It’s been over a year since I began this journey, and let’s be honest here, I didn’t get far. Mostly I think it was due to a flat battery, which left us drifting in space battling various nasties, most of whom thought we were food. But then again, what can you really expect when you buy your craft from
Honest Urkel’s Used Space Vehicle Round-Up? I mean, in my defence, it
seemed a bargain.No, I don’t think he was wearing a cowboy hat. Looked like a homburg to me. Oh, I see! The
other head! Always forget to check. Oh well, live and learn.
Anyway, now I’ve had to call out Infinity A and have lost a no-claims bonus larger than the GDP of a small galactic empire, we are at least now on the way again. Therefore I advise you to strap yourselves back in and relax as we bid farewell to assorted blue and green and red and yellow amorphous creatures and head back into the highways and byways of my record collection, to
Like I say, we didn’t get very far last time, so let’s see where we did get to. A.C.T. was our, well, first and at that point only stop. So what’s after that? Well, now, what’s this black and gold thing coming up in front of us?
Oh right:
ABBA Gold. Well, everyone loves ABBA, but no way are they prog. What about Abraham Music Project? Can’t say I’ve ever heard of them. Let’s check them out. Well, I see Lee Abraham; we’ll be checking him out later. Has this anything to do with him? It would appear not. What else can I find out about the artist? Well apparently the prevalent wisdom is that yes, this is prog, at least partially. So let’s give it a spin, shall we? And can I once again ask you all to remain in your seats? We do not want to lose any more of y … not that we did lose any of you … that memory-supressant is still working I hope? Good, good. So stay inside: there’s nothing out there but blackness and cold, colder and blacker than a Florida Republican’s heart, and it’s warm in here. There’s also beer. And music. What kind of music? Let’s find out.
Artist: Abraham
Nationality: American
Sub-genre:
Formed: 2019
Number of albums: 1
Owned by me: 1
Listened to: 0
Album selected:
Abraham Music Project, 2019
Position in discography: 1
Comments: Seems this guy is one of those who either couldn’t afford a second name, or thinks it’s more cool and mysterious to just use the one. Anyway the only information I can dig up on him is that he worked with other bands before striking out on his own, is a composer and multi-instrumentalist, and has some vague connection to Supertramp. Right. Tagline is “First the honesty, then the promise”. Well, it’s better than “first the money, then the music” isn’t it? Anyway, according to the esteemed
Prog Magazine, “Aor marries prog rockin fine fashion”. Sounds lovely. Nice sweet guitar opening and for some reason I thought “Horizon” would be an instrumental. Must have been thinking of Genesis. Good singer, if it’s him, sort of a sense of Alan Parsons about the music with a touch of maybe Pendragon in there too. Sort of a semi-ballad with a lot of crooning and some vocoder work too; a very good start.
There’s very much a sense of ELO on “Mr. Mastermind”, impressive vocal harmonies, though whether they’re all him or not I can’t tell you as there is very little information on this guy. Discogs don’t got it, Wiki shrugs and even the mighty ProgArchive looks embarrassed never to have heard of him. His own website gives the track listing but that’s about it. No actual details other than a lot of faff about how great he is, which to be honest after two tracks I find myself agreeing to. I will say this though: he notes many of the artists he has “worked with” - whether that’s writing, composing, playing or producing I don’t know, it’s all a little vague - including Paul McCartney, Santana and, as already mentioned, Supertramp, there’s no clarification as to what he did with who, and I kind of find myself wondering if he was a session musician or something?
Well, whatever, he certainly knows his way around a song, and I’ve no complaints so far. “Here I Am” is a much more uptempo, almost country style of song with a large slice of AOR and not the smallest pinch of pop. I’m not so sure about this one to be honest. Yeah this one is just silly, with its kind of African chant and I keep expecting ****ing Black Lace to dance in any moment and start singing about pushing pineapples and shaking trees. Bollocks. There’s also not much in the song. It’s a pass on this one. “One Day at a Time” gets things back on track with a stately guitar intro and some fine piano, the first ballad I would say. There’s a very epic, dramatic feel to this, its grandeur making “Here I Am” more silly by the minute, but luckily it’s easy to forget now, a rapidly-disappearing bump on the road barely visible in the rearview as we power ahead.
Another power ballad in “Two by Two”, with some fine evocative guitar and a sort of slow blues beat. Some very good vocal harmonies and backing vocals here, kind of a sense of gospel about this too. Touches of Queen in the chorus, while there’s a much heavier guitar powering through “Resist the Devil”, perhaps as you might expect with a title like that. Some superb organ too. Turns out this is an instrumental, quite a dirty rock one to be fair. Can’t say I love it but it’s not bad. The epic then is the “GLORY BE Suite” (yeah, the first two words are written in capitals like that) and it opens on a really nice vocal harmony against a soft acoustic guitar, picking up a little speed as it goes along, the whole thing running for over sixteen minutes. It seems to be some sort of concept (or maybe the whole album is) with the main protagonist called Horizon, so go figure; I haven’t enough - or indeed really any - information to work out what the thing is about.
It goes into a powerful uptempo proggy keyboard instrumental in the fifth minute, then slows on a sort of church organ thing which gives way to a soaring guitar solo and borrows rather a lot I think from Yes around the
90125 era. Very nice slow sort of trumpeting keyboard run in the eighth minute, and vocoder with choral vocals, hear a lot of Pallas in this too, as well as Twelfth Night. There’s a lot of really good instrumentation in this piece, in fact I’d say about eighty percent of it is instrumental, however I would have to allow that it’s not quite what you’d call original, as for me, Abraham draws a little too liberally on influences from other artists, as mentioned. Not that he’s copying them, but you can definitely hear those bands in his music.
“There You Are” is another short little bopper, but a million times better than “Here I Am” (I imagine that’s intended, that they’re both kind of the same title) and this one has a much more singalong melody and a catchy tune with some cool brass. I know for a fact I’ve heard “Hey You! Come Back with My Heart” (mostly because it’s one of the most stupid and annoying titles I’ve ever heard) but I don’t know where. I thought it was Cressida, but it appears not. Anyway I can assume then that this is a cover, as is the final track, the Beatles song “Dear Prudence”. I don’t think much of the former, and sure everyone knows the latter, and he makes a good job of it.
Track Listing and Ratings
1. Horizon (9)
2. Mr. Mastermind (8)
3. Here I Am (5)
4. One Day at a Time (10)
5. Two by Two (9)
6. Resist the Devil (5)
7. The GLORY BE Suite (8)
8. There You Are (8)
9. Hey You! Come Back with My Heart (2)
10. Dear Prudence (6)
What did I like about this album? Very good instrumentation, the guy can sing and can certainly compose. Might have preferred more keyboard and the covers were a bit pointless, but overall decent.
What did I not like about this album? After such a gushing review and introduction, while the music was good it was not life-changing. Not that it needed to be, but I really expected something better than special, and while it was not a disappointment in any way, I’m not now salivating for the next album, if there is one. I could also have done without the covers and the guitar solo instrumental was just wank. I find myself wondering is there an undercurrent of Christianity here, listening to the lyrics of some of the songs. It’s not mentioned or hinted at, but there’s a sneaking suspicion of a quiet, unobtrusive agenda here.
Will I be listening to more? If there’s another album I’ll probably give it a go, though I won’t be waiting in anticipation for it. I get the feeling, however, that this may be it for this guy.
Album rating
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U6Sj-lQix9s