EYE

EYE are a four piece Psychedelic band out of Columbus, Ohio and this the second of three studio albums they have released, plus they've released a live one. I have the last two studio albums preferring the last one "Visions of Ageless Light" to this one. I feel like i'm in the minority with this feelings as Andy at PlanetMellotron and Tom Hayes both prefer this one. And I get it, there's more mellotron on this one but it's the heavier outbursts that are more abundant as well and I just like that third record more, it's a matter of taste of course.

The PINK FLOYD vibe is strong on this one and I'm surprised at how often I thought of RUSH during those heavier outbursts. Adam Smith is the main man here engineering and producing the album plus adding this huge variety of keyboards. Crazy that he left after this release and that the band actually kept going adding female keyboardist Lisa Bella Donna who doesn't take a back seat to anyone.

That opener "Lost Are The Years" is a ride at 21 1/2 minutes and of course a top three. I like how the album opens with a gong, yeah this is going to be good. Check out the guitar after 16 minutes. These guys are players by the way and that's not often the case with Psychedelic bands.

"Cultrider" at 12 minutes is also a top three and I like that heavy opening sound including the drum work. Mellotron rolls in when it settles. Check out the guitar expressions at 3 minutes then more mellotron and heaviness with a more determined sound. I thought of RUSH a few times on this one and I like the keyboards in the second half. The title track is the final top three, a short one at over 3 1/2 minutes but man spacey, electronics, mellotron a real headphone piece.

Easily 4 stars and many mention fellow Americans ASTRA as a reference.

To me EYE had really reached new heights with Vision and Ageless Light and a lot of that is Lisa Bella Donna taking the band to creative levels with the most impressive keyboards heard on the album. The band also received new members too. They still have that grungy sound but an even stronger prog feel. Lisa Bella Donna uses tons of vintage gear including a real Mellotron. Even that weird tape choking effect lets you know she's not using an M-Tron. "Book of the Dead" is largely electronic with a bit of that Berlin School feel. At the time I felt Lisa Bella Donna should record some solo albums in that style and my wish had later come true as she had did such (although not all her solo material is in the Berlin School style) and she's recorded a ton of stuff. "Kill the Slavemaster" and "Searching" has that typical EYE feel although "Dweller of the Twilight Void" is an amazing largely acoustic piece that reminds me of Pink Floyd meets the Moody Blues. What I really love is that Moog solo. "As Sure as the Sun" starts off acoustic with a spacy Crosby, Stills and Nash vibe but with a spacy synth break. Then eventually it goes electric, and I hear some symphonic prog leanings here but the psychedelic elements are intact. To me it's certainly their highlight and really worth hearing. After a couple of years I was starting to wonder if EYE was going to put out new material. Turns out they're no more. Ken Golden of Laser's Edge (who released Vision and Ageless Light) was on Pete Pardo's Sea of Tranquility YouTube channel, and he said they're no more. That's too bad, given how Lisa Bella Donna was steering the band to new heights. At least she has a very prolific solo career worth checking out, but much of it is in the Progressive Electronic vein.

I ordered online a physical copy of Edensong's Years in the Garden of Years which arrived finally but with the wrong merchandise. Instead of the New York group's fine opus, I got and ultimately kept, a rather obscure CD from an American band called Eye, which I looked up and found to be potentially interesting. Upon listening to this "Vision and Ageless Light" 2016 release, I was overcome with a variety of impressions, most of which were rather surprising. Nominally a space rock/psychedelic group from Ohio led by talented drummer Brandon Smith , the de facto leader who has added new musicians for this mission, namely keyboardist Lisa Bella Donna, bassist Michael Sliclen and guitarist Jon Finley. Comparisons to fellow Yanks Astra is fair but there is also a pervading predilection for Hawkwind, Pink Floyd, Nektar and hints of heavier acts like Black Sabbath. That being said the opener does have some mellotron-infested swirls that recall early Genesis and sets the mood for an ambitious but grungy voyage into the distant universes.

