Country of Origin: Latvia Format: CD Record Label: Mellow Records Catalogue #: MMP378 Year of Release: 2001 Time: 63:06 Info: Holy Lamb email Samples: Click here

It is not often that we receive albums from the Baltics. Now, with Holy Lamb, Latvia has presented itself on the progressive rock scene. Playing a slightly more aggressive version of Camelesque or Genesis-like compositions, the album is quite interesting. The vocals however, as often is the case, are below par. At times this is well compensated by the music, but at other times the vocals can be really annoying, especially in the upper region of the vocal range.

The album consists of three smaller tracks and two epic tracks. The opening track is a bit of a mix in style of Sebastian Hardy/Camel and Marillion. Quite nice prog therefore, but nothing great. The Lingering Dream is simpler, a bit Floydian in construction, but maybe oversimplified. At least, it could not grasp my full attention. Quite a lot better is the first 10+ minute track My Star Untouchable (although the vocals are a true pain here). The composition is based on early Genesis compositions, and the powerful middle section is really worthwhile, starting to sound more and more like Marillion and it even gets more experimental. This track is followed by Rainfall in your Heart, sort of ballad, but not very interesting.

The album closes (well, there is a hidden "bonus" track of 17 minutes silence...) with The Sea, an almost 17 minute piece, with some female vocals, which are also not very brilliant. The opening is a kind of simplified Thieves' Kitchen track, but it has some nice ideas in it, especially in the piano part. The guitar part is not as interesting though. Slowly the track gains momentum and the middle section is quite up tempo and fast, almost ELP like. The track continues for a few minutes more, introducing some more experimental complexities, with lyrics based on the Bible. A relatively nice track, compared to the others.

In general, the CD is relatively well played, but the vocals are not up to standards and the compositions are not tremendously exciting. Not a necessity for the prog fan, but it might be a nice addition to your collection.

Conclusion: 6.5 out of 10.

Country of Origin: Latvia Format: CD Record Label: Mellow Records Catalogue #: None Year of Release: 2001 Time: 56:38 Info: Holy Lamb email Samples: Click here

This album is a Fan (hence fantastic) CD (SeeDee). So far the explanation of the title for the less intellectually gifted among us. It contains a couple of tracks from the 'Salt Of The Earth' album I reviewed above and a couple of older tracks. However, all of them contain something special.

The Intro is just some backward played voices or something, followed by The Lingering Dream, a nice little prog track not featured before, with a prominent place for the guitar melody. Next in line is The Sea. However, it is a different, more stripped version, than that on 'Salt Of The Earth'. According to the liner notes, the band wanted to come closer to the way they sound live (no narration, no female voice). In fact I like this version somewhat better than the one on the studio album, despite the fact that the female vocals are missing and replaced by the insecure vocals of the regular singer.
Eternal Winterland is a smoother track, coming from 1994, when the band was still young. In some respects it reminds me a bit of Twelfth Night, but it is much more bare in instrumentation. Crying Eyes Seen Through Ice is a vocal experiment, with a melancholic melody. Dating from 1993, it is the oldest track on the CD. Probably nice as a curiosity for fans, but I personally wasn't too impressed by it. Mikä yö!, a jazzier track, was also released on a Finnish Prog Tribute album. Actually, this is not a bad track at all, reminding me a bit of Finneus Gauge in terms of the complex melodic and rhythmic structure. Also the recording of this track seems superior to the other tracks. The last section is a bit too long and boring with long lingering organ chords though.

Next two live tracks from 'Salt Of The Earth' follow. It is good to hear that they are able to maintain an acceptable level live as well. In fact, the vocals seems a bit stronger here than on the recordings! Rainfall In Your Heart is recorded quite harsh and is not too convincing in the instrumentals. But nice additions to a fan CD, for sure. A weird little rock track ends the album. But no! There is an unlisted bonus track with a choir and stuff at the end of the album. Quite a nice track actually. Why not list it then?

For a fan CD absolutely not bad and it contains nice little curiosities. The band, I think, could sound much stronger with a more secure and powerful vocalist, and better recording/mixing facilities (though I understand that that is something that most bands would like, and costs money). For now, I would encourage them to become a bit more heavy in some respects (and thus go back to your roots?). Most songs would benefit from some more powerful guitar chords, I believe.

Conclusion: 6.5 out of 10.

Country of Origin: Germany Format: CD Record Label: Think Progressive Catalogue #: - Year of Release: 2001 Time: 46:51 Info: E-mail Think Progressive Samples: Not available

Guitarist Heilhecker worked on projects like Holo Syndrome, Sunya Beat, Phonoroid and collaborations with musicians of Ash Ra Tempel. Fishmoon is his first solo album, although on a few tracks he gets a helping hand from Steve Baltes (Sunya Beat, Ashra), producer/composer Helmut Zerlett and Bertil Mark. Unfortunately I am not familiar with Heilhecker's previous work, so I can't compare his solo album to the other stuff on his resume.

Fishmoon is a fully instrumental album, centered around Axel's guitar play, which is accompanied by bass, keyboards and percussion. Many of the rhythms have a rather ethnic and native feel to it, resulting in an atmosphere that can easily be compared to some of Peter Gabriel's world music influenced work. As a matter of fact, tracks like Belle Du Jour could easily have been instrumental versions of tracks by Gabriel.

