Worshipping at the feet of Genesis and
Marillion is all very well (though that amounts to a lot of feet).
You have to bring something new and original to the table.
Wojtek Szadowski, Satellite's mainman - composer, keyboards, drums, producer - fattens up his traditional progrock stylings with lashings of rock, and occasionally ladles in some sweet pop colouring.
This works a treat on '
Nostalgia'. An evocative reminder that Prog need not be full of impenetrable instrumental passages, ridiculous time changes and pretentious subject matter.
Wisely, Szadowski has again - like Roine (Flower Kings) Stolt - surrounded himself with like minded musicians. Lead axeman, Sarhan Kubeisi is very audibly tuned into Szadowski's wavelength. And Robert Amirian is the icing on the cake, sounding like an amalgam of every progrock vocalist you've ever heard, except James Labrie.
Most of the tracks hang on a particular guitar or keyboard motif, expanded and embellished, twisted and turned into a full length song.
Amirian's voice doesn't usually join the fray until the axis around which the track spins is well established. And it can leave just as suddenly.
'Ever Horizon' strides out confidently into
Yes (c.Trevor Rabin 'Talk') territory. A sharp, crisp, well defined production pumps up the volume. It's powerful. It's melodic. It's prog on a massive scale, but one where instrumental and vocal clarity of sound is still a high priority.
Strangely, the more striking material - the stuff that is alive with invention and melodic rock momentum - comes in the second half.
Sadowski, no mean percussionist, sets up
'I Want You To Know' with an attractive mix of subtle rhythms and clattering, rattling percussive thumps. For the first couple of minutes the track seems firmly enmeshed in MHR, then it shoots off tangentially into a finely crafted, Gilmour like axework zone, pushed along by sweeping strings.
Eventually, satisfyingly, it finds its way back. A fantastic journey.
The repetitive elements of Szadowski's songs - the constantly recurring musical themes - add an hypnotic quality to the music and provide cohesion. But there are times when that repetition becomes a bridge (or a verse) too far, and just when you think nothing is about to happen, it doesn't. Or worse, he lets the sophistication slip and the sound becomes ordinary.
Thankfully, these moments are infrequent, and based on comments I've read elsewhere, probably say more about me that they do the music.
On the whole though, another big step in the right direction for Satellite.
Written by
Brian Saturday, April 11, 2009
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