Cerebus Effect - Acts Of Deception

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Cerebus Effect - Acts Of Deception

Artist:	Cerebus Effect
Title:	Acts Of Deception
Label:	self produced
Length(s):	53 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2005
Month of review:	[01/2006]

Line up

Joseph Walker - guitar, synth solo on 11
Patrick Gaffney - drums, electronics
Mike Galway - bass
Dan Britton - keyboards, acoustic guitar, vocals, some electric guitar on 5, 6 and 10

Tracks

1)	Y	7.19
2)	Identity Crisis	5.09
3)	Dark At The End Of The Tunnel	1.25
4)	Illusions	3.34
5)	Of Mortal Constraints	2.58
6)	Operation Midnight Climax	11.22
7)	Nine Against Ten	6.38
8)	Neutrino Flux	2.50
9)	Fine Lines Between Science And Art	3.02
10)	Unconsoled	3.04
11)	W	6.10

Summary

This band was started by Gaffney and alker, after which Mike Galway, of Uncle Gut among others, and Dan Britton joined up. The band comes from the active Baltimore prog scene. This is their third, but first full length, release.

The music

Y is the opener of this album showing the complex nature of this bands music. They do not seem to choose for a single corner of the progressive gamut, but to take a bit of everything. The song is relatively relaxed with a warm feeling to the keyboards, and the drummer playing variedly, but still rather softly. The music often has a meandering character, but not of the type that spells boredom. The bass sound is especially pronounced. After a repetitive spell in the middle we arrive at a stiller place, with some subtle guitar play towards the end. The sound is very jazzrockish here.

Identity Crisis is a much more compact tune with the guitar going heavier and more tense. The vocals are in a style reminiscent of a lower key singing Hammill and a much lower singer member of Magma. The vocals are very much below the music. The bio speaks of urgency in this track, which is rather an understatement. Very VDGG.

Dark At The End Of The Tunnel is a relatively soft spoken piece, but the panic of the track before isn't over as evidenced by the fast paced Illusions. This is complex prog at its best, extremely varied, and feels like an actual rollercoaster ride, with melodic injections by the keyboard player (thank god for that). Not for the faint of heart.

Time for some time off with Of Mortal Constraints. Here the music is dreamy with female choir vocals (from the keyboards) and a relaxed guitar sound featuring both electric and acoustic guitar. The bass also adds its two cents with some flowing, melodic playing. In fact, he seems to be playing the lead theme, accentuated by the piano. The melodic break and upping the pace after the middle is excellent.

After these relatively short track, Operation Midnight Climax is the epic of the album. The vocals of Britton are fast and low, a bit like the antidote (frequency wise) of Klaus Basquiz of Magma. The pace and feel of the singing certainly bring Magma to mind. In addition, the frequent use of piano and the dense progginess that to me smells most of VDGG, is like a less melodic and symphonic variant on Discipline. And of course, the singing is very much different too. The piano playing can be quite tuneful though, jolly even. The vocals and the melody in the middle are a dead ringer for Magma. The middle part also has an acoustic guitar solo for some breathing space. Here the sound and the vibes are in the vein of jazzrock/fusion. Then the hecticness of the first half returns. I am also reminded of the Japanese band Gestalt here.

Nine Against Ten is another blister piece. The band is very much in a hurry to get all their notes played in time it seems. But it works, they use the pace to build up a certain amount of tension and urgency. On this song they do have a tendency to go over the top, and the guitar meanders a bit too much for my tastes. The finale is nice with the keyboards taking the lead, and the guitar grinding out its notes.

The three following songs are relatively short again. First off is the spacey and jammy Neutrino Flux. This is cosmic jazzrock with the instruments playing in a deliberately vague manner. I suppose this song is more an improv than anything else. Fine Lines Between Science And Art is percussive in a programmed fashion. Here the improv character falls on the shoulders of the keyboard player, while the guitar offers some accidental, percussive parts. Unconsoled is an acoustic guitar piece to compensate for the lack of melody in the former two tunes. The spirit of Hackett very much wanders around here.

W is the closing piece in which the urgency comes back a-running. Meandering jazzrock with pacey Fender Rhodes are the rule here.

Conclusion

This is not an easy album, and not easy music either. The foursome deliver a complex chop of pure progressive rock taking much from the darker side of the genre: Magma, VDGG, Crimson, jazzrock and they do so in a varied and often fast paced and urgent fashion. Fortunately they do not depend on pace and prowess alone, because there are also some good melodies sprinkled throughout. At times I am reminded of Discipline, but the vocals are very different, like Magma, but very low voiced and often very much in the back of the mix. The band should be careful with songs like Neutrino Flux and Fine Lines..., because they harbour a bit too little content. Cerebus Effect takes a lot of known elements from prog (they know it, they mention them in the bio), but do manage to offer a new take on them thus sounding like their examples in places, but never overly much. And since they avoid the really big names (Yes, ELP, Genesis), it might actually sound new to a lot of folks.