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Recorded during july and august ’99
and following the releases “The rite of passage” and “Welcome to the
theatre”, this new Pangae album was engineered, mixed and produced
by Robert Berry who also joins the band on bass and backing vocals.
His expertise is immediately heard once the great ‘Something
happened yesterday’ hits your speakers. Especially the chorus is an
ingenious piece of work delivering the kind of accessibility that is
just about acceptable from the prog audience including the fierce
guitarsolo from Darrell Masingale. Another great aspect of the
Pangae music is the great sense for vocal harmonies. A nice example
of this can be heard during the acoustic simplicity of ‘Oasis’, one
of the three parts which make up ‘The journey’. ‘Oasis of seclusion’
and ‘Tierra del fuego’ even contain some World Trade references not
in the least because of the roaring bass. Really outstanding
material with ‘Tierra del fuego’ even winking at Rush !
With ‘November sky’ Pangae is like
aiming for the Yes sound during their “Big generator” period yet
with the addition of Rick Wakeman. Indeed Corey Schenck’s synths
towards the end sound almost like vintage Wakeman. A serious step
aside from the ‘normal’ prog idiom has to be ‘The panther’ which is
based around a tribal rhythm, for sure a song which has to give a
big impact when performed live as each musician can join in on
percussion. When the band was asked to contribute to the Pink Floyd
tribute set “Signs of life” as issued by Eclipsed, they decided to
tackle ‘Time’. Although it is a creditable attempt I’m not sure why
they put it on this album. And if they decided to put it on why not
right at the very end as a bonustrack ? As it is it is now situated
somewhere in the middle which has you think it is part of the
album’s concept. ‘November sky’ could well have been called
‘December sky’ because to me it contains kind of a Christmas
atmosphere. ‘Human condition’ is made up out of two separate
compositions of which the first, ‘One man’, is pure Rush whilst the
second part ‘Anthem’ is enough to enthuse the biggest stadium !
With “A time & a place” Pangae have
grown in maturity both what writing skills is concerned as well as
performance. They are sure ready to play with ‘the big boys’ now as
I don’t see any difference with their output and that of their
contemporaries. For sure Robert Berry has done a great job but you
can be the best producer in the world, if the material is no good
then there’s little he can adjust. All’s in the right place here and
it’s about time these guys get some media coverage and attention
because they really sound awesome ! |
