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Concrete Web

This West-London quintet was formed in 2002, and their unique musical approach has already given the band a cult status on worldwide basis. To put it with words I found in the bio we got from the label, the band creates a new form of music where Prog Rock, Jazz Fusion and a subtle doses of Technical Death Metal reign, using top notch artistically refined and epic compositions which are a testimony of the highest musicianship!
Three of the musicians teach at The Guitar Institute, one of Europe’s highest reputed music colleges. Martin Goulding & Charlie Griffiths take on the guitars, Dave Marks on bass, Nick Lowczowski on drums, and Jos Geron on vocals.

But there’s more going on than just that, because I do discern keyboards/synths in several places, and also the band uses vocal samples in quite a few of the songs! Geron uses his medium high-pitched voice in many different ways, producing a mixture of spoken words and singing. In some of the tracks, the samples and regular vocals are mixed as a quite artistic whole. As can be expected, some of the songs are somewhat more lively than others, and in true Prog Rock style, some of the tracks are slightly longer (the track length varies from 4’20″ at the bottom end, to 10’38″ for the album opening “Reversal”, but the longest track is the 4-part “From Space To Time” with its total of 25’10″). Still, one never gets the feeling of a song being too long, as there’s plenty of tempo changes, breaks, and twists throughout the album!

The infusion of Death Metal agression in some of the longer instrumental Jazz Fusion parts (take part one of that lengthy “From Space To Time”, a song in which Geron actually does some more ‘melodic’ vocals than usual) will appeal to the Metal fans, and on the other side, the fact that the Death vibe is not all-encompassing will appeal to true Prog or Jazz Fusion fans! I think the combination of styles defines their unique sound.
Personally, I’ve yet again had the greatest trouble putting the album aside in order to review it! And, having done the review, I only wish I hadn’t…because now I have to get started on another review! No small wonder, you’ll be able to find this great slab in my ‘Best Albums Of 2005′ list at the end of the year!

99/100

Tony

www.concreteweb.be