Country of Origin: U.S.A. Format: CD Record Label: Turtle Down Music Catalogue #:   Year of Release: 2000 Time: 50:42 Info: Tautologic Homepage

Occasionally experimentation with new names reveals a hidden gem. Tautologic is one such case in point, where each and every track has had me completely blown away. Formed in 1997, the group is the creation of two musicians who are the fulcrum and main songwriting team of the band, Pat Buzby (drums) and Ethan Sellers (vocals/keyboards/guitar/banjo). The group features various guest musicians who practically from a string orchestra as backing to the above-mentioned duo together with some relatively known names amongst whom there is Daniel Marc Veidlinger (Tempus Fugit), who even wrote The Verdict.

Tautology, is the needless repetition of words, an expression often used for musical styles such as minimalism, and here the group manage to fuse minimalistic and pop styles with great efficacy. Musically speaking the music can be best defined as eclectic progressive rock with a healthy dose of folk rock with the group described as a cross between early Genesis, early Fairport Convention and a healthy dose of Stackridge. Basically the group sound very very British though they hail from Chicago, very late sixties stuff.

The opener Illusion Of Progress seems to be taken from a scene of The Brodsky Quartet with an avant-garde string composition which threatens to throw the listener completely off track as it is totally unrelated to what the rest of the album has to offer. But that is the beauty of Tautologic! Hype Dark is pure psychadelia with the strings occupying their own place within the musical structure of the group This is also another aspect that causes this group to be different from most others. The string section forms an integral part of the group and is not utilized just as a filler but also as a separate musical entity capable of creating the theme as well as the instrumental solos.

Jim's Home Brew kick starts the folk influence with an ode to homebrew beer and comes complete with cello solo creating a distinctive pub feel to the whole track. Glasgow Smile keeps up the folk tinge with a delightful jig evoking the Fairport Convention influence.

The House Song introduces for the first time, female vocalist Jen Justice, and the change in vocals also brings about a change in structure and style. Though retaining an acoustic nature, the only string instrument utilized here is the violon-cello. On the other hand Lazy Sundays has a Ben Folds Five approach with the piano being the lead instrument on the track whilst the remainder of the strings are just fillers.

Back to folk-rock with Tube Socks sounding almost like a traditional arrangement in the initial section to eventually move into a more progressive rock field with some pleasant changes in rhythm and a nice viola/cello duet. More instruments enter the fray as the song progresses creating a great atmosphere, something which also occurs on You Know It though the fundamental rhythm of this last track is in the funk vein.

As I have already remarked, The Verdict is the only track on the album that is not penned by either of the two main songwriters Etan Sellers and Pat Buzby. Bassist Daniel Veidlinger (Tempus Fugit) has penned one of the highlights of the album evoking sprits of progressive days gone by with hints of King Crimson and early Genesis together with a lush string background. Maybe it was a pity that Veidlinger did not have a hand in more tracks present on the album.

Love Bus has a nice sixties touch to it reminding me of some of the psychadelic greats such as Jefferson Airplane and The Grateful Dead together with a warm progressive feel. Psychadelia and progressive rock always held a close relationship and this track demonstrates this. Jeep is replete with time signature changes whilst the closing track A Year's Journey is a piano fade out. later accompanied by a mournful cello.

When considering that this is a debut album, the promise is great. Musically Tautologic have a lot to offer and are an extremely tight professional outfit. There could be two drawbacks that I envisage within this group. The first is that at times the vocals of Ethan Sellers do not seem to fit the mould of the album whilst on the other hand, as can be seen on their website, the group seem to have an ever-changing number of musicians which could lead to some form of instability within. As always, time will tell but as a debut album, this one wil do just fine!

Conclusion: 7.5 out of 10.

Country of Origin: USA Format: CD Record Label: Cyclops Catalogue #: Cycl091 Year of Release: 2000 Time: 58:20 Info: Kopecky

Three brothers (yes, called Kopecky) from the USA, creating dark moody soundscapes. That's Kopecky in a nutshell.