The bruising "Kill the Slave Master" has a metallic heaviness that leaves no asteroid unturned, chugging into the cosmos like a spaceship superstar, sounding much like vintage early Hawkwind but lathered with shredding Jon Finley guitar pyrotechnics and spacy voices. The keyboard work is stunning, organ being the main instrument of choice, though there is an unexpected and yet splendid electric piano work straight out of Jazz-rock a la Soft Machine that will blow your mind. The bass bites hard on the pedal and the drum kit pounds furiously. A total winner. This segues immediately into the equally oily "Searching", even more vintage sound being shoved into the noisy mix, a thrusting vessel of shifting riffs, fluctuating drum patterns and uncontrolled insanity. The production has a raw feel to it, nothing overtly polished, which gives the experience a natural feel.

Things quiet down with the serene sounds of "Dweller of the Twilight Void" , a supremely spacy electronic feel not unlike vintage Gong , what with the Tim Blake-like synthesizer follies and the smooth quirkiness in the massed singing voices, escorted by resonating acoustic guitars, all involved for the ride. This all prepares for the magnum opus , the 27 minute+ "As Sure as the Sun" which displays a clearly Floydian utopia infused by dense psychedelia, acoustic guitar and floating voice setting the tone, mighty mellotron to follow. Lisa does real well on the keys, showing some Jan Hammer like fluidity on the synthesizers. This colossal epic takes different routes to the same galactic destination, Finley in particular oozing quite a Hendrixian influence in his scorching leads, full of grit and sizzle. Slower moments get suddenly propelled forward at warp speed, dizzying and barren playing a tennis game of sorts, alternate worlds, different galaxies yet all bathed in the same milky way. Drummer Smith even indulges in a mini solo, a rather classic mosaic in the space tableau and they even dare some massed voice chanting (Gong again) to add even more confusion to the mix.

I wouldn't call "Vision" a masterpiece but definitely a very entertaining and original sounding Space rock album that I am glad to now possess, even if by force majeure. It's an honest, truthful, unpretentious and clearly enthusiastic expression of musical ability.

4 Orbs

This Ohio band was founded by drummer Brandon Smith and keyboardist Lisa Bella Donna. They have two new members : Michael Sliclen and guitarist Jon Finley. The music is deeply rooted into vintage prog with mellotron, organ and the all the keyboards sound of the 70's. The intro "Book of Dead" make me think of "Watcher of The Skies", switching into some pure electronic music. All the instruments are back with "Kill The Slavemaster" with a jazzy passage and a couple of guitar solo before a huge keyboard sound. We are not too far from the music of Hawkwind here. We can hear some Space/psychedelic vibe throughout this album. "Dweller of the Twilight Void" brings some original interplay with the spacey keyboards and the acoustic guitar. The 27 minutes epic "As Sure As The Sun" is a real treat with his journey to some Pink Floyd Space/Psychedelic era, the mellotron sound and some impressive overall keyboard lines that goes into some electronic soundscapes moments. You get the feel that the band is playing an homage to their multiple influences from different bands of the past even if it only for a short 30 seconds span. If you enjoy the vintage prog, you will not want to miss this album with songs that are well crafted where the atmosphere is more important than technique.

Eye is a space rock/prog band from Ohio. Upon listening to their music you get the impression they were were a stoner metal group who decided to go prog on us. So you get some elements of that genre in a Hawkwind/Pink Floyd manner, with some reminders of various 1970s Krautrock groups, the type that tend towards space rock like Ash Ra Tempel, for example. The title track is a great example, I love how the band goes through contrasts, with more heavy passages and mellower Pink Floyd-like passages. I also love their choice of instruments, and they're not afraid to use vintage instruments, including the Mellotron and even vintage synths like the ARP 2600 and MiniMoog. The rest of the album consists of relatively shorter pieces that are much in the same vein and quality. I have ran across too many recent space rock bands that drone on the same guitar chord endlessly with the same tired feedback and distortion, these guys avoid those pitfalls. Also they take on a prog rock approach to their music so progheads would love them too. The album is also kept short, which is very welcomed by me, given I got sick and tired of all these new prog bands having to cram in nearly 80 minutes onto one CD. I mean look at the Flower Kings or Ayreon, modesty is a foreign word to them, and one CD that's almost 80 minutes long is too modest for them (so they often clog their discography with 2-CD sets that are over two hours long). At least Diagonal, Purson, Tusmørke, and this group Eye know to keep it reasonable length (OK so Tusmørke CDs are around an hour long, only because they consisted of bonus cuts consisting of EPs and singles not included on the LP editions, but the main meat and potatoes of both their LPs were around 45 minutes). Anyways, I'm glad for Eye, they produced some great space/rock prog you should check out. Don't forget to check out their other releases two!

