Jeremy/Progressor - The Pearl Of Great Price

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Jeremy/Progressor - The Pearl Of Great Price

Artist:	Jeremy/Progressor
Title:	The Pearl Of Great Price
Label:	Mals MALS 035
Length(s):	68 minutes
Year(s) of release:	2005
Month of review:	[10/2005]

Line up

Jeremy - guitars, bass, drums, mellotron, piano, synths
Progressor - keyboards, synthesizers, bass, percussion
Brian Hirsch - synthesizers, keyboards, drums
Rob Wessel - guitar on 2

Tracks

1)	Desert Winds	10.02
2)	Spiral Vortex	10.02
3)	Alien Nation	6.08 MP3
4)	Pearl Of Great Price	4.43
5)	Battle Zone	5.30
6)	Final Victory	10.47
7)	The Journey Home	20.41

Summary

If you know the Progressor website, then you know that Progressor is in fact Vitaly Menshikov. Jeremy is Jeremy Morris who recorded a few solo albums. Brian Hirsch was an American who released album through his own label (Moonchild) and recorded solo material (Indeed). He died a number of years ago, but his playing is used on this album, which is also dedicated to his memory.

The music

Desert Winds opens with up-beat electronics. The drums sound programmed, the compositional style and melodies remind me most of Jean-Michel Jarre. However, the guitar adds some nice detail and fire to this otherwise rather easy going and tuneful song. This also holds for the wailing second half of this song. The production is loud and clear. The composition style sounds a bit classical like at this point, with plenty of brass synths in the back. Some of the melodies have a certain ethnic feel. A good electronic song, and the guitar makes it interesting for proggers as well.

Spiral Vortex opens with mellotron, not a bad start usually. The atmosphere is one of foreboding. However, it seems like we take a turn here as we move into Ozrics territory. The synths swirl, the beepers blorp, well I guess you get the picture. What is so strong about this song, is the sense of foreboding that sometimes creeps into the music, something you hardly ever hear with the groove oriented music of the Ozrics. In the meanwhile, the sequencers dribble along, and the furious guitar of the previous guitar also set in. Trippy bombast.

The twosome continue their melodic and high energy brand of electronic music and progrock on Alien Nation. Again, the guitar wails and quails, but this time there is also time for some soothing peace and quiet with tinkling tunes and bells. Then it is time for percussion as the bass starts to drone. The drums sound real at this point, not programmed. If you like say Gandalf's From Source To Sea, then I would say that this is an excellent continuation of that work. It all sounds electronic if you listen superficially, but listening closely the amount of guitar and such comes to the surface.

Often the title track is the longest track. Not here. Pearl Of Great Price This one is a bit more electronic than its predecessors, bringing Jarre to mind as did the first track. However, the somewhat rowdy guitar plays around some nice thematic work. Rhythmically however, the song is not so interesting. But the guitar hero stuff is quite intense.

Battle Zone is indeed that. Military drums, rather shrill keyboard sounds and at times a rather active passage with guitars and drum computers going over the top. This is close to progmetal, maybe Patrick Rondat is a name to coin here. Still, not my favourite.

We still have two tracks left, Final Victory is the first of these, the epic tune The Journey Home the last one. Final Victory opens sequencer based, after which a meandering guitar picks up the lead, the sequencer moving to the back. This is quite comparable to material by Tangerine Dream, but with some dissonant outbursts. And listen to those Boulderdash sound effects! The final part is a lot more friendly, but also strongly rhythmic and quite monotonous.

The closer then is a twenty minute opus which opens with some nice thematic work (did I maybe hear that on a previous track or was that a previous listen?). The melodic material is a bit stronger again than on the last few tracks which were not of the level of the opening tracks. Does this track offer anything different from the others? Not really, most striking element is probably the ethnic element. The final five minutes is an exercise in bringing forth different synth sounds. Some of these are restful, other a bit harrowing.

Conclusion

To be honest, this cd is better than I expected. My first, cursory listens revealed some nice themes and a mainly electronic approach. On closer listen it turns out that the duo come close to say From Source To Sea (but without the New Agey stuff) by Gandalf, but melodically closer to Jarre and Tangerine Dream. Sometimes the duo even goes Ozric, but more thought is given to tension in the music. Thus this album contains something for everybody, although people who like their music warm, woolly and vintage, will not like the rather synthetic approach. People on the brink of electronic and symphonic should go and have a listen. Also, the duo has a knack, especially in the earlier tracks, to not only build up their songs nicely, but also give the songs tension and urgency in places, where electronic musicians usually do not.