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Review:
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Here’s a winner for the Seventies Symphonic Rock aficionados:
the Dutch five piece formation 5Bridges with their debut
CD entitled The Thomas Tracks (running time around 74 minutes).
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The 10 compositions contain strongs echoes of Yes (Close
To The Edge) and Genesis (Wind & Wuthering), especially
guitarist Enzo Gallo his sound often evokes Steve Hackett
(volume pedal) and Steve Howe (steel-guitar) and keyboardplayer
Luke D’Araceno delivers lots of Rick Wakeman-like Minimoog
flights and Tony Banks inspired Hammond organ runs and Mellotron
waves. The interplay between those two musicians is in my
opinion 5Bridges their trademark, another strong point is
Luke his tasteful ‘sonor palet’, from sparkling piano and
lush mellotron to fat Minimoog flights and majestic church
organ. Most of the tracks clock between 6 and 12 minutes,
the moods shifts fluently from dreamy and slow rhythms to
catchy beats and bombastic eruptions. In general 5Bridges
their music sounds very melodic, harmonic and often accessible
and we can enjoy nice breaks and subtle musical ideas. Bass
player Martin Thoolen pleases the Rickenbacker – and Moog
Taurus bass pedal fans, drummer Rob Van Der Linden does
a good job and singer Piet Roelofsen is not a natural born
singer but his pleasant, Peter Gabriel-like voice matches
with the 5Bridges sound and at some moments he adds an emotional
dimension to the music. My highlights are The Spell Of Eternity
(wonderful work on guitar and keyboards, sensational break
and compelling final part), the short Lovernius Song (very
warm interplay between acoustic guitar, organ and Mellotron,
this could have been a lost W&W track!), Batavian Revolt
(lots of changing climates and a bombastic eruption with
Mellotron and a sensitive guitar solo) and my favorite Amazons
& Haven: an omnipresent steel-guitar sound and a great grand
finale featuring a propulsive rhythm-section, beautiful
volume pedal guitar, a deep bass pedal sound and great vintage
keyboards, this is Prog Heaven! -
A big hand for these fellow Dutchmen, I am very curious
to their next effort.
www.progwalhalla.com
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