"Center of the Sun" is yet another independent progressive rock release which has been released on the "name your price" system which seems to be growing ever more popular with independent musicians. Musically I would describe this album as "psychedelic doom metal," but there's an incredible variety of sound that comes pretty close to krautrock at times. Though it can get a bit repetitive, the ambition of the album comes through loud and clear and that's more than enough to make this a fresh, exciting listen.

The title epic begins the album with some ominous whooshing sounds and some noisy, chaotic guitar and drums. It's an interesting effect, but it's not until some bass comes in to provide a rhythmic backbone that the track really begins to be compelling. This bass line ascends chromatically, other instruments whirling around the whole time. Some other percussion is added and the track begins to take on a driving, almost tribal feel. When the vocals enter at about 3 minutes in they sound as if the singer were in a trance, which suits the feel of the track perfectly, coming off like Pink Floyd crossed with Amon Duul II, with a little bit of doom metal thrown in for good measure. The gothic atmosphere that is created in all of this chaos persists for quite a while, with an extended instrumental section replacing the vocals for a bit as the atmosphere builds. Eventually the tempo picks up a bit and a low, fuzzy riff takes over, heightening the similarity to early Black Sabbath. This goes on for a while before the song again switches gears, this time launching into a Krautrock-ish section filled with electronic effects and an almost dark ambient feel. This motif is ended by the addition of some acid-drenched guitar chords, over which more psychedelic vocals are added. A final instrumental section runs through a gamut of motifs before vocals are once again added for the song's final section. As guitar finally closes out this monster of a track, the listener can't help feeling a bit breathless. As I've tried to describe, this song smashes genres together to create what I think can fairly be called a tour-de-force. It's definitely not the most cohesive piece of music I've ever heard (you can definitely hear different "sections" of the track) but it more than makes up for it with the sheer variety contained within. It's an incredibly ambitious track that (for the most part) works, and while it's not perfect it's a darn good listen.

"Usurpers" has the unfortunate job of following this monster, starting off with another very sludgy metal guitar section. The tempo picks up about a minute and a half in, and vocals are added, again using the sort of half chanting, half yelling style that appeared on much of the first song. That may sound a bit odd, but the music has such a hypnotic, groovy feel that it works pretty well. An instrumental section in the middle of the song does an excellent job of tying together the psychedelic and heavy elements in Eye's music, and there's a really stellar guitar solo that takes up most of the second half of the track as well.

"Restorers" begins on a much more uptempo, less doom-ridden motif, with some electronic sounds and a great bass line behind a repeated guitar chord. This theme is more or less abandoned as the vocals begin, but the song goes in a different direction than "Usurpers," utilizing bass and less-distorted guitar for a more classically psychedelic, more delicate sound, rather than the crushing doom-riffs that were so prominent on the previous tracks. There is a brief foray into a heavier sound in the middle, though it quickly returns to the earlier instrumentation and another awesome guitar solo dominates the ending section of this track, with the tempo slowly increasing and the music becoming increasingly more frenetic as the track draws to a close.

"Rik Rite" closes off the album, beginning with some uptempo drumming, guitar and synths that switch into another section of the same kind of psychedelic/gothic music that has permeated the album. The vocals take perhaps the most prominent role they have yet on the album, the doomy ethos and ominous delivery ascending to new heights of intensity. By the time the track crashes into its crushingly heavy climax, the listener begins to think that this music wouldn't be out of place in a movie about the end of the world. "Rik Rite" is a fitting closer for the album and certainly a fine song.

Overall then, I would say that "Center of the Sun" is a very good, albeit definitely imperfect album. The ambition here is stunning, and while the reach of the album probably exceeds its grasp it's still an incredibly good listen. This is a raw, heavy, album that runs on full intensity from its opening notes, sacrificing subtlety for chaos and power. A masterpiece of prog this is not. An essential listen it's not either. But it's fun and exciting, and its charm ultimately wins out over its flaws. Give it a listen and I suspect this will be one of those albums that just keeps popping up in your rotation.

3/5