The album opens with "Terminal Earth," an instrumental piece that evokes images of Earth as seen from the Moon; an introduction of sorts to a wondrous journey we are about to embark on. As the music fades/bleeds into the next cut, "Ancient Ascendant," the tempo gets an energy shot. The mood is very interstellar; I'm careening through time and space at warp speed. Lonely Robot is setting up the concept finale in grand style...
Settling into another song, I opt for "The Only Time I Don't Belong Is Now." The atmosphere is still thick with an otherworldly vibe; there are definite top notes of Dream Theater and Spock's Beard looming overhead...floating around the room like an aromatic cloud. The canvas is shrouded with grays that seem to explode randomly with bursts of light...the imagery that oozes from this album is stunning...
John wears many hats in the prog garden; singer, songwriter, guitarist, producer, and sound engineer; apparently he needs to keep himself busy. There is an incredible array of music on this album and despite being a concept--the third and final chapter of that concept actually--the music moves across so much acreage of the prog garden that it defies the concept stigma.
Following the sound, I come across another thought provoking cut, "When Gravity Fails." One of the really intriguing things about the music of Lonely Robot is John's ability to paint an image with words that completely fits with the mood of the song. I close my eyes as this song streams through the headphones and I begin to feel alternately floating weightless and sinking like I'm wearing lead boots in the ocean. There are flashes of Mile Marker Zero coming through along with a splash of Liquid Tension Experiment.
You can purchase this album at InsideOutMusic and johnmitchell. Find out more about Lonely Robot at Facebook and Twitter @LordConnaught. You will also find links to John's other music including the first two installments in this concept trilogy.
The canvas is specked with pastel hues surrounded by brighter streaks of primary color, apropos not only to this particular cut but the entire album. Bask in the beauty that this song emits...
Once again my fellow progheads time has run out on the week. Lonely Robot brought the story full circle with this album; the culmination of a four year vision laid out in three stages. The beauty of "Under Stars" lies not only in the music here, but also in how it so naturally followed the emotions and feeling laid out in the first two chapters of the story. I like the fact that John's approach was to take each album as an individual work for it's own sake with the forethought that it would all come together in the end.
Stories cannot always be told in one sitting; they need time to come together and grow...to take on a life of their own. What Lonely Robot brought to life here is something you appreciate as it plays back in your mind and you remember how fragile and exhilarating life can be. John started by delving into where life as we know it really originated, carried it through the musings of an artist engrossed in all there is out there, and finally showed us how we waste so much time looking for life in all the wrong places.
The prog garden is filled with many like Lonely Robot; storytellers with vision and an ability to paint with sound. It's part of what makes the search for all things prog so special, and of course the journey continues...until next time...
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