The album in general is quite heavy, with prominent places for the three main instruments, guitar, bass and drums. Keyboards are used only very sparsely. The general impression is that of a hard to penetrate album. However, the compositions are all quite good, and the album needs multiple listenings before one really gets the hang of it. It is extremely hard for me to describe the album, since it is like nothing I have heard before. Sometimes, hints of Dream Theater pop up, but only like a small flash, it goes as quickly as it comes.

The first two tracks, of which especially the first, nearly 10 minute-long track, are highly recommendable for a closer listening, are fully instrumental. On the third track, the vocals are spoken, or should I say chanted, since the omnipresence of the sitar gives this a very Indian atmosphere.
The Minimal-Music experiments like the intro of Scorpion (which subsequently for the first time on the album comes closer to known prog-metal artists) or These White Walls (completely whispered vocals) are absolutely not my cup of tea and hardly anything new. The very prominent role of the bass guitar here, probably also makes it an interesting album for people heavily into that instrument. However, for instance the track Scorpion, due to the lack of vocals and lead guitar or keyboards, sounds more like an exercise in drum/bass interaction than like a well balance piece of music.

The pieces Bartholomew's Kite and Lugosi: 1931 feature some more well-known instrumental loops and come closer to prog as we know it. The addition of keyboards makes all the difference here, and the music is much easier digestible even though some complicated rhythms are featured. The opening of Lugosi: 1931 reminded me a bit of a Mostly Autumn track (the intro of Porcupine Rain to be exact). For the rest no ties whatsoever to that band!
Wings Of Asphyxia is an excerise in psychedelic rock, almost like the middle section of A Saucerful Of Secrets (before the organ sets in).
Heaven's Black Amnesia opens gorgeously, dark melody lines, almost The Cure like. Slowly the track gains momentum and gets heavier with the guitar becoming progressively more dominant over the bass. More and more the track pounds, but suddenly dies down...only to recover again. Good track, solid composition and well performed.

Like I said, a difficult album to judge. From a point of view of accessibility, they don't score very high, but music need not be accessible to be good. I actually feel I am not qualified to give a definite grade here. Some people will rave about this album, I'm sure, others will find it completely awful. I for myself will remain somewhat skeptical. Maybe go see them as they tour the USA as the backing band of Par Lindh !

Conclusion: 6.5 out of 10.

Country of Origin: USA/UK Format: CD Record Label: Projekt Catalogue #: Projekt 104 Year of Release: 2000 Time: 54:30 Info: Projekt Website

Robert Fripp is a household name within the progressive rock circles, known first and foremost for his King Crimson endeavors as well as his forays into the well of experimentation and ambience. His method of escaping from the power chords and gripping clutch of rock music was the creation of Frippertronics which involved recording guitar work using two tape machines, creating loops of this recorded material which kept being re-recorded with material being constantly added to it in layers.

In the mid-70's, Robert Fripp recorded two albums with Brian Eno, No Pussyfooting and Evening Star, which involved loops of Fripp's guitar work augmented with Eno's electronic architecture. A Temple In The Clouds finds Robert Fripp collaborating in a similar fashion, this time with Jeffrey Fayman known for his soundtrack work on films such as The Patriot and The Perfect Storm amongst others. Following a trip to the mythical island of Anapraxis in 1992, a series of guitar loops and effects were recorded by the duo as they absorbed the atmosphere surrounding this island. Eight years later Fayman completed his work on the project with the result being a Temple In The Clouds.

The album is divided into four parts with two lengthy suites, The Pillars Of Hercules and A Temple In The Clouds, and two shorter tracks which seem to act as breathers for the suites. Musically speaking, what one gets here is a slow growing process as the musical layers build up at a very slow almost insignificant rate. The result is a percussionless album full with dreamlike soundscapes consisting of drones and hums with the guitar loops of Robert Fripp and the synthesizers of Fayman intricately intertwined. Though there is a willing lack of rhythm and percussion, this album exudes a great amount of power

Basically this is one of those albums that could appeal to two sets of people. First there are those who could be searching for that relaxing album that they could listen to while resting whilst on the other hand this album evokes the spirits of those great early electronic ambience albums from groups such as Tangerine Dream that came before the New Age movement. On the whole this ranks with the best soundscape/ambient albums around.