Hybrid child --- District 97 --- 2010 (Laser's Edge)
Originally beginning life as an instrumental band, District 97 were formed in 2006 but it wasn't until around 2009 (details are sketchy on the exact year) when vocalist Leslie Hunt arrived that things really began to gell for the band. Hunt had been a finalist on American Idol in 2007, and her voice, perhaps surprisingly, given the bland, imitative nature of that show, was the perfect one to transform District 97's experimental sound into a more progressive rock one. This was their first release under the new lineup, and has since been supplemented by their second album, released last year.
It certainly opens hard and rocky enough, with an almost Yes-style guitar from Jim Tashjian, but you don't have to wait long to hear Leslie Hunt, and her voice is warm and smooth, though I do have a serious problem with this song, in that the lyric consists almost entirely of the title being sung over and over, which gets very wearing very quickly. A superb cello solo by Katinka Kleijn, backed up by some great percussion from Jonathan Schang saves the song from getting too boring, but the lyric definitely needs something, like, I don't know: maybe more lines? I have to admit, first time I heard this I almost went no further when it seemed this was the limit of originality I could expect. The music kept me interested though, and the song, over seven minutes long, though it does definitely suffer from an unimaginative lyric, is a decent opener. The cello and piano work helps it along, the latter furnished by Rob Clearfield, sounds like it may be a Fender Rhodes or something similar. Finally though, thankfully, the lyric develops, mostly along the lines laid down by Clearfield and some nice smooth guitar from Tashjian too.
It's a clear example of persevering to the end and not just deciding a song is crap on first listen, but really, this is their debut and District 97 should be engaging the listener from the beginning, not testing them like this. A few tracks in, maybe, when they've grabbed the attention then maybe they could be allowed play these tricks, but I fear some people may not have listened past the first few minutes of this and then given it up as a bad job, and that's a shame but even so understandable; I nearly did the same thing. "I can't take you with me" has a boppy, jazzy organ start and some punchy guitar but the vocal seems to me a little all over the place. Mind you, John Wetton has nothing but praise for it, but then he did work with the band on their second album, so perhaps he's biased just a little. Then again, he's not the only one saying good things about this band, as you'll see if you go to their website. Big names, legends seem to be impressed: Bill Bruford, Jonas Reingold, Roine Stolt --- some of the best known names in prog rock seem to think District 97 have a bright future before them, and who am I to argue?
Given that though, the second track --- Wetton's recommendation notwithstanding --- doesn't do a whole lot to impress me, though there are some nice keyboard and even mellotron touches from Clearfield, and the vocal is certainly competent. I just hear sort of the thing that used to annoy me about Spock's Beard in it: a little disjointed, no clear direction. One of the longer tracks then is "The man who knows your name", with a big guitar and drum intro, Clearfield's squealing keys joining the melody and showing why this band was once an instrumental-only affair: they certainly know how to play. And play they do: the song lasts just shy of nine minutes and is instrumental well into the fourth minute, with classical influences and some really proggy keyboard, staccato drumming and slick little basswork. Just as you think it's going to be a full instrumental Hunt comes in with a clear, high vocal and the song takes a whole different turn, with some soaring guitar work from Tashjian, really quite impressive.
The same can't be said though of "Termites". Just as I was beginning to think this album might cut it after all, and might be worthy of the praise it's garnered from the giants of the genre, this is a loud, aggressive, annoying sub-thrash-metal song on which Leslie Hunt's vocal is even a little hard to take. It's jarring, given the basic direction in which the band have been heading up to now. It's a surprise, and for me, not a nice one. Sort of punky elements to it, another minus to my mind. Kleijn does her best to smoothen it out but even the cello can't make anything of this song than a "skippable" track for me. To be honest, this was the one that almost had me wrapping up this album. There have been half-decent tracks but nothing that has really grabbed me, and if this was the nadir of the album could it possibly get better from here on in?
