Put simply (in 4/4 time), Days Between Stations’ new album Giants is sublime prog rock that ignites the brain synapses back into a life they only knew in the heyday of 1974 melodic maelstrom when all sorts of bands made wonderfully weird music, music that pulsed with a flashing rock ‘n’ roll sign: Attention required!
Pat Benatar once sang, “Hit me with your best shot.” Well, Days Between Stations follows that war cry. The opener, “Spark Spark,” opens the prog-rock throttle, and blasts through 17 minutes of, to quote (the great) John Milton, “Paradise Regained.” A strident guitar announces the entrance of (what must be) a Keith Emerson tribute. This is instrumental Tarkus stuff. A tough melodic bass and driven percussion pulse backbeat beauty, while Oscar Fuentes Bills bounces, wobbles, thrums, and (to get all equestrian about it), curvets in a glorious keyboard fury. And Sepand Samzadeh’s electric guitar rides shotgun through the song.
The vocals (by Billy Sherwood of World Trade and Yes fame) take their time to enter the mix, and sound like a conflagration of Gentle Giant’s Ray Schulman and King Crimson-era John Wetton. And when the big-rock blowout descends into a moment of dramatic quietude (as all big prog rock epics must do from time to time), those vocals consume the same sad air of Peter Gabriel’s voice, circa “Red Rain.” Of course, the tune (after an absolutely lovely guitar solo) pumps fresh air into its keyboard tires and tumbles, with almost classical pathos, into the final grooves of the song. This is nice (no pun intended!) prog stuff.
In total contrast, “Witness to the End of World,” is a quiet glen of keys, liquid guitar, and voice. It’s a respite to catch a breath. And, thankfully, it moves away from accusations of being an ersatz Triumvirat (of Spartacus fame), who in all fairness made some of the best Emerson Lake and Palmer music that our ELP never managed to make. And, as my friend Kilda Defnut often says: “It’s never good to be an ersatz anything.” But to throw another hook into the prog pond, “Witness to the End of World” does conjure the beauty of 1977’s Garden Shed, a really decent, “better-late-than-never” prog album by the band England.
But then, “Another Day,” with its allusion to the “Giant” Sisyphus, ups the depth of this prog rock glory. The vocals, with full Peter Gabriel passion, sing that chorus of “I alone” into the deep vibrations of any universe. Days Between Stations push that dead rock up that dead hill, and through the existential sneer at the gods, just manages to sing a rock ‘n’ roll song that, as our Bruce Springsteen once sang with Americana conviction, “No retreat, baby, no surrender.”
By the way, Days Between Stations’ theme of giants is dedicated to people like Oscar’s dad, who like my own father, was a “giant” of a man. Giants pays tribute to great men who pushed rocks up labored hills, and then (somehow) retained an urgent need to pay for their kids’ music lessons. “Yeah, Yeah, Yeah,” to quote the liberated Beatles: These fathers were pretty great people. And that theme paints the sometime sterile progressive rock world with a rather nice (and welcome) tint of a fond memory about a really decent dad.
By the way, “Another Day,” with its slow drama, wouldn’t be out of place on the fourth side of Genesis’ Lamb Lies Down on Broadway. Yeah, high praise, indeed!
Now, XTC fans take note: Colin Moulding (he of “Making Plans for Nigel” and “Grass” fame) contributes to “Goes by Gravity.” The tune ups the clever pop sound and does swirl like a psych-tinged XTC song, circa Skylarking. The tune, indeed, does “take a tumble,” and is an “excuse for a fumble.” And, by the way, this song sounds nothing like Emerson Lake and Palmer.
Days Between Stations’ 12-minute plus title song really does revive the Gabriel-era Genesis sound of their Foxtrot album with dense “Watcher of the Skies” passion and a Steve Hackett-like solo that melts into the many colors of a fervid Tony Banks’ keyboard aura. Trust me. I have been there, and I have come back: This equals Genesis with full Mike Rutherford bass pedals “Return of the Giant Hogweed” prog brilliance.
“The Gathering” is a nice instrumental interlude, which once again provides a musical moment to catch a breath. But then (!) the big Billy Sherwood-penned finale, “Common Thread,” stirs the prog troops, pulses with prog organ, and quite simply, invites applause from latent lovers of Yes’ Fragile and Genesis’ Trick of the Tail everywhere as this tune wombles and wobbles all over its vinyl grooves that soar into weird heavens, yet cut a very soulful and very earthy dance-floor step. And it dissolves into a certain Jon Anderson spiritual (on so many levels) ending prayer that sings, “Making all the dreams real.”
This is wide open, barely contained progressive-rock music, music that will always hope for “perpetual change.” You know, prog rock is a funny old universe. The big bang was probably some Beatles’ tune. (Take your pick!) And then the inflation increased to include fiery keyboards, quasi-metaphysical lyrics, oddball gatefold covers (by the way, Days Between Stations’ Giants sports Paul Whitehead’s art) and music that exploded in a maelstrom of melody that taxed attention spans and made brain synapses dance. Ah, to quote Apple recoding star, Mary Hopkin, “Those were the days my friend.”
And for those of us with the prog persistence to match the loyalty of the very last Japanese soldier Hiroo Onoda (who held out in the Philippines until 1974!), Days Between Stations’s Giants is a brand-new slice of what John Milton once called “paradise regained.”
Editor’s note: It’s interesting to note (and in keeping with the prog vibe!) our steadfast Hiroo was the subject of classic band Camel with their ‘Nude’ album.
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