The twangy slide guitar on some of the tracks reminds me of Eric Clapton's work on Roger Water's Pros and Cons of Hitch-Hiking, while at other times the music brings Clapton's soundtrack for The Edge of Darkness to mind. Another guitarist that comes to mind when listening to the Fishmoon album is Mark Knopfler, probably because of the similarity in feel and sound compared to songs like Dire Strait's Ride Across The River in tracks like One Man Tango. Still, the guitarist of which I'm reminded most is one of my all-time favourites Snowy White since Heilhecker's playing has that same bluesy feel to it (e.g. in Fishmoon Rising/Fishmoon, reminding me of the instrumentals from Snowy's early albums, or in Is, Isn't).

Probably the weirdest track on the album is Been There Done That, which doesn't only feature sound samples from the 'Moby Dick' and 'The Treasure of Sierra Madre' movies, but a reworked version of the melody from Ghostriders in the Sky as well (you know, that 'yippy-ah-yeeeeee ! yippy-ah-yoooooo' song). A heavy dance-like sequencer and percussion loop accompanies this remarkable mixture. Elsewhere on the album Heilhecker also uses other samples.
Another interesting track is Last Picture which mixes western and eastern influences. American Zonata, which was cowritten with Baltes, on the other hand mixes modern dance rhythms with Heilhecker's steal guitar, creating a strange blend.

Overall I found the album quite enjoyable. Most of the time the music is atmospheric and soothing and, with the exception of Been There Done This, which falls a bit out of place with the rest of the album, can both be played full volume or as relaxing background music. For those of you who like bluesy instrumental guitar work and world music influences this might be an album to check out !

The booklet is a (rather ugly) simple 4-pager with tracklist and credits. The album will be officially released on the 1st of September.

Conclusion: 7+ out of 10.

Country of Origin: Switzerland Format: CD Record Label: Galileo Records Catalogue #: GR005 Year of Release: 2001 Time: 51:38 Info: Website Samples: Website

Swiss band Thønk are a trio of musicians consisting of Marc Grassi (pianos, keyboards), Flavio Mezzodi (drums, percussion) and Fredy Schnyder (bass, guitar). They are Galileo Record's latest signing and with their debut album Earth Vision Impact present to us a totally instrumental album which is rich in classical progressive rock music. Production of the album was entrusted to Pär Lindh with recordings taking place at his own Crimsonic Studios in Sweden.

Musically the album should be of interest to all those proggies who like to listen to keyboard/piano rich instrumentals in the vein of bands such as Emerson Lake & Palmer or Renaissance. In truth, however, the album does not really live up to these expectations as it does tend to become slightly overdone with much of the same ideas being rehashed and represented in a slightly different mode, basically a variation on a theme. The fact that all tracks (except Track 5) were written by Grassi immediately indicate that the brunt of the instrumental solos and runs is taken up by his pianos and keyboards. This tends to become monotonous with the resultant sound of each track pretty much the same throughout.

Having said that one must also add that the band do introduce various interesting themes within their musical structure and their ability to mix classical piano together with a heavy rhythmic background is a refreshing sound which has not been heard too often of late.

The album open with the atmospheric introductory Sulm which starts off as a spacey keyboard piece that has a slow crescendo to drive into Thonkland whose initial sound shows the band trying to rival that of various seventies trios such as Greenslade and the afore-mentioned ELP. Only towards the end of the track is there a slight amount of variation to the track with the inclusion of classical piano that creates a number of runs. This is possibly the biggest problem that this album faces. The limitation of being an instrumental trio, without a fixed guitarist seems to have caused the band to fall into a rut and dwell on various musical ideas for too long a time that the music becomes tedious and repetitive.

Square Root has the band livening things up a bit with even Schynder's bass also making an impact on the solos. Once again the highlight of the track is when Grassi reverts to the classical piano sound that acts as breather to the bombastic organ sound. With Pomme, the band (albeit for a short while) introduce a guitar into their proceeding that only serves to highlight the need for another instrument to provide another way out for the band. The mere sound of the guitar serves as a breather for the listener as it provides a change to the almost atonal sound that the album was providing.

Insharp presents more of the same, though it is also one of the heavier tracks on the album with the band threatening to break into the Dream Theater musical sphere, however, sadly this does not occur. Garden follows a similar theme to Insharp, though I must mention the rhythm, section on this track which slows them to stand out and receive their due recognition. With Ela, in my opinion one of the album highlights, shows Grassi's prowess on the classical piano. Once again I was reminded of the instrumental sections Renaissance used to provide on their albums. The closing Rak has the band returning to a similar structure that characterised most of their album.

With this album Thønk have shown that they possess the musical quality to progress further and present an album of greater diversity. Possibly their problem is that the brunt of the musical ideas seems to be coming form one person only, who is also their keyboardist, which inevitably shifts the balance of the band's instrumentals too far towards the keyboards/piano. With more involvement from the other musicians and possibly also more musical involvement from the other members in the lengthy solos, the band could well break into the sphere of being one of the top instrumental bands around.

Conclusion: 6.5 out of 10.