You may
wonder whatever happened to Neon Rose singer Roger Holegård. Yes, he did record
some stuff with Truck and Wasa Express, but that was ages ago. So, finally,
he's teamed up with guitarist Dante Holmberg (Uppåt Väggarna, Strix Q), bassist
Anders Lundquist and drummer Rolle Lindgren and formed a zoo, we'll at least the
elephant section, the future elephants section… probably, hence the question mark,
I guess... No idea about the name, but somehow it does stick out. Damaged Child
opens the album and man; this was a nice surprise. Even though I love the heavy
rocking style of Neon Rose, Future Elephants? well-arranged prog rock really
strikes a positive nerve. The sound is raw, naked and dynamic, very analogue
sounding. I just love the minimalist production with nothing to hide behind.
The songs are intricate, well-arranged yet very easy accessible. In The Tide Is
Rollin In You can almost hear Danne standing on the side just waiting to throw
in a riff. Then suddenly we're off in guitar land, reminding me of Automatic
Fine Tuning (or Wishbone Ash on steroids). Damn, I love this! Ivory Dance
reminds me a bit about Crack The Sky, with lyrics handling the extinction of
beautiful animals just for our money and pleasure. Roger's still got it, both
vocally and lyrically. In This Tone opens up with some guitar licks that sound
so genuinely guitar through amp that any digital device would crumble and die.
Add a bit of mellotron, some drunken pub chanting and you feel like you've been
transported back to 1974. Love it! Sundown In Matobo takes us to Africa, I
guess, I'm not really sure about the dialect, though. November Pain initially
takes us into a dark, heavy and gloomy territory, but moves on to softer
grounds and suddenly we land in a Pink Floyd:ish landscape with Dante going all
Gilmour on our asses. Really beautiful stuff with killer guitar playing indeed!
And The Mountain Kissed The Sky mixes Swedish folky vibes with Native American
drums and a feel of Mountain's Nantucket Sleighride. Don't Raise That Gun with
some vintage AC/DC sounding riffing and makes me think of Baby, Please Don't
Go, except for the heavy and doomy chorus. Album finale The Pilot ends the
album in a great proggy manner featuring both sunshine and rain (literally). An
outstanding album that should attract all fans of 70s progressive music with
biting guitar-work and intricate but accessible songs. Quite the masterpiece!
Janne
Stark
Country:
Sweden
Year:
2016
Label:
Rock Music Productions
No comments:
Post a Comment
You're welcome to comment, but I reserve the right to remove any comments without notice.