Tuesday, May 3, 2011

Co11age - M00nshine (1994/2003)


Neo-progressive rock, at least for me, culminates as a genre in two perfect releases which lack the flaws that pervade most of their peer bands/albums. The first is Milliontown, the 2006 debut release from U.K. supergroup Frost*. Very industrial, but also quite gorgeous and well-written. The second album is this one, a mid-90's release from Polish proggers Collage.

This is the kind of stuff Marillion might have done if they had a better ear for production and had decided to debut a decade later than they did. However, don't let the whole theatrically inherent to this kind of music scare you off -- the stuff present on Moonshine is far lusher and more interesting to listen to than most of Pendragon or IQ's output. ("leading" bands in the genre" *laughs*).

In retrospect, hearing this record for the first time was amazing -- it was as if everything I hated about "new" progressive rock post-1979 had been screened out of this ensemble's DNA at the very foundation of their sound. Instead what I got was Pink Floyd with Deep House production aesthetics and a vocalist who actually knows a damn thing or two about varied delivery. Or maybe just a really good progressive rock/shoegaze hybrid without all the alt. rock bullshit. Either way though, fuck if all this isn't a treat at the end of a monotonous day at the grindstone!

This is the remastered edition with a bonus track, so snap it up quick folks!

Listen Here - "Almost There"


Try It
Buy It

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