Paradox One - "This Fragile Peace"
Paradox One started out as the solo project of Phil Jackson, releasing four albums via the Neurosis label. Nowadays the project is a vehicle for Phil's collaborations with other musicians, and on the latest album This Fragile Peace, he has joined up with members of the Stone Premonitions collective, namely Tim Jones and Paddi of Census of Hallucinations, Neon, Body Full of Stars, and The Rabbit's Hat, and John Simms and Maxine Marten of Clear Blue Sky and Census of Hallucinations. This is an album of atmospheric prog rock with experimental aspects. The music blends heavy and ethereal elements, juxtaposing crunching metal riffage with Maxine's soaring vocals in tracks like Wheat in the Fields, and quite often the music will shift moods and themes in the manner of a dream. In Ethereal Soldier part 1, delicate, intricate, folk-tinged guitar is combined with Maxine's atmospheric vocals, while Ethereal Soldier part 3 incorporates a relaxing electronic hum and atmospheric effects. All the Way is heavy proggy blues-rock, featuring jazzy electric piano and spacey ethereal moments. There's a very lovely segment in this track in which Maxine's heavily reverbed 'choir of angels' vocal style appears alongside neoclassical piano and experimental sound manipulation. This Fragile Peace introduces elements of raw country rock and narrated vocals alongside aspects of prog, blues and experimental music. The Unknown Unknowns is a great melodic and powerful proggy spacerock piece. I'm new to Paradox One so am unsure how this album compares with previous offerings, but it's clear that the members of Clear Blue Sky and Census of Hallucinations have left their stamp on the music here, which makes this album well worth checking out if you enjoy the music of those bands.
Kim Harten - Bliss Aquamarine (http://www.blissaquamarine.net)