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Herman Saming: Lead and backing vocals
Jerry Sahlin: Keyboards, vocoder, lead and backing vocals
Peter Asp: Bass guitar, backing vocals, percussion
Ola Andersson: Guitars, lead and backing vocals
Thomas Lejon: Drums
Guest musicians:
Sara Svensson: Lead vocals on “The Effect”
Thomas Erlandsson: Percussion |
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I first saw A.C.T on Progpower 2002 in
Holland and they were the revelation of the weekend for me. I saw them
three times in five months now, and they keep amazing me. I know this is
a review of a CD, but if you have seen them live, you can’t listen to
their music without seeing the crazy jumps and moves of Herman, the
energy and enthusiasm of the musicians and their joy on stage, in front
of your eyes.
A.C.T is a bunch of young, Swedish musicians who are all very skilled.
Some of you may already know Thomas as he’s also the drummer of
Andromeda. He’s certainly one of the best drummers of the last years.
I can best describe their music as a mix
of styles and references to other bands. It’s just that enormously
strange mix that gives them a sound that’s unique in the world of
progressive music. If you take a lot of Saga, some 10 CC, Queen , It
Bites and ELO and put that on top of City Boy (a band that some progfans
may remember), you have an idea how A.C.T sounds like.
It’s strange to say that a band is a mix of other bands and yet has a
sound of its own, but it’s true, I can hear all the influences and yet
immediately recognize A.C.T.
Their third CD has become a concept album.
Their previous albums were already partly conceptual but this one is a
story about a building, with its inhabitants and their problems.
The album starts with a short string quartet to quickly change into
“Wailings From A Building”, a track with a lot of Saga influences,
perfect vocal harmonies, and a great guitar solo without showing off.
“Mr Landlord” has a very catchy melody and is probably the song you’ll
remember best after listening to this album. “Torn by a phrase” contains
a heavy verse with distorted guitars and a fast keyboard riff underneath
followed by a quieter chorus. The instrumental part is very weird with
some strange out of key synth sounds and a heavy progmetal solo. The end
of the song contains a string sound with some vocoder, giving it an ELO
feeling.
“Ted’s ballad” is as the title suggests a ballad, with only vocals and
piano and strings, an ode to the gardener of the house.
“Dance of Mr Gumble” is an instrumental, short but full of energy, a
real Saga piece in which the story takes us to the attic of the house.
“Wake up” has a reggae rhythm, but I’m not referring to the Jamaican
reggae but to the 10CC-ish reggae.
“Manipulator” is the best track, a very rhythmic song, full of
Queen-like vocal harmonies and a catchy guitar riff. There’s even a
weird waltz intermezzo.
“A loaded situation” is a skilfully played instrumental. It sounds as if
they have put a vocoder on the lower guitar.
In “The Cause” they demonstrate their joint vocal skills with some
brilliant harmonies.
“The effect” shows the advantage of having three great leading vocalists
and even then inviting an extra female voice (Sara Svensson) who’s also
doing a great job. It’s a very catchy track maybe a bit too poppy. It’s
as suprising and amusing as “Emily” on their first album “Today’s
Report”, with the same rhythmic feeling.
The tracks I didn’t mention are of the same high quality with the same
amount of variation, surprising breaks and splendid vocal harmonies. You
can’t put their music into words, you need to listen to them to
understand what I mean.
Still one important ingredient, I forgot to mention, is their humour in
the music and the lyrics. It’s hard to stay objective on an album of a
band that has become my favourite during the last months but I’m sure
every progressive music fan will love this.
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