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2003 was a great year for the progressive rock. A lot of albums
appeared and went straight into a lot of “end of the year” lists.
One album got to a very high position into these lists without ever
being reviewed on our site. I’m referring to “A Street Between
Sunrise and Sunset” by Satellite. Now the second album has been
released, I took the opportunity to review them both so the
comparison would be easier.
Some music gives you the impression that it was always meant to be
like that. That the tracks were already hanging somewhere in the
atmosphere and the composer only had to pick them out. And only some
composers can hear them. Or to say it with one word, the muse. And
Wojtek Szadkowski certainly has the ability to hear that muse. Every
sound, every solo, every melody line fits so well into every track.
A
lot of progressive rock fans will surely remember Collage from
Poland from the nineties with albums like “Basnië”, “Moonshine”,
“Safe”,… of which “Moonshine” was the absolute highlight, in my
opinion. (all of these albums have recently been remastered) What a
disappointment when they split up, but it was not the end. Wojtek
Szadkowski who already wrote most of the music and lyrics for
Collage started again with Satellite and he attracted a lot of
musicians of which a lot played with Collage at one time or another.
So the music sounds a lot like Collage and even a lot better.
I
can’t give you details of every track because this would take pages,
but I can only say that every track is a highlight to make the album
a real masterpiece. And 4 of the tracks exceed the 10 minutes limit.
The tracks are loaded with great ‘Rothery’ guitar solos, beautiful
keyboard solos and sounds and perfect vocal lines. And all of this
together gives an unbelievable overall sound that leaves you
flabbergasted. Only a few drawbacks: neo-prog isn’t accepted as the
best progressive music by a lot of music lovers but this is really
one of the best neo-prog albums I’ve ever heard. The vocals could
have used some more harmony, there are almost no backing vocals and
the addition of extra vocals would have made this a perfect album.
And not only the music has a lot of references to Marillion,
although Collage started way back in time, so they developed their
own sound, but also the packaging with artwork from Mark Wilkinson,
yes, the Wilkinson who designed all the Fish era covers, gives the
album an extra value.
Don’t let the neo-prog label scare you off and you’re in for a real
treat. |
