New Album AI AJ By Andy Jackson

This album has got me thinking about what progressive rock is. In many ways, what I think of as 'progressive' rock is actually anything but, as it is strongly rooted in the 1970s and hasn't moved on since then. This is not an accusation you can level at AI AJ by Andy Jackson.

This album is melodic, minimal (but not minimalist) and atmospheric. It makes use of some distinctly modern sounds - there's definitely a lot of use of granular synthesis in there, for example. There's also some great (can I say Gilmoureseque?) lead guitar.

Many of the songs are deceptively simple, carefully building a consistent sound world rather than a traditional song. But they each have their own identity. Track 8, Dissolve, is a good example, because if I were to describe it in terms of its arrangement I wouldn't get much further than saying it's a weird guitar solo over some odd noises. However, that does a great disservice to it, because the whole is a great deal more than the sum of its parts.

I really like the sound of the vocals, especially on the last track The Lifting Of The Veil. There's a deeply unsettling quality of them which is simultaneously heavily processed but yet organic sounding. This track clocks in at 10:31 and is the closest in sound I think to Pink Floyd.

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture. I wish I'd said that, because it's so true. All I can do here is give you a flavour and hope you go away and listen. This one is worth listening to, even if you don't like it. This is progressive rock that is truly progressive. Highly recommended.

Reasons to listen:

  • You want to hear progressive rock, well, you know, progressing
  • You're a Pink Floyd fan
Reasons not to listen:
  • You're an old stick-in-the-mud that thinks if it hasn't got a flute and songs that are three hours long it's not prog
Interesting fact of the day: Andrew Jackson is a recording engineer who worked on the Pink Floyd film Pink Floyd - The Wall and The Final Cut and then on A Momentary Lapse Of Reason and The Division Bell.

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