| |
The early eighties was an exciting time for fans of progressive
rock, including fans who were in bands. For the most part
everyone thought the genre had died and been put to rest,
and yet there was life in the much maligned genre yet. A small
cadre of bands in England, mostly in and around London began
making some progressive noises. One of those bands from that
time was called Mach One. I secured their one and only LP
on one of my trips overseas. Well time and circumstance happen
to all men and nothing much came from the release and fame
eluded the band. The members split up and went their own way.
Flash forward to November of 2002 when one of those band members,
Peter Matuchniak, out of the blue, sent me an email. From
that email I learned that after many years away from a band
and any stage work, he was actively working to get a band
going. That brings us to Evolve and their first release called
Decadent Lights.
The band Evolve consists of Matuchniak (lead and ambient
guitars, keyboards), Michael Eager (rhythm guitar, vocals),
Jim Debaun (bass) and Paul Sheriff (drums). There are a number
of guests lending their musical skills on a few of the tracks.
We have David Gilman on flutes, violin, sax, Steven Bell on
Tenor sax and atmospheric female vocals from Tali Azeradon
on a couple tracks. Having taken themselves out of the day-to-day
grind of the music business, starting families and getting
day jobs, there was still the desire to make music, some unfinished
business as it were. This was especially true for Peter so
this project has truly been a labour of love.
So after getting the heads up about the music Evolve
were making it was with some excitement that I had the opportunity
to listen to the musical efforts on their new Decadent Lights
CD. Evolve make no pretense about being a classic seventies
or even eighties flavoured ‘progressive rock’ band in terms
of sound or writing style and yet contained on the disc are
eleven tracks that carry forward the essence of a classic
progressive rock sound that is clearly placed in a modern
setting. The first two tracks “Number 16” (4:20) and “War”
(4:52) find the band at their most progressive with tunes
that ebb and flow between fast and slow, intense and atmospheric,
vocals and instrumental soloing. In fact there is a wide mix
of rock styles and influences here, but there’s also a little
country-rock on “Baby Come Back” (2:59), some spacey/psychedelics
on “Saturday’s Gone” (4:28) and more. The compositions are
upbeat, song-oriented but with a real art-rock-quirkiness
allowing for many interesting musical moments to shine throughout
the disc. The tunes go from moody to toe-tapping with many
subtle shifts in time and tempo best exemplified in the CD’s
longest track “Goodbye” (8:03). In fact it's easy to lose
track of time as the music on this disc ‘evolves’ before your
very ears. I'm sure the music here will appeal to wide cross
section of music lovers.
|
