Brainstorm - "Desert World"
(self-released 2005)
Brainstorm - "Desert World"
(self-released 2005)
From Aural Innovations #33 (March 2006)
Australian quintet Brainstorm is back with a fresh set of songs that combine Progressive Rock, Space Rock and 70's styled Hard Rock influences into a killer space-prog whole. The album opens with "The Light (Eunomia Sunrise)". After a slow buildup the band launch into a jam that starts off with a jazz-psych rock feel, but soon takes off into heavy rocking space-prog terrain. But in true progressive rock spirit the music shifts continually through a variety of interconnected themes, with flowing keyboards, spaced out synths and a solid rhythm section. Nearly 12 minutes of space rock infused prog and a powerful opening track. "Mutants" is next and is another spaced out hard rocking progressive track, with excellent jam sections accompanied by dreamy flute and psychedelic guitars. Brainstorm do a great job with these lengthier tracks, which are compositionally strong and excel at combining ambience and atmosphere with a hard rock sensibility and an ability to keep the music exciting while taking 360 degree thematic twists and turns.
"Shadow of the Past" is yet another example of Brainstorm's ability to combine hard rock, progressive and space rock into an ass kicking jam tune. "Paradise Lost" is a beautiful dreamy acoustic guitar and flute driven magic carpet ride prog-psych song. "Martian Chronicle" is another magical standout track of heavy progressive and space rock, in some ways sounding like its right out of the early 70's. Really gorgeous keyboards, a variety of guitar sounds, and a killer blend of well crafted composition and jamming. Finally, "Desert World" is a strong closing track, bearing all the hallmarks of the patented Brainstorm space/prog style heard on the rest of the album. I love the way Brainstorm incorporate flute and acoustic guitar into the music, along with the soaring space keys and stinging psych guitar. During the vocal sections it's got a bit of a Celtic feel, and is just an overall excellent song that covers a lot of ground in 11+ minutes. If the space-prog-hard rock mixtures in these descriptions arouse your interest, you'll surely dig this album.
For more information you can visit the Brainstorm web site at: http://members.ozemail.com.au/~bstorm.
Reviewed by Jerry Kranitz