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Review:
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AThe band 3rdegree originally came together in late
1990 and found itself steadily gigging and playing their
brand of progressive rock in the American Northeast. However
good reviews and a growing fan-base weren’t enough to keep
the band going and they decided to call it a day in January
1997. But wait that’s not the end of the story! In December
of 2005 three of the original members met in a bar and the
decision was made to give it another go. Locating their
original vocalist they started the process all over again,
a little older and a little wiser. The quartet of 3rdegree
consists of founder Robert James Pashman (bass, keyboards,
vocals), Pat Kliesch (guitars), Rob Durham (drums) and George
Dobbs (lead vocals).***
Narrow-Caster would count as the band’s 3rd CD and
consists of ten songs in the three-to-five minute range.
These are songs which tend to have a traditional structure,
but are infused with a myriad of progressive embellishments.
There are many moments where we go from fast to slow, or
loud to soft or hard-edged to soft-acoustic. However nothing
is overdone. These are compositions based around melodic
themes and instrumental solos are kept to minimum. All of
that said these are ten really quirky and interesting songs.
Rather than sounding clichéd the songs have a very unique
feel. If I had to describe to someone the music of 3rdegree,
I’d say they sound a lot like the music on Echolyn’s Cowboy
Poems Are Free. There is that same kind of driving intensity,
vocal counterpoint and polyrhythm’s. George Dobbs vocal
range is well suited here providing these songs with some
captivating dynamic range. Kliesch’s guitar is ever present
and yet understated, while bass and drums either push the
songs in quirky directions or provide that driving foundation
onto which everything else is piled on. Keyboards are all
over this disc, but again they’re incorporated into the
overall sound and rarely stick out. What does tend to stand
out is the band’s ability to craft powerful melodies with
great sing-along lines. To my ears that’s best exemplified
in the song “Young Once” [5:14] which starts out with an
acoustic intro that then leads swiftly into the choruses
lead line repetition, “you were young once…” Then around
a minute and half into the song it veers off in another
direction with a brief synth solo a couple vocal lines and
then a crunchy guitar solo then a couple more vocal lines
before an abrupt stop and then the tune goes all spacey
with keyboards laying down floating textures and sound effects.
Then about four-minutes into the piece it morphs into sort
of a light march where the vocals return softly, all of
which takes the song out to the end. All of that in five-minutes,
and that’s the kind of thing you can expect form others
tracks as well. The last track “The Last Gasp” [4:57] even
has some excellent orchestration. The song builds in intensity
and ends with a very satisfying flourish.***
There is a kind of sophistication and accomplishment
present here which makes you wonder why these guys aren’t
more famous? Well let’s hope that as the prog community
get’s a chance to hear the music of 3rdegree that will change.
The music on Narrow-Caster is first rate and well worth
getting into.***
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