Reviews
| Over CD-project 'Dreamcarnation': LaBraD’or Records Cat. No.: LBD 040010 Total Time: 52:22 Released: 2000
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1. The Fugue
(2:47) 2. Awaken (3:26) 3. Broken Dreams (3:27) 4. Salesman (4:55) 5. The Pact (3:09) 6. Incantatrix (2:33) 7. On The Run (3:49) 8. Xenophobia (3:31) 9. Nowhere City (3:20) 10. Orchard (3:43) 11. Between The Blind (2:26) 12. The Party (3:27) 13. Dreamcarnation (3:54) 14. Funeral (3:28) 15. Miracle (3:35) 16. An Ending(4:12) |
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 Reviewed by: John "Bo Bo" Bollenberg November 2000  |
About
five years or so ago Dutch label SI was one of
the most important prog labels around, focusing a
lot on what we now call "neo-prog."
More and more bands got signed to the label and
after signing a deal with Roadrunner, SI suddenly
went bankrupt, leaving behind a lot of talented
bands such as For Absent Friends (their lead
singer once auditioned for Kayak), Timelock,
November and Ywis. Some of those members can now
be heard on the Dreamcarnation project inspired
by the works of writer Clive Barker. Extra
musicians from bands such as The Last Detail,
Miss Treated, Big Deal and Ma’China have
been added to complete the picture. The initial
idea came from Julian Driessen, Rob de Vries and
Rob Rehorst, who have "used" a wide
selection of prog icons in order to deliver a
fabulous new concept album. The most important
person throughout this album certainly has to be
singer Jolanda de Vries whose voice gets very
close to that of a young Jerney Kaagman (Earth
& Fire), bringing back those vintage
seventies vibes. The best example of this has to
be the opening track “Fugue” which has
Jolanda’s voice incorporated in between a
wall of keyboards and rough guitar chords. There
are some wonderful synths at the end of
“Awaken” backed by powerful drumming
from ex-For Absent Friend man Ed Wernke. Jolanda’s voice sounds like that of an angel in “Broken Dreams” when she’s joined by Chantal de Vries (her sister, I think). There’s also some ace jazzy piano to be noted here. “Salesman” sounds more like AOR due to the voice of Ruud Stoker and the guitars of Martin Hendriks and Hans van der Klugt. A similar feel is repeated throughout “Xenophobia." By adding a grunt voice and church organ, “The Pact” becomes an eery experience, whilst the inclusion of brass makes me think of Rick Wakeman’s English Rock Ensemble during the No Earthly Connection period. A treat is “Nowhere City” where we hear Jolanda’s voice backed by acoustic guitar before the song suddenly changes completely. Another fab track is “Orchard” which sports wonderful guitar playing a bit in the Wishbone Ash tradition, whilst the backing slightly reminds me of Pink Floyd. The inclusion of muted trumpet in “Between The Blind” together with the rather funky approach make this song a maverick for the prog community yet it works rather well because of the clean production. Title track “Dreamcarnation” is rather bombastic what with hard guitar chords being joined by lush keyboards in order to deliver one of the outstanding songs on this album. The title “Funeral” already was a giveaway but once church organ introduces this song the obvious pastoral feeling creeps in. Sadly it’s once again Ruud Stoker who joins Jolanda on vocals and his voice doesn’t really suit this "sacred" song because of the unnerving amount of vibrato in his voice which gets close to Marc Almond! Another intriguing song certainly has to be “Miracle” not in the least because of the clever inclusion of a musical box, but also because of the dreamy layers of keyboards and the fab drumming. The album closes with “An Ending” sung by the hoarse Karel Messemaker and sporting some nice violin which emerges out of the synthesized strings. Analogue hand in hand with the digital age so to speak. Dreamcarnation
certainly is the perfect calling card to
introduce the current progscene from the The
Hague area to a wider audience. Now all we can
expect is that new bands/projects will emerge out
of these ashes. Musicians: Jolanda de
Vries - vocals |