|
Choice Of The Month
June 2005 |
|
Cover |
Release |
Style |
|
|
2005-05-28 |
progressive
space rock |
|
Label |
|
- |
|
Website |
|
www.quantumfantay.com |
|
Contact |
|
Pete
Mush |
|
Playing Time |
Cat. N° |
|
47:10 |
- |
|
Review by |
Rating |
|
Claude |
8,5/10 |
|
nederlands |
Review |
Not
a common band name, not a common cd title and the music itself on
this album is not so common anymore in the circuit of progressive
rock. Quantum Fantay delivers progressive space rock, sometimes
psychedelic, sometimes a bit heavier, then again ambient, references
to ‘Ozric Tentacles’ become obvious immediately. This Belgian group
from Lokeren is the brain child of keyboards player Pieter van den
Broeck (alias Pete Mush) of Ghiribizzi, a very busy guy, because he
is also member of Instant Blue and Gemini Season.
The album starts with an ambient ‘electronica’ track in the vein of
Jean-Michel Jarre and Vangelis, but accompanied with very intriguing
flute and the only vocal part on the album by means of a vocoder,
but when the guitars are entering, the Ozric influences are
imminent. The pace is raising considerably on Lantanasch with fast
keyboard play and spacey effects (widely spread throughout the
entire album), but there is enough variation to keep the track
interesting. Surprising are also the reggae intermezzos in Spral
Flame and Trip Escape. And sometimes the music can be compared with
the instrumentals of Camel in their early days.
The title track and longest track on the album starts surprisingly
with a bass riddle and accompanying drum beat like on ‘Are you
Ready’ of PG&E, but I guess this is purely coincidence, although the
‘spacey’ sounds are mixed with rock patterns. And in the middle of
the track you can even discover some Marillion influences, indeed a
lot of variation right here.
You can hear Eastern influences in different tracks but especially
in Wais Dame Dilamp (what a strange title?), here they are using a
typical Turkish string instrument, the saz. In combination with the
omnipresent flute this gives an exotic flavour to the space rock of
Quantum Fantay. Technically it’s of a high level, although the
creation of a certain atmosphere seems to be more important than
individual tricks. The guitar solos of Dario (of Ghiribizzi) are
very nice, although the keyboards are far more present than with
Ozric Tentacles for instance. And in the same manner I would have
preferred some ‘double bass’ drum playing on certain occasions, this
could add some more variation. The album ends heavy with flashing
guitar solos on ‘Chase the dragon’, you could call it ‘space hard
rock’, no idea if this really exists!
‘Agapanthusterra’ is a very strong debut album, the biggest with
this kind of instrumental space rock is to keep the listener
‘fascinated, in this case it works out fine. But maybe for the next
album they could try to add some new elements, especially to avoid
the eternal comparison with the aforementioned group(s). But anyway,
this ends to be a refreshing album, little by little there is
totally brand new ‘progressive’ wave of bands standing up in
Belgium, no complaints from my side :-). |
|
Musicians |
|
Pete Mush : Synths,
turkish saz, vocoder
Jaro
: Bass, turkish saz
Dario Frodo : guitars
Gino Bartolini :
drums
Charles Sla :
flute |
|
Tracklist |
|
1. T.N.S.F.P. (3:48)
2. Lantanasch (7:34)
3. Spiral Flame (5:44)
4.
Agapanthusterra (8:00)
5. Wintershades (6:19)
6. Trip Escape (4:46)
7. Wais Dame
Dilamp (4:31)
8. Chase The
Dragon (6:28) |
|
