Short Reviews [Dreadnaught - 2015 - "Getting Tight with Dreadnaught"]

The US band DREADNAUGHT traces its history back some 20 years, with a good handful of releases to their name. "Getting Tight with Dreadnaught" is their most recent release, a 5-track EP that clocks in at 25 minutes. As far as progressive rock bands are concerned, one of the distinguishing features for Dreadnaught is their eclectic, unconventional sound, and another is that they somehow manage to create a distinctly US-sounding variety of progressive rock by way of incorporating traces of Americana, traditional US folk music and similar features into their material. That's also the case this time around. While the amazing opening cut Nervous Little Dogs saves those details for a brief violin sequence towards the end, the more expressive The Badger and Knife Hits both include that US sounding atmosphere in their quirky and challenging wanderings, and even more so the rather Uhmphrey's McGee-sounding This Time Next Year and Barefoot Kicker. And all of them sharing the same general characteristics: shifty compositions, quickly moving from one theme to the next, with recurring details, challenging escapades and a good balance between gentler and more up front and challenging arrangements. I guess words like vibrant, firm and controlled might be added in the description department as well. I'll conclude with a fairly similar assessment as I did for the previous EP by Dreadnaught. This is a high-quality EP from an unconventional band, and one I'd recommend to fans of bands like Umphrey's McGee, in particular those amongst them who also have a taste for music of a more challenging nature that often, but not always, stays within a familiar-sounding context.