| The
Review |
The Yearning, the debut album from the Chilean group Aisles
is at once thrilling and somewhat frustrating to listen to.
Thrilling because Aisles is one of the most talented new symphonic
bands I've heard in a while, and frustrating because with
some focus and some judicious self editing The Yearning could
have been a great progressive album. The band is quite impressive
at first listen. The level of musicianship, the quality of
the vocals, the overall sound of the band are all excellent,
and the first track, "The Wharf That Holds His Vessel" is
a nearly flawless symphonic masterwork that will introduce
the listener to most of the aspects of Aisles sound. However,
by the end of this disc, some of the elements of Aisles music
become a bit worn. The way I see it is this: tension is built
and themes developed to a point where a grand crescendo is
called for, yet at these points the music often drifts off
into some sort of orchestral reverie, with swelling strings
and piano. Also, as evidenced best in their final track, the
sixteen minute epic "Grey", Aisles likes to throw a LOT of
changes into their music and this is not always to the benefit
of the music as a whole. It's all beautifully performed and
nice to listen to, but in the end, too much detail for its
own sake is a detriment. This sort of thing derails a lot
of the material on The Yearning, but there are a couple of
beautiful, completely satisfying pieces to be mined from this
disc.***
The first track, as I said earlier, is a total success,
from its Camel-like opening melody to its final notes. Its
themes mesh perfectly and the tune moves through a number
of melodic and metric shifts before reprising its opening
motif. The only other track that matches this level of perfection
is the third cut, "Clouds Motion", which is reminiscent of
UK, and features vocalist Sebastion Vergara doing an admirable
job of sounding like John Wetton. On this track, as on the
first, the group avoids too much embellishment of the themes,
and produces great music in the doing. The primary melodic
voice in the band is provided by guitarists Rodrigo Sepulveda
and German Vergara, who both show very mature and steady hands
on the guitar work. Their acoustic and electric work is authoritative
and the guitar tone is superb throughout this disc. One aspect
of Aisles sound that also deserves a special mention is the
outstanding quality of the drums on this disc. With no regular
drummer available at the time this disc went into production,
the band went for keyboard triggered drum samples and this
album features the absolute best sounding and most realistic
electronic percussion I have ever heard.***
Lyrically, this is a very somber and melancholy album,
with a constant refrain of the isolation and loneliness found
in city life, and the seductive lure of darkness. Three of
the five musicians in Aisles share the surname Vergara and
must therefore be brothers or cousins. They share the same
bloodline and, clearly, the music they create runs in their
blood as well.*** I can't give The Yearning the highest rating
but I consider this a very worthy release nonetheless. With
a bit more experience under their belts Aisles can certainly
produce another disc that will capture the rapt attention
of the prog community.***
RATING: 4/5***
©Thomas Karr March 16, 2006
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