Discipline - Push And Profit

Year of Release: 1993
Label: Strung Out Records
Catalog Number: 128764-01
Format: CD
Total Time: 54:32:00

The sleeve blurb says it all - "Sometimes peel back the scab and expose the wound." And that's what this disk does. The opening track, "Diminished" is fragile and mournful, all appropriate to lyrical material - when you realize you are but one "raindrop in a bucket full." And when haven't we felt that way?

And yet the second track in has a jaunty beat and a keyboard sound reminicent of ELP - Brain Salad Surgery comes to mind. Here, too, vocalist Matthew Parmenter reminds me of Perry Farrell (he of the Jane's Addiction/Porno for Pyros fame). Jaunty it may be, but it certainly isn't any more optimistic.

The gentle and sweet beginning to "The Nursery Year" constrasts to what is actually a very disturbing track of child abuse, and, as I read it, the cycle of abuse it can begin.

"Faces Of The Petty" drifts the furthest from progressive, becoming more than just "almost" a pop song - it is a bouncy, energetic commentary on our current state of affairs, exposing the darker, flip side to that which we see.

As a study in tracing the fragility of the human condition, Push and Profit is an interesting listening; from a purely musical perspective, the compositions here, once past "Dimished," sparkle with guitar and keyboard interplays, interesting instrumentation, and all around skillful playing.

This comes highly recommended.

Tracklisting:
Diminished (7:36) / The Reasoning Wall (7:22) / Carmilla (9:39) / The Nursery Year (5:18) / Faces Of The Petty (4:47) / Systems (7:26) / Blueprint (6:02) / America (7:42)

Musicians:
Matthew Parmenter - vocals, backing guitar, violin, programming, tambourine, recorder, synth
Jon Preston Bouda - lead guitar, backing vocals
David Krofchok - piano, organ, synth, backing vocals
Mathew Kennedy - bass guitar
Paul Dzendzel - drums and percussion

Discography:
Chaos Out Of Order (1988)
Push And Profit (1993)
Unfolded Like A Staircase (1997)
Into the Dream: Discipline. Live (1999)
To Shatter All Accord (2011)
Chaos Out Of Order - 25th Anniversary Reissue 1988-2013 (2013)
This One's For England (2014)

Live 1995 (DVD) (2005)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin US

Added: July 25th 1999
Reviewer: Stephanie Sollow
Score:
Artist website: www.strungoutrecords.com
Hits: 4672
Language: english