complicated, ever changing and ever challenging. It is quite technical as far as the playing goes. The tracks on this EP are quite short, never over 5 minutes, but they would explore more on their future albums.

The band itself is quite unknown, at least at the beginning. They did gain popularity when one of their songs was featured on the Guitar Hero game. They were able to get several fans from that exposure, and the fact that their music is quite difficult to play, even on the game.

The tracks have plenty of dynamic changes, mostly loud, but finding time to include quieter passages from time to time. But nothing remains still or in one place for too long. So, with the excellent playing, where does this EP suffer? Mostly from production, which since this is self released, is not the best, especially for what is demanded from this type of music. The other drawback is that the music changes so much in each track that none of the individual songs have any personality that stands out from the others. There is a lot of sameness in the music.

In my mind, the only thing that really stands out is the track "Sun of Pearl", but that is because I recognize the melody from somewhere, possibly in a game I've played somewhere, and the piano and funky breaks in the song give variation on the melody and gives it a really nice vibe. It always returns to fast drumming and showing off on guitar after each break, but there is always that feeling of hurry and get to the next section. I love the variation they put on the main theme though. Great song, but with a little work, it could be quite amazing. "The Adventures of Jabubu" is the only track not featured on any game. It has a good jazz vibe to it, almost like an Alan Holdsworth tune, but they don't give it much time to develop.

Overall, it seems like they are trying to fit an album's worth of material in 18 minutes. Everything rushes by at breakneck speed. What was needed here was more time to develop ideas and better production. With development, there would have been more variety here. Also, you can't usually expect the best production when a band handles everything on their own, but with a startup band, they did the best they could. This would improve on future albums. However, this is still a fun EP which is over way to quickly. The playing is quite phenomenal and the potential is very apparent. Lovers of Prog Metal should check them out, but be advised that most of their music is instrumental, and every track here is also instrumental.

Eclectic, unique, metallic and highly vivacious: 8/10

You see, AN ENDLESS SPORADIC gained much prominence after their song Impulse I was added as an "additional track" on Guitar Hero 3, the most popular installment of the legendary "play-a-guitar" game. Many teens, me included, were amazed by this strange and highly creative composition, unlike everything we had heard until then. It was definitely metal... or was it? Different from roughly all tracks on the game, Impulse was not labellable. I didn't know what amazing music genre it was, all I knew is that I loved it. It was delightful when I discovered that it was "progressive metal", whatever progressive meant.

Fast-forward two years and I became a prog-aficionado; add one year to this time skip and AN ENDLESS SPORADIC had released a full album. Oh boy, when that news came to my ears I was simply hyped to the bone. I always thought Zach was underrated and I kept this mentality until I found out big players from DREAM THEATER (Rudess), THE FLOWER KINGS (Reingold and Stolt), SLEEPYTIME GORILLA MUSEUM (Mellender) and ANIMALS AS LEADERS (Nevene) accepted teaming up with him. Seems like they recognized Kamins' potential, as much as Zach recognized theirs, and utilized it to the maximum, culminating in this progressive and metal delicatessen.

MAGIC MACHINE is characterized by the constant tempo swings (variation between calm and slow) and mood variations (change of structure/"musical feel") within a single song. This confers the album much dynamism and energy as well relative complexity. We can say there's not a referential core that unites the concept of all songs; they're pretty distinctive on their own. It is also easily observable that, although countless instruments are featured, the guitar is the most prominent one, taking leading rhythmical roles in pieces on roughly all tracks - that's what makes this "prog metal" and not "symphonic/eclectic prog" after all. So, under this perspective, there's enough content to please both prog rockers and metalheads alike. Lastly, while this is indisputably a metal record, it's leaning to "hard rocking" rather than "extreme metal", with a highly cheerful and joyful sonority. In short, don't expect melancholy.

Another thing that really called my attention is that almost all songs (more visible on the first four tracks) seem to follow a rather narrative structure. You can imagine them being soundtracks to stories being told, and that confers a somewhat synesthetic approach (you can connect what you hear to what you'd read or watch) to MAGIC MACHINE. I'll use this "narrative" style on many song descriptions, which are just right down below:

The Departure, solidly an allegoric prog metal track, features several interesting passages under the energetic metal guitar riffages where a slightly jazzy foundation sustains everything. Rudess (keyboards) and Mellender (marimba/glockenspiel) do a lot of work. Highly enjoyable. (7/10)

Magic Machine intro is no less mystical than of a medieval fantasy movie, where an excited piano slowly builds up the momentum. The Moog Voyager is highly present on the lighthearted, dreamy main riffs that succeed the intro. The outro builds up the tension as the guitar passages become heavier and the synthesizers more distorted. Overall it feels a lot like a Legend of Zelda soundtrack. And there's a dandy guitar solo. (8/10)

