Etcetera - Tales Of Ardour And Deceit

Home Artist links Label link

Etcetera - Tales Of Ardour And Deceit

Artist:	Etcetera
Title:	Tales Of Ardour And Deceit
Label:	Record Heaven RHCD39
Length(s):	minutes
Year(s) of release:	2003
Month of review:	[01/2004]

Line up

Frank Carvalho - guitars, bass, synths, hammond
Johnny McCoy - drums, percussives
with
Michael Munch-Hansen - lead vocals on 1
Per Solgaard - moog on 3
Torsten Hagemann - saxophones
Asger Badne-Jensen - hammond on 3

Tracks

1)	The Song Of Marsh Stig	16.27
2)	Songs	4.11
3)	Kentish Suite	8.17
4)	The Lady Of Castela	7.40
5)	Lament	3.58
6)	The Ghost Of Yang Part I	11.38
7)	The Exit	3.42
8)	The Ghost Of Yang Part II	3.39

Summary

Although this album was released on Record Heaven, I obtained a review copy on Musea (for reasons unclear to me). Fact is, that this is the second album by the band, and the songs are in fact from 2001. A telling sign is that the Gentle Giant mailing list is thanked.

The music

The Song Of Marsh Stig is long opening suite. It opens with soft spooky sounds, until it erupts into a fine brand of symphonic rock. I hear elements of Van Der Graaf Generator, moody organs, sharp keyboards, but also Echolyn for a more modern influence. The organ is strongly present, giving the music overall a seventies feel, while the powerful chords on guitar lend the song the necessary tension. The mayhem of saxophones and keyboards are typical for VDGG, while the vocals here remind more of ELP. We then move into a more classically oriented passage where the church organ takes the reins. After all this violence time for some rest with some moody piano. The closing part is dominated by symphonic guitar work. An excellent opener, much better than what I remember from their debut.

We then continue with a few shorter tracks, the first one of which is Songs. Here the band takes the route of Gentle Giant. I am not sure who is actually singing here, but the harmony vocals do not come out well. My impression is that the band overreaches itself here. Too bad. The melodies are nice, a bit on the medieval folk side (and in that sense also quite close to GG). In Kentish Suite we move into Spock's Beard territory (as they happen to have taken it over from Gentle Giant|). Up-tempo and frolic, this is quite meandering stuff, especially on the guitar work. It lacks in a flow that I do happen to find with most Beard material. In that sense, this song is a bit of a disappointment. It never really gets underway. Towards the end the song gets out of its lethargy and starts to rock somewhat. But the meandering aspect stays. There are some Scottish influences here, some stuff that could well have been played by bagpipes.

The Lady Of Castela sounds very naked productionally, a bit in the vein of ELP's The Sage. Acoustic guitar is the dominant factor here you can hear the fingers slide over the strings. Later some friendly fluting keyboards set in as well, yielding something of a Genesis type atmosphere. Later, the acoustic guitars start to become more involved, and the drums set in. This quite a bit more complex, and it certainly has its charms. Then the music becomes a bit ehm jolly, I guess with the electric guitar setting in. The later acoustic stuff had elements of Yes, but now.... A step up from the previous two songs.

Lament is a rather short track opening with woolly keyboards and sharp ethereal guitar playing. The keyboards have something of Watcher Of The Skies, but the guitar is a bit too psychedelic for that. The middle part is quite moody and electronics dominated.

The second epic The Ghost Of Yang, which is split into two parts, of which the first is by far the longest. Like the third track, this is a rather fragmentary tune which does not really get me excited, also because the melodic material is not something to write home about.

The Exit is a shortish instrumental, waltzy in character, but melodically not very inspiring. It tends to go a bit and stop. The Ghost Of Yang Part II features only the sound of the wind, telling us goodbye.

Conclusion

After the good opening epic, the music on this album tends to start to wear on me. The well-intentioned Gentle Giant harmonies, the fragmentary nature of many of the songs that follow, they do not live up to this expectation. The Lady Of Castela is quite alright, and although songs like The Exit and Lament are not bad, they lack a certain distinctiveness and identity which would not have been that much of a problem if wedged in between songs with a definite identity. The band shows it is able to deliver a good piece of prog, but too little of that to rise above the average.