Discipline - Unfolded Like Staircase


Year of Release: 2000
Label: Strung Out Records
Catalog Number: BGCD 058
Format: CD
Total Time: 64:51:00

It looks like an Olympic event. It took the band exactly four years in order to deliver a follow-up to their debut Push And Profit which included elements out of the Rush, Genesis, and Marillion household and of course (just analyze the name of this band!) King Crimson, which leads to a unique result by means of a huge set of instruments.

Four very long tracks can be found on Unfolded Like Staircase which leans very much towards the early work of Spock's Beard, mixed with various tricks out of the Genesis "book of arrangements." The introduction for ?Canto IV? comes very close to UK's ?In The Dead Of Night? which probably is due to breaks and the intervention of violin. Add to this the often hoarse vocals of Matthew Parmenter which, especially in the long draw outs, sound as if they are the runaway vocal chords of a young Peter Gabriel. Then again the guitar which precedes the singing contains the atmosphere of Sebastian Hardy. In order to make it a little easier for the listener each of the long pieces has been cut up into small sections. That's why ?Crutches? is built out of four themes that by means of classical piano, rough sounding guitars, and a royal dose of mellotron swirl around your livingroom. In the acoustic soft passages it's as if you're listening to parts out of Nursery Crime which is mainly due to the synergy between piano and guitar, whilst there are also snippets of VDGG to be heard. The nice thing here is that guitarist John Preston Bouda doesn't necessarily feel the need to copy Steve Hackett which is mainly the death-blow for a lot of bands. No less than seven parts make up "Into The Dream? and believe me, you will find yourself in more than seven continents once you hear this piece! Again references towards the "old school" Genesis together with an equal part of contemporary Anekdoten filled with mellotron heaven, guitar leads from the Spock's Beard book of tricks and everywhere you listen that dry, tight drum sound of Paul Dzendzel, who can equally play the hard stuff as well as the more intimate "fills." My favourite without any doubt has to be ?Before The Storm,? especially because of that bombastic wall of mellotron violence and the many ups and downs in one and the same song. I also love the way the singing and the piano blend together to lay out the carpet for some superb jazzy sounding guitar. Wow!

Unfolded Like Staircase has become an album which, twenty years from now, will be seen as a milestone of the current prog-revival. Divine!


Tracklisting:
Canto IV (Limbo) (13:47) / Crutches: The Carrot - The Silent Mirror - Down The Hatch - Crutches (13:10) / Into The Dream: Descent - Chock Full O'Guts - Drawn And Quartered - Clearing - Stealing The Key - Sum Music - Turtles All The Way Down (22:03) / Before The Storm: The Ocean - The Storm - Eden (15:51)

Musicians:
Jon Preston Bouda - guitars
Mathew Kennedy - bass
Matthew Parmenter - vocals, keyboards, violin, saxophone, and orchestra chimes
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: October 1st 2000
Reviewer: John "Bobo" Bollenberg

Artist website: www.strungoutrecords.com
Hits: 2448
Language: english

  

[ Back to Reviews Index | Post Comment ]