Galactic Tactic greets the listener with heavy synthesizers on a voyaging space-rock energy. The main section becomes much epic with the repeating keyboard progression and posterior retake of the synth introduction as well as arrival melodic guitar notes. A calmer, jazzier section hits, which survives until the song's outro. (7/10)

Finding the Falls features energetic guitar riffs and highly cheerful and unpretentious guitar passage - that really sounds like neo-prog/alt-rock - playing alternately. Chris Bleth is featured in the midsection, with his Pan-like flute abilities. Shortly after, a complex heavy guitar riffage strikes, followed by an absolutely beautiful violin/guitar duet. These two elements join together and the violin goes wickedly mad along the djenty background of the guitar riffs. The violin/guitar duet returns, accompanied by an epic western-sounding French horn. The outro climaxes and the song then ends. Undoubtfully the high point of the album. (9/10)

The Assembly... or is it "La Aventura de Los Mariachis"? Our Mariachis, on the nowheres of the brutally hot Mojave Desert, march, accompanied only by their friends, el trumpetero and el cornetero. They then meet el glockenspielador and el pianista. The musical assembly progressively grows in varied sounds and countless el -eros to enrichen the our Mariachi fellas' soundtrack. It takes not long before el guitarista and el violinista arrive too, which transforms the musical passage intro a metallic distorted riff. Too bad el guitarista's metal approach blew the mood. Still, a good track. (7/10)

Agile Descent sounds, if anything, a noir detective soundtrack. Just as jazzy as you might expect, and Reingold's bass is easily highlightable (on the first part of the song). The bohemian atmosphere is broken as tense violins and guitar riffs strike in and the "metal" part of the equation shows up, but frankly, it breaks the mood of an otherwise delicious song. (6/10)

Sky Run is the embodiment of what AN ENDLESS SPORADIC's music represents and a dignified creativity successor of Impulse I. The joviality and interest of all personnel involved to build the complex riffs and maddened keyboard and guitar riffs are easily visible thanks to the top notch musicianship. Stolt's furious guitar and Rudess' beautiful keyboards are easy highlights. (8/10)

Through the Fog begins on a lullaby-esque (thanks to the world's cutest instrument, the glockenspiel) sound, but things get slightly more excited as (still mellow) guitar, bass and (what an emotional!) piano separately introduces themselves. The atmosphere transitions from slow and soft to joyful and amicable (where both Rudess and Stolt shows up), and later then, to... well, uhh, "prog metal"? The third part isn't really interesting. An absolutely delicious Moog Voyager solo strikes in, but other than that, this metal part honestly feels UNFOLDED LIKE STARCAISE by DISCIPLINE was ripped off (that take metaphorically - it obviously wasn't). (7/10)

Sea Voyage's heartfelt piano introduces the song, followed by the most YES-ish of the keyboards. The next part, however, is played on the floaty Voyager (and on the tropical kalimba), and not on the keyboard. The guitar shows up, but something tells me the plethora of keyboard instruments didn't invite it to the party as it doesn't fit well, too good most of the 'metal' part is occupied by Stolt melodic solo. I need to remind myself to listen to THE FLOWER KINGS... (8/10)

A single glockenspiel note on the ending of the voyage announces the arrival...

Of Impulse II! I love how they feature a kalimba instead of the bubbling keyboards on the pre-heavy part. In general, the song is preserved as if Zach immersed it into amber. Something tells me he merely asked for his new assembly to give a take on band's all-time classic without adding anything almost anything new. Honestly? It's just perfect. (9/10)

In my opinion, it would be too presumptuous to define this as a "masterpiece of prog rock music", but even so, MAGIC MACHINE is a pleasant and refreshing experience (enough with this technical metal being called prog for the sake of nomenclature!) that'll hardly find opposition when putting in perspective enjoyability. It's a versatile album, so it can fits the criteria of countless different tastes, and as BrufordFreak said, a solid four-stars rating - but differently from him, it's pleasing to imagine this as the future of prog metal. See? We have divergent opinions but even so we agree it's this is fine material. Good job, AN ENDLESS SPORADIC.

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.

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.

How in the hell has nobody reviewed this yet? Seriously!!! It even features Rudess.... Something needs to change with this site. Anyway, to put it simply, this album sounds like a Camel had sex with a stolen Pineapple in an old theater's elevator during a dream, oh yeah and a bunch of muscular mimes were making noise somewhere in the distance. If you are already a fan of this band, boy are you going to enjoy this. I play dumb little games to this album, I [%*!#] to this album, I sleep to this album. Enjoy.

