Here's a prog-based riddle for you: when is a Mexican band not a Mexican band? When they split, reform and head to the USA changing their name. Yeah, it's not a great riddle really is it? But such are indeed the circumstances of the next band in our countdown, who for apparently legal reasons had to change their name from the perfectly understandable and quite proggish Radio Silence to ... well, you'll see in a moment. But whatever name they go by these days, you'll find them at number
Winter soulstice --- Sonus Umbra
I guess it probably translates as “dark sound” or “shadow sound” or something, and with a title on the album like that you'd probably expect this album to be dark, introspective, melancholy, depressing. Their four previous outings (the first under their original name of Radio Silence) don't exactly make cheery reading either --- “Laughter in the dark”, “Snapshots from Limbo”, “Spiritual vertigo”, “Digging for zeros" --- so is this the sort of music you listen to when you're looking to cut your wrists? Let's find out. But first, just to be on the safe side, put that razor down, huh?
We're on the “Last train to Kimball” as the album gets rolling, appropriately or perhaps predictably enough with train sounds and announcements, then a single acoustic guitar slips in. It becomes electric then, and the vocal is clear and soft yet insistent as with a certain Roger Waters quality Roey Ben-Yoseph takes us into “Insomniac blue”, with lines like
”Television watching me again” which strike you as rather clever. The band is an eight-piece, boasting among their number two acoustic guitarists, one of whom also plays the drums, a flautist and a cellist. The song gets a little more intense as piano and keys join in and the percussion of Andy Tillotson drives it along. A nice solo effort on the piano from Brian Harris as the song moves into its final minute and he's joined by Luis Nasser with some slick bass.
“Palestinian black” opens with some reflective guitar and bass before Harris's organ moans in, giving the tune something of an early seventies vibe. Rich Poston then rips off a really cool solo --- Sonus Umbra make sure to differentiate their guitarists, with both Tillotson and Tim McCaskey handling only the acoustic ones --- then a super little synth run is added to by the peppy flute of Steve Royce, and I think it's pretty clear this is an instrumental; a long one at that, running for almost seven minutes. It's actually slipped into the next track without me realising it, and this one is the epic on the album. With a running time of ten minutes, “Wounded animal” starts off slowly on piano and vocal with the story of a boy who finds himself abandoned by everyone. I think. There's a reference to “bastard son”, so I guess he's cast out. Or something.
On frantic organ and riffing guitar it takes off then, with an extended Hammond passage as the story continues. You know, it's a decent epic but every time I listen to it I kind of lose interest, and this is no exception. I don't mean to be bad to these guys because they are a good band but I just find that an unnecessarily long song. “Let it rain” is better; lots of shimmering flute, a nice guitar line and a lower vocal line, sort of a ballad that develops a nice waltzy rhythm later. Very Floydesque guitar taking “Silence kills” then it picks up with harder guitar and thumping percussion, some wailing keys joining in and it's another long track, just short of nine minutes, with nearly three of those taken up by the instrumental intro. When it gets going vocally there's what sounds like acoustic and Spanish guitar and then some really soaraway electric. Some very impressive piano comes in then around the seventh minute, but I am finding it hard to care. There's something missing about this album and I don't know what it is, but it's definitely not holding my interest. Plus despite there being a cellist I have yet to hear any cello.
Royce on the flute is certainly doing a good job though, and some excellent Hammond from Harris rides alongside more piano as the song moves into its final moments. Sad to say, “It's only fear” just kind of comes and goes, though I do note a pretty sweet guitar solo near the end. It's just getting a little hard to concentrate and, you know, care. “Bar at the end of the world”, despite its encouraging title, turns out to be a short instrumental and takes us into “Haunted”, a slower, sort of mid-paced effort driven on nice guitar lines. It's another nine-minuter though, and given that I'm having problems lasting through this album that's not a good sign. It does however contain the title of the album, if you care. I don't.
Man, I really feel like I'm not doing these guys justice; maybe this is just a bad album and the rest of theirs are great. But it just is not grabbing me in any way shape or form. Not that it's bad
per se, just not interesting me. Bland perhaps, or is that too cruel? Maybe it's just me; but I can't see why this came higher in this list than, say, “Ego” or “From the small hours of weakness”, or even “Ulisse: l'alfiere nero”. It seems vastly inferior to any of those albums. Oh, at the end of this track they mention “wounded animal” again, so maybe it's some sort of concept album? Meh, I just find it hard to care. Nice
acapella ending, though it goes on for far too long. Still, at least it ends.
Holy Christ on a pogo stick! Another nine-minute track! It just is not my day, is it? Okay let's try to see what we can find nice to say about this. Decent gentle acoustic guitar opening and finally, finally there is the cello, just as I was about to write “still don't hear any cello!” with a fine performance from David Keller, and he's joined by Steve Royce, the two of them really complementing each other as the acoustic guitar continues its song. The vocal comes in after the second minute, as the flute drops out and “Rebuke the sea” gets going, the cello staying to accompany the guitar and it seems quite a nice song. It's a slow --- so far --- ballad style, very laidback; probably the first song of theirs that has made me sit up and take notice.
Tempo ups halfway as the guitar gets faster and harder and rippling piano joins in, but then it slows back again for the conclusion and then the cello takes it to the end with attendant rain and surf sounds. Yeah, I really liked this. Pity the album is almost over. Or maybe it's not. A pity, that is. We close on “Adrift” --- possibly tying into the sea theme of the previous track, possibly not, but the sea sounds are still there in the background --- with again nice acoustic guitar in a slow to mid-paced vein. It turns out to be a really relaxed instrumental to end the album, which gives it at least a strong finish, even if most of what has gone before has passed me by without making any real impression. Pity this wasn't earlier in the tracklisting; maybe I would have paid more attention.
TRACKLISTING
1. Last train to Kimball
2. Insomniac blue
3. Palestinian black
4. Wounded animal
5. Let it rain
6. Silence kills
7. It's only fear
8. Bar at the end of the world
9. Haunted
10. Rebuke the sea
11. Adrift
Yeah, I don't know what it is with these guys but I'm just not feeling it. The closing tracks were good but I just couldn't get into anything really prior to that. They're all great musicians, though I think the cello should have been used a lot more; might have added some sort of different flavour to the album. In the end I just wasn't that impressed and can only really muster, based mostly on the last two tracks, a relevant rating of
5/10.