Well, luckily the answer to that is yes, it can. The closer is a multi-part epic in the best progressive rock tradition, and it's no overstatement to say that, for me at least, it not only saves the album but changes my mind completely about it. "Mindscan" runs for a total of over twenty-seven minutes --- yeah, you heard me! --- and is broken into ten sections, each numbered. It appears to concern the abduction of people by aliens, and the use of these people for some sort of genetic manipulation. It opens on "Mindscan I --- Arrival", with rippling, trilling little piano and swirling keyboards in quite an ELO/Vangelis manner, which only lasts for less than a minute and a half and is totally instrumental, leading into a solitary piano line taking "Mindscan II --- Entrance", and from here most of the parts cover the three-minute or less mark. Little flashes of cello join the piano, choral vocals and percussion coming in too as it winds on into the third part, "Realisation", where the tempo changes totally on the back of sprightly keyboards from Clearfield before it settles down, returning to the motif of the opener for a moment before Schamg's drums pound in and part four, "Welcome" breaks in with hard growling guitar and wailing keys, Hunt making her first appearance, the composition itself now some seven minutes old.
On a bouncy Supertramp-ish piano and thick bass the piece trims back to soft cello before "Examination" takes the music in a more ambient, almost abstract direction, with odd little sound effects and reverb and echo, mostly it would seem on Clearfield's synth. Confused voices break through, like radio or television broadcasts, presumably as the aliens are examining the mind of the mother of the to-be hybrid child of the title, with Tashjian's guitar feeding back on itself to add to the otherworldly and somewhat scary atmosphere, then the end part is much more laidback and relaxed, very pastoral with spacey synth and floating percussion taking us into part seven, which bears the title of the album, and is mostly piano driven with a soft vocal from Leslie Hunt, very gentle and calming, almost a lullaby. The intensity kicks up a bit with heavier percussion and solid organ work, Hunt's vocal strengthening to meet the change in the music.
Hard guitar and thumping drums calls in part eight, "Exploration", as the child is taken from the mother and this instrumental perhaps symbolises the mother's anguish at the loss of her newborn baby. It builds to a crescendo, the main melody carrying on into part eight, "What do they want", as the mother relates her experience of multiple encounters with these aliens, and wonders why they keep taking her? It's mostly the same tune but with vocals added from Hunt, her final vocal performance in part nine, "When I awake", as the aliens return her to her home planet. Soft organ and piano drive this mostly, with some skipping bass and ticking percussion, and it's my favourite part of the composition, showcasing Hunt's vocals really well, and with a great guitar solo from Tashjian at the end. Part ten then closes the whole thing, with an instrumental called "Returning home", which is good but I don't believe essential: this could have ended at part nine, though that's really my only criticism of a fine foray into the world of prog rock epics for a first time band.
TRACKLISTING
1. I don't want to wait another day
2. I can't take you with me
3. The man who knows your name
4. Termites
5. Mindscan
I: Arrival
II: Entrance
III: Realisation
IV: Welcome
V: Examination
VI: Hybrid Child
VII: Exploration
VIII: What do they want
IX: When I awake
X: Returning home
"Hybrid Child" is one of the few examples of an album that was seriously going down as a bad listen in my book that then took a sudden upswing on the back of one track. Admittedly, a very long and involved track, but had it not been for "Mindscan" I think I might have consigned this album to history, marking it as unimpressive and a disappointment. Only the fact that I kept going brought me face to face with this amazing composition and completely changed my view of the album. That said, it's hard to claim that "Mindscan" by itself makes the album a good one: there are some pretty woeful tracks on it, but it does at least justify the price of purchase.
Whether their second album addressed the shortcomings of their debut or not I don't know at this time, as I have yet to listen to it, but I think they walked a fine line here at the beginning with an unengaging opener followed by another track which was not exactly inspiring, but managed to pull it off at the end. If they've learned from their mistakes, "The trouble with machines" could be a very fine album indeed. If they haven't, well, all I can say is I hope they have something of the calibre of "Mindscan" to make up for the less illuminating tracks, because without that this album would be pretty unremarkable. As it is, I'm interested to see what else they have to offer, and if the first half of the debut was just a bumpy start. I certainly hope so, because like the big names in prog, I agree that there's definitely something there: it just needs to be cultivated and watered, and it could bear some pretty impressive fruit in years to come.