The
Band. Poor
Genetic Material comes from Germany, a country that is not unknown for
innovative bands. PGM has been around for a couple of years and was founded
by Stefan Glomb (guitar) and Philipp Jaehne (keyboards) as an experimental
project performing soundscape-like material.(“Free To Random Vol 1 &
2) In 2000/2001 they met up with Philip Griffiths (vocals) and Ludwig
Benedek (drums) of Alias Eye. After releasing “Summerland”
in 2001, they were joined by bass player Dennis Sturm. The
Lyrics. The
Fall has a double meaning. First of all, falling over but it’s also a
sequel to their previous CD “Summerland”, an allusion to the following
season. The lyrics also have a deeper meaning because of one of their
friends who committed suicide. Also the passing away of George Harrison and
Pete Bardens were having an influence on their music and lyrics. To change
the negative feeling they gave the word “fall”, there’s a positive
twist in their last sentence of the CD “Waiting for the wrong to fall”. The
Music. If
ever you get the question, “what is progressive rock?”, this is the
perfect CD to give as a reference for our style of music. It’s not too
complex, which often is the case for someone who doesn’t know progrock.
There’s a marvellous singer and often the vocals are the problem in
progressive rock. And last but not least it’s not too heavy for the common
man. So conclusion is that this is a CD for everyone. Of course, if you’re
the one who likes heavy or complex stuff then this is not really your cup of
tea. The
vocals get the most credits for the quality of this album. This is really a
splendid singer. He has a voice that resembles a lot Michael Sadler’s
voice of Saga, but he has a softer, more emotional approach. Every song on
this CD contains strong vocal hook-lines. As his maternal language is
English, there is also no problem with the language as often is the case
with German bands. I have the impression that his voice sounds even better
then with Alias Eye. “Star Of Eden” is heavier then the rest. “Leap Into Fall” is a shorter catchy, melodic song, maybe too poppy to be prog. “Antares”, also more then 9 minutes, has an original (original for progressive music) accordion sound (or is it a flawless imitation on keyboard?). The CD ends with a simple ballad with piano and vocals, brilliant due to its simplicity. The instruments are very well balanced, which implies a good production. If you want to verify the quality yourself, you can find the whole third song of the CD “Star Of Eden”(8 minutes) on their site http://www.poorgeneticmaterial.de/ Reviewed by: Danny 'Camil' Focke |
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