Autumn harvest greetings fellow progheads! The days are getting shorter and the nights a bit brisker...a perfect time to continue the search for all things prog. This week things get twisted just a bit; I have done album reviews in the past and has received much positive feedback. They are enjoyable for me and a great way to learn more about many of the prog bands tilling acreage in the prog garden. Based on feedback received I believe they are entertaining for you my faithful followers as well. So this week I dine on the entire album catalog of Psicolorama...
Psicolorama is a prog band the way David Bowie is a rock 'n' roll band...one man, one artist, and many collaborations. You may remember my original review of Psicolorama just a bout a year ago. The lone "mad cap" behind the curtain is one Carlos Herrera Carmona, hailing from Seville, Spain--although he lists London UK as the home of the band.
The Psicolorama music library consists--as of this writing--of four full length LP's and one EP, each with its own story to tell. This week I will review a selection or two from each and offer you my faithful followers an opportunity to get acquainted with "...a new concept in prog..." as stated in the Psicolorama bio. You may not need to fasten your seatbelts, but you will want to grab hold of something with both hands to anchor yourself securely in this stratosphere...
The first offering served up is from the album "Fear" originally released July 2014. A deep, cerebral song called "Something Logic" is prog at its minimalist best. Nothing gratuitous or excessive lasered into the disc...just raw progressive rock. The piano blends so brilliantly with the acoustic guitar it is impossible to find any seams. There is a Flim & the BB's feel to this piece; it is haunting while avoiding the macabre. The vocal track cuts right through the heart of the song; you feel a pulse coming through the headphones.
Moving down the buffet line to serving number two, I find "The Girl on the Grass" from the December 2014 release, "Momo." Another piano intro that stirs unbeknownst sentiment...you find yourself impatiently searching the far reaches of your brain for a connection. You are familiar with the feelings--but why are they here? The mood swings a bit toward a light bleeding through the canvas covering this piece...as if emerging from the deep end of the pool. Psicolorama cuts through the subcutaneous layers of emotion and pierces the heart. You want to save the girl even though you aren't sure what you'd be saving her from. Psicolorama borrows a page from the master of emotion twisting, Syd Barrett. Remnants of very early Pink Floyd flake off the music like so much wax on an old Chianti bottle...
Liner Notes...despite having exposed Psicolorama to the masses with my previous post, some elaboration may be helpful. Carlos Herrera Carmona is the heart and soul of Psicolorama--and a multi-layered, poignant soul it is. Carlos has collaborated with the french prog group In Limbo, Horten Aranda, and Nicolas Leterrier among others. Psicolorama does prog proud because there is so much more to this band than music and sound. There is something tangible...a feeling as real as walking on broken glass or enjoying a dry martini in a smoke filled nightclub. Psicolorama draws you in slowly only to escort you out vigorously--and you are never the same.
Stepping back to the prog buffet for my third course, I find "Father and Maryanne" from the July 2015 release, "Home." Herminia Loh provides the vocals on this cut, and they are piercing. The passion that envelopes this song is almost frightening--all you want to do is stop the aching in this poor girl's heart. The mood shifts sharply toward a darkness that falls into an abyss from which there appears to be no escape. The soft acoustic guitar is a ruse--the pain drips from each note sung like sweat from the brow of a condemned prisoner...the brush strokes on this canvas are almost three dimensional.
One more slice from the carving station yields a most intriguing cut called "Walking Along the Fence" from the September 2015 LP, "The Garden and the Pool: Maryanne's Diaries on the Farm." The album follows Maryanne from her odyssey on "Home" and delves even deeper. As "Walking Along the Fence" fades out, it bleeds into an exquisite piece called "The Kidnapped Life." No words needed--you feel all the emotion you can handle as it runs down your spine, spilling out like so many tears on a satin pillow.
For your musical interlude this week I chose "Psico-Reimpression," the lone cut from Psicolorama's October 2014 self-titled EP release. The music bores so deep and explores so much it is hard to believe only twelve minutes have clicked off your life clock when it's over. The dark, somewhat ghoulish opening seeps into daylight as delicately as a faun being born. The layers are progressively applied atop a piano and guitar foundation such that you aren't aware of the change in mood and tempo until after the fact. In an ironic twist, the song seems almost celebratory...like seeing the world through a different lens has opened not just your eyes, but your soul as well. Go ahead...hit play...and while you're listening to the music and allowing it to infiltrate your mind, check out more of Psicolorama at http://psicolorama.bandcamp.com/. Follow the whimsical and assorted rants on Twitter @psicolorama and other musings on Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100005418435612&fref=ts. I highly recommend you crack the ceramic piggy bank sitting on your bureau and make a purchase too...this is the prog that made your parents wonder who the heck occupied that locked bedroom at the end of the hall.
OK fellow progheads, the prog garden has officially been expanded. Psicolorama may not be in the Captain Beefheart section, but the band does till acreage in the Pink Floyd "Atomic Heart Mother" and "Meddle" section. Carlos Herrera Carmona turns inside himself to expose all that Psicolorama has to offer. So many cliches would make a fitting description here, but I prefer to simply tell you that Psicolorama is progressive music...much the way The Talking Heads are new wave post funk. Unafraid to collaborate with anyone, Carlos pushes the envelope with each new release. I have a sneaking suspicion the four LP/one EP catalog will be expanding soon and often--of course I will be more than happy to review the next wave of music Psicolorama spills across the prog garden. However, the search for all things prog must venture onward...until next week...
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