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Red Sand are a French Canadian
band with a hybrid sound of Neo-prog ala Marillion and earlier
prog such as Gabriel-era Genesis or some of the Italian bands,
with perhaps a very small pinch of Strawbs. Not particularly
the most original material, but I believe this may grow on
me. There is some nice instrumental work here, though most
of it is a rather mid-tempo, gloomy affair which barely speeds
up anywhere. Plenty of depresso mellotron chords and lyrics
dealing with suicide, madness, ' we're all just puppets' and
all that. But I must add that it's rather well done. Mellotrons
hover, bass pedals rumble and soulful Marillion-style guitar
solos cry out in pain. This has a lot of Neo-prog ingredients
but with a classic art-rock foundation. Any prog fan may like
some of this.
GENTRY isn't too long and bombastic
either, clocking in at around 46 minutes or so. There are
only four tracks here, two over 18 minutes and two short ones,
one of them a bonus track, and all of them run together as
a cohesive whole. The only drawback is that you pretty much
get limited textures. It's done rather tastefully, but GENTRY
never really rises above slow or mid-tempo dark and moody.
Lacks a little drama, but I feel it growing on me. The guitarist
supplies some real genuine moments which recall Steve Rothery.
The early Marillion sound crops up a lot here, and perhaps
if Marillion existed in the early or mid 70's they may have
sounded like this. and mellotrons and bass pedals can work
well in conjunction with each other.
The four tracks are:
SUBMISSIVE: The first track is
18:06 and starts off slow and dreary, and goes through many
textures, all of them rather slow and dreary.
The mellotron sounds and bass pedals
do compliment each other though. Occasional ambient sound
effects underneath enhance it. Nice Steve Rothery-style guitar
throughout. Clearly, Red Sand has studied Rothery's style
and applied it here. You would be forgiven if you actually
thought Rothery was on this album, judging from those solos.
The section where there's what sounds
like fretless bass over a bed of mellotron is musically delicious
and even Yes-like, but doesn't last long before they go into
a more Neo-style section. After that, it pretty much goes
along slow and dreary.
GENTRY:
The title track starts with the
sound of a phone, and at 5:23 in length is the ballad of the
album, I suppose. The piano and vocals especially remind me
of Peter Hammill, some of that Hammill madness. Hammill fronting
Marillion...that's interesting.
VERY STRANGE: Such a title is kinda
Peter Hammill too. This track is less effective in places,
especially when the singer tries to inject a little angst.
There's a sorta Floyd 'Run Like Hell' section, maybe a little
IQ too. But not enough to pull it out of the slow rut. This
is the longest track, at 19:13. Again, the bass and guitar
solos are well done. The song goes into the obligatory long
anthem ending.
THE VOICE: The shortest track at
barely 4 minutes. Mostly reflective piano and string synths.
Nice fade, but could have gone on a little longer. Everything
else did. Great disc who like their prog slow and dreary and
full of sighing mellotrons and unhappy lyrics. Hopefully they
can continue to grow and eventually offer something with that
extra something that may be lacking here.
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