|
Whilst it was the initial idea of
Dream Theater's drum animal Mike Portnoy to launch yet another
project next to his stint with DT and Liquid Tension Experiment, I
dare to say it's mainly Neal Morse who puts his stamp onto this
superb sounding debut. However, in the very beginning, Mike had
called Morse, telling him he wanted to set up a project with Jim
Matheos from Fates Warning. When Matheos couldn't do it, Portnoy and
Morse (who said yes from the word go!) started looking out for extra
members.
Appropriately called Transatlantic, the band indeed consists of two
Europeans (guitarist Roine Stolt of Flower Kings fame and Pete
Trewavas, bass player with Marillion) and two Americans (the already
mentioned Mike Portnoy of Dream Theater and LTE, plus Spock's
Beard's Neal Morse). I don't recall anything like this ever
happening in the glorious seventies. I mean there is no album with
members of Yes, Genesis, Pink Floyd, Jethro Tull, Deep Purple, Led
Zeppelin all joining forces in order to create a masterpiece! So
what you get here is the nucleus of the current best bands in the
world of prog all trying to create a true collection of prog
highlights without ever "outplaying" one another. In fact you can't
compare SMPTe with the likes of LTE, Platypus, Attention Deficit,
Bozzio Stevens Levin. More care has gone into composing real songs
even if the opening track "All Of The Above" is a little on the long
side with its 30 minutes!
Now that I've heard this album I know why Neal Morse's solo album
was a little weak compared to the Spock's Beard output because he
probably was keeping the more prog sounding bits for this
Transatlantic project. In terms of output, I guess it's only
Trewavas who's a bit on the slow side, whilst Morse and Stolt write
at a tremendous speed.
What happened is that these guys entered the studio armed with
ideas, rough ideas. In fact the long "All Of The Above" is made out
of six parts, whilst Stolt thinks they must have produced nearly 25
parts for that song alone. As already mentioned, Morse is also an
ace keyboard player, emphasizing a lot on Hammond and Mellotron
[credits say Stolt on mellotron -ed], but also jazzy piano tunes are
his favourite. Portnoy and Trewavas really try to keep it all
together, which means they are by no means showing off. So in the
end it's Morse shining through both from a vocal point of view and
where keyboards are concerned, whilst a lot of space is given to
Roine who, as so many times before, sometimes sounds exactly like
Steve Howe himself. Towards the end, the song changes, having a
bluesy feeling, whilst at the very end, Morse's voice together with
the acoustic guitar reminds me of authentic Donovan (now get that
incense out of the cupboard and put those flowers in your hair!). In
fact you can look back upon "All Of The Above" as being the band's
very own "Close To The Edge."
"We All Need Some Light" highlights the talent of Stolt on acoustic
guitar, which once again means Portnoy has to hold back. The song
has a very strong chorus courtesy of Morse whose voice blends very
well with that of Stolt, again adding originality. "Mystery Train"
has Trewavas pumping away on his bass whilst Portnoy gets the space
to experiment with both his drum kit and the recording technique. In
itself the song is a bit lighter and sounds like a mediocre Spock's
song if ever the latter should exist!
The atmosphere changes towards purely classical in "My New World"
where a real cello is used in the intro before Stolt sets out in his
typical style in order to make this one a dead-ringer for Flower
Kings fans. Also Stolt's voice adds an extra dimension to the music
because I have always felt that his voice has something of John
Wetton which surely is one of the all-time "kings of prog!" From a
guitar point of view Stolt, once again steers the music into genuine
Yes direction before Morse takes over on Hammond once again. I also
like the switch between Morse and Stolt's voices, which gives the
song more room to breathe. Towards the end of the song Stolt
switches his guitar playing from prog rock towards jazzy playing and
back again.
I guess the album's final track has been chosen by Mike Portnoy as
sort of a "thank you" to Procol Harum whom, next to Marillion, has
been a big influence on Portnoy's musical career. The long "In Held
(Twas) In 1" was a rather obscure track when it was initially
released mainly due to its length, which made sure no airplay was
given. Also, for a lot of people waiting to hear a sequel to "Whiter
Shade Of Pale," this track was an enormous surprise. It is
frightening how close the Hammond sound gets to that of the
original. Also, although Gary Brooker's voice was rather unique,
both Morse and Stolt seem to have it all right in order, staying as
close to the original as possible. Also this song is really up
Portnoy's alley as he finally gets the space to show us his box of
tricks. At the very end of this "magnum opus" it's like the band is
integrating "God Save The Queen." Ah, if only Sid Vicious were
around!
Transatlantic, the Steely Dan of the prog world, will headline at
this year's NEARfest, which will probably (shouldn't that be
hopefully?) be sold out. [Yup, in 38 days -ed.] Now maybe in our
wildest dreams a limited album of Transatlantic live would be a nice
little sop for those who won't be able to make it!
On the same day of the general release there will also be a limited
2CD set in digipack. Holding a 32 page boolet the second disc will
contain outtakes, coverversions and also a multiedia segment with
some video footage filmed during the recording of the album.
|
