CLOUDLAND BALLROOM

I know these close encounters towards symphonic music expression has been tried endlessly in almost all Prog's subgenres, according to the Prog-musician/s' roots and of course this electronic prog district is no exception.

Well! Track one, "Infinite Mind (Part 1)", compulsively undermines its uniqueness in favor of foreign electronic languages. More than once its original findings will be overshadowed by its own influences or this genre's ones. Meaning it is almost impossible to detach it from the very best stage of the pillars of this prog branch- Klaus Schulze and Tangerine Dream. Somehow it makes me feel the urge to listen, again, one of those artists best 70's releases.

Track 2 , "Infinite Mind (Part 2)", tips the balance towards the symphonic structured side of music composition and because of the same, turns far more daring and attractive. Its previous track's influences, in opposition, sound just exactly like that, influences and not compositional structures, therefore it opens up and displays James R. Moore's own musical idiom and proposal.

***3 good, could be better, PA stars.

Cloudland Ballroom's "Illusion Circle", 2011, one of his 2 same year full releases, turns out to be true to any of the protocols this prog electronic category demands. This Ballroom project is less obscure than his Mountain one, its subtle approach plays along the lines of both the Berlin school and the LA one. An encounter between old and new, translated into short electronic compositions perfectly crafted to each one's own different possibilities.

Its unobtrusive, well thought, better disposed, creative electronic Cosmic nature adds up in the briefness of its 11 compositions compressed into a -40 minutes length album.

Best attributes> Its unpretentious yet enticing and unique songwriting, its variety in environments and its distance from artificially friendly melodies and from anyone of this genre's colleagues musical idiom.

The not so good being that between the 11 compositions there are small masterpieces sharing space with fairly good or only flat good ones.

This guy is going places and refinement and a flawless release will eventually surface along the way. As for now, I am keeping it to start my Cloudland Ballroom collection , as for you PA readers in general I will rate it ***3.9 PA stars.