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Progressive Ears - Earsongs

Artist:	Progressive Ears
Title:	Earsongs
Label:	independent
Length(s):	68 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2001
Month of review:	[04/2002]

Line up

Various

Tracks

1)	The Red Masque - Tidal	10.38
2)	Scott Mosher - Re-define	6.28
3)	Menayeri - Tiempo De Volver	7.46
4)	Mindworm - Trolley	5.55
5)	John Curtis - Get Thee Behind Me, Santa	1.48
6)	Lyle Holdahl - Labyrinth Suite	9.25
7)	Phil McKenna (aka Prog Owl) - A Gift Unopened	8.12
8)	Random - Castaway	4.23
9)	Eric Kampman - The Desert	12.44
10)	Notallwhowander & John Curtis - Kirchenrahmen	1.05

Summary

This is a collection of songs donated to the web site Progressive Ears as a means to raise money. I know of CDs by Mosher and Kampman, but have no idea whether any of the other featured artists have work of their own available. The album is for sale at the website for $12.99.

The music

Tidal starts pretty experimental, almost in a subdued Magma like manner, with the use of hi-hats, eery humming and use of instruments in a way that borders on dissonance to say the least. This moves into a part where a woman with a voice as big as Shirley Bassey's, but some less control steps in the light. By now the track has gotten more melodic, or rather, less experimental. This track has a cacophonic feel, in general, in a way that's quite to my liking.

Scott Mosher's is a song very much like a Rush track, structure of the track, the instrumentation, the voice of the singer (presumably Scott), all very alike but just a little less sharp and a bit more poppy than in the original.

Tiempo De Volver is a typically South-American prog song. Pretty nice track, except that are too many breaks, creating a somewhat chaotic end result.

Trolley is a vocal track with deliberate bass and quick keys, a la Genesis's The Lamb. The vocals seem distorted in some way, making them sound hissy. The second part is piano based, slowly moving towards guitar, until the quick keys return to the fore. This moves into a more forcing (not forceful, in some way) part, moving towards a sprakling climax. Like it.

Get Thee Behind Me, Santa is a rather abstract track, in a not completely unlike solo Kit Watkins way, but since it's not all that long, not too disturbing. Wouldn't call it an asset, though.

Labyrinth Suite opens in a sweet, almost fragile way, so the wall of sound comes not fully expectedly. It's welcome, though. The blend of progressive music with some purely melodic influences somewhat reminds me of Irrwisch, which is helped by the nasal vocals. A bridge takes the track suite into its second part, featuring spoken-sung lyrics. The Irrwisch association has gone now, replaced by a tentative Lamb-era Genesis. The third and final part is mainly electronic, and a somewhat disappointing end to this otherwise good suite. Literally translated from Dutch we would say 'it extinguishes as a night candle'.

A Gift Unopened starts a bit doubtingly, to settle into a majestic sounding electronic experimentalism, very reminiscent of Present. Now there's something I like. As the track progresses, the Present reference diminishes, but without hurting the quality.

Castaway is a bit more of a slow pop song, by which I definitely don't mean to disqualify it. The slow build up and nice solo make this into a good track, still, it's different from the other material on this disc.

The Desert starts as what sounds like an electronic track, but after some minutes turns out to be a vocal track. Eric's voice is somewhat like Christopher Cross's, both in sound as well as in a somewhat whining quality. Along with the sharpness of the keyboards and a certain lack of direction, which doesn't appear to be experimentalism, this a track I don't much care for.

Kirchenrahmen is a sort up tempo Caravan track, with quick alternations of silly poppiness and a more melodic side. As far as there's time for all that in 65 seconds.

Conclusion

I would say this sampler, or maybe more relief album, is a very pleasant surprise. I would definitely like to hear full albums by contributors Phil McKenna, The Red Masque, Mindworm and Lyle Holdahl, without wanting to belittle the efforts of other contributors. I don't often find samplers to have the kind of level this one has. Sure, some tracks I like less (especially the lengthy Eric Kampman track didn't help), but both the average quality and the highs are well taken care of.

This album can be ordered through the Progressive Ears website, at www.progressiveears.com