Marbin does prog-fuse. Their second album, The Last Chapter of Dreaming (MoonJune 050) shows a very instrumentally sound bunch of folks. They can play well, especially Dani Rabin on guitar, and they do. It's a quartet w/ Danny Markovitch on sax, Justyn Lawrence, drums, Jae Gentile, bass, plus special guests like Paul Wertico on drums and my old roomie from Boston, gone on to great things, Jamey Haddad on percussion.
This is a band that has tightness and name recognition among some because they are always touring. They also appear to be MoonJune's most popular artists in terms of sales.
I of course am happy for them!
As far as this album goes, there mostly is a full-out rockin instrumental prog thing going on. Some of the originals seem a little too pedestrian for my tastes--meaning they have a simple tunefulness that sometimes gets closer to a soundtrack or Herb Albert on acid than I feel personally comfortable with.
And that's to say that the appeal of this music may be more universal and less selective. It's more commercial than the prog-fuse that gets me rolling, truth to tell.
Nonetheless there are folks who are going to like this alot. And it's no fault of the quality of the musicians here. Just tunes that don't get to me personally. If you like edge, this is less of that. If you hate edge, you'll probably dig this one a great deal.
All the best to them!
and what about people that like both edge and non edge?
ReplyDeleteThen they will be happier with all of it! Don't get me wrong--I prefer edge to non-edge but I like non-edge too. Look at all my blogs and you'll see that. There are all kinds of non-edge of course, and some sound like they are looking for an audience, like they say, "hey, let's tone it down so we can attract a wider crowd." And then some just seem natural, like this is the music they hear with no special effort on their part. There is a difference? You tell me. I wont say I am the last word. Ironic though that I say something not entirely positive and THEN I get a comment. 1,000 posts with crickets otherwise!
ReplyDeleteCheers,
Grego