Insideout Music
Rating: RRRR
Review By Alan Holloway
“So, let’s release a 70 minute plus science fiction concept album for our debut. What can go wrong!”. I do wonder if that’s what Simon Collins (his Dad’s called Phil, you may have heard of him) said to his new band members, after he and keyboard player Dave Kerzner had written the thing. Either way, it’s a brave step, but at least thoise who buy it will have no illusions about what sort of band Sound Of Contact are - this is a prog band, and they don’t care who knows it.
To be honest, I only found out today (when I bothered to do some research) that the vocalist and drummer here was Phil Collins’ son. After several listens, I was going to compare him to Phil anyway, as he really does sound quite a lot like him, and if you’re into drumming you will notice similarities there as well. As a kid Simon pretty much grew up with Genesis, and it really shows here, although thankfully it’s the better end of Genesis, not the stuff where they tried to disappear up their own arses.
It all certainly starts off well, with a pretty dull intro giving way to the excellent instrumental “Cosmic Distance Ladder” and then “Pale Blue Dot”, which is a good, solid and catchy track that could have rolled right off of a Genesis album. It slows down a bit after that (this is Prog, after all), but remains solid and interesting with plenty of clever musical tricks and the occasional hook. It’s like an intelligent mix of Genesis, Gabriel, IQ and Frost, delivering the sort of prog that really can be enjoyed by people who generally into “that sort of thing”, a category that I myself fit into quite snugly.
Perhaps a little heavy going for some, “Dimensionaut” is a stunningly mature work, well produced and played by all concerned. There are inescapable echoes of Collins and Kerzner’s influences, yet as a whole it manages to sound fresh and interesting. If you like prog rock, you will like this, that’s a certainty, but if you’re on the fringes then Sound Of Contact are still worth checking out. Cosmic, man…
Official Website: http://www.soundofcontact.com/
Album Preview: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rb4JcGQnOhI
This is cool!
ReplyDelete