If you arent... Listen to this album now!!

This is a short album just over 33 minutes long, but it is packed full of great instrumental progressive music which is varied in texture, sound and style. It is a very good collection of jazz fusion instrumentals. The band is listed as a Progressive Metal act, and there are some short bursts that approach a slight progressive metal sound, but in this album, they have advanced to a huge variety of sounds, so the real style here is closer to a Rock/Jazz fusion. Some passages are surprisingly well orchestrated and beautifully executed. From mellow and expansive ballads to hard, fast and technical jams, this album has all sorts of styles and sounds. The tracks each have a lot of progressive elements such as changing meters which are anything but standard. The shortcoming of the album is in the shortness of the tracks and the overall album. Because of this, the songs are underdeveloped. But what you have here is a collection of mature and well executed instrumentals that at times become quite complex. The variety is awesome and it never gets boring, so this music would be easy to expand on without worrying about overstaying it's welcome. This is great music that deserves a 4 star rating, and with some more development of the songs, this could have easily been a masterpiece.

I have guitar hero to thank for finding this small but great band. (Who said video games are a bad source of progressive rock?) Unfortunately Ameliorate is just an EP and therefore really short, because the compositions on here are really great.

The style of this band is obviously progressive metal but they do have a hint of jazz fusion. The bass is pretty funky and the keys are well up there in the mix. The guitar is still the leading instrument for this type of music which is used for some really crunchy riffs.

The compositions are pretty loose in that they are all over the place. I guess that's a good thing since it gives the album a less serious environment.

There are some moments that are overtaken by excessive noodling, but this is far and in between. Another pet peeve I have is the shoddy production, especially for the drums which sounds like a stick hitting a brick. But otherwise this is a phenomenal EP by a relatively unknown duo.

7/10

An Endless Sporadic's first full album is very similar to their EP, but this time they've slowed down and took some time to perfect these songs. They also improved on the production greatly so that I'm no longer listening to stick-hitting-a-brick drums.

The progressive metal riffs and jazz fusion feel is still here, which is good. They are also able to obtain sort of a lounge feel in songs like 'Shell' and 'Treading Water' due to the nice piano playing.

'From the Blue,' 'Point of No Return,' and 'The Trangular Race Through Space' are the more metal oriented songs.

They also experiment with a more subdued and ambient styles in songs like 'Walking Hours,' 'Subliminal Effect' and 'Beyond the Horizon.' However my favorite song on the album is easily Eternal Bloom, which combines all these styles into a song that progresses beautifully.

It's a shame this album is so short because the music is good it's over in no time. Very strong effort from this dynamic duo.

9/10

An Endless Sporatic is an instrumental progressive metal/jazz fusion band from USA with only 2 members guitarist/keyboard player Zach Kamins & drummer Andy Gentile, but aswell they are helped by famous already bass player from The Flower KIngs, Karmakanic, etc - Jones Reingold. Another important musicin from progressive rock relam handling the production of this album no other then Roine Stilt. The music has diffrent moods, from more energic and up tempo moments who are the best btw like on From the Blue and The Triangular Race Through Space to a more releaxed passages like the opening track or Shell who are less intrsting for me. The musicianship is top notch but I think the album suffers in great ideas, I mean this kind of jazz fusion metal I've heared before on LTE albums, 7 for 4, Gordian Knot and others alike. Not bad that is for sure, but the spicey moments are not present here to really knock me off, even this type of music is in my area of intrest for long time. Groovy bass lines, great guitar, good druming overall, the musicians play with an amazing ease, but something is missing to give more then 3 stars. Good album but nothing more. I see that this kind of music got lot of praise lately on diffrent progressive pages and with some work maybe they will come in the future with something more grandious.

Interesting. This new american prog metal duo is much praised here. And certainly their are good, have talent and potential. However, I found the songs here a little too much on the tentative side of things for my taste, with a couple of exceptions. The mix of metal, symphonic rock and jazzrock/fusion is very good, and certainly this duo has both the chops and the songwriting knack for writing good, cathy melodies. So I don´t really understand why the songs are so short. the longest track is only 6 minutes, while the others stay around the 3 minute mark. For an instrumental album, this is quite short. They could have explore the themes a lot more. It seems they are still writing for video games.

I dont´want to sound too harsh. The CD is quite pleasant and varied. But I can´t see why 5 stars ratings are poping out already. For me at least, they have a long way before getting such status. Highlights are Eternal Bloom and the last track, the very dreamy and beautiful Beyond The Horizon (again, like most of the other cuts in here, cut short too soon).

Rating: 3.5 stars. Promising. I´m looking forward to hear their next works.