The problem with progressive rock in general is that it’s so
pompously overblown. For a time, I had been pleasantly surprised at
some of the new generation of progressive rock I heard coming forth
in the market – even made me dig up an old bootleg of King Crimson
someone gave me over a decade ago.
But the latest release from Cairo,
Conflict And Dreams, almost ruins all the progress I’ve
heard in the last six months. If you’ve got the patience to sit
through this one nonstop, the more power to you.
First, the positives: lead singer Bret Douglas sounds a lot like
one of the vocalists for the Alan Parsons Project, while the
instrumental work from keyboardist Mark Robertson, drummer Jeff
Brockman, guitarist Alec Fuhrman and bassist Jamie Browne does show
many moments of brilliance.
The problem comes in the songs themselves – mainly, Cairo
doesn’t know when enough is enough. The hour-plus disc contains
only six songs – one of which is a 1:25 interlude called “Image”
(and is a beautiful track). But of the remaining tracks, only one
clocks in at under 10 minutes – and I don’t know many people these
days who would be willing to sit through a 15 or a 17 minute song
without wanting to get up and give their ears a break. (C’mon,
gang, didn’t we learn from Yes’s
Tales From Topographic Oceans?)
The sheer length of the tracks is enough to crush the
instrumental moments of brilliance on
Conflict And Dreams – after you’ve been hit over the head
with a track like “Valley Of The Shadow” (clocking in at just under
16 minutes, enough time for the Blackhawks to guarantee they won’t
make the playoffs), that tasty riff from Fuhrman or that great
harmony vocal bridge gets buried in so much musical noodling.
The solution? Master tape, meet Mr. Razor Blade. Many of the
songs on
Conflict And Dreams could have been chopped down to more
manageable lengths without sacrificing musical integrity of the
pieces. Or, maybe these could have been subdivided into particular
movements and been assigned their own tracks – anything to break up
the musical version of the run-on sentence.
And it’s not that I have anything in particular against long
tracks. Fact is, if the songs are well written, the time will seem
to fly by. But in the case of
Conflict And Dreams, they just try to cram too much into the
music – and in the end, it suffers. I could have been praising
tracks like “Corridors” or “Then You Were Gone” had I not been
numbed into senselessness.
Cairo will undoubtedly come back from this one, and there is
promise heard in the music that suggests these guys will make a
name for themselves. But after
Conflict And Dreams, they’re first going to have to work on
clearing their name.
