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Elegant Simplicity (UK) - 2005 - "Excerpts II" Here is a short review of the three still unnamed instrumental compositions to be on the forthcoming new album by Elegant Simplicity, due for release in Spring 2006. The first track lasts six and a half minutes. Although synthesizers and Mellotron create a lush symphonic background throughout, much of the music is edgy, sliding somewhere between Art-Rock and Hard Rock (at its most progressive), with fast, intense, always swirling arrangements. The 10-minute second track has the trademark Elegant Simplicity sound, when the band puts a strong emphasis on melody. There are two excellent episodes with only piano and acoustic guitar, but the full-band arrangements are less impressive, mainly because the central theme repeats too often, with insignificant variations in soloing patterns. The 14-minute last track has a strong epic sense and is the best in the set, the music highly diverse both compositionally and stylistically. It begins and develops as symphonic Space Rock with Mellotron at the background, then turns into the quasi Jazz-Fusion realm with a blistering acoustic guitar solo at the fore, later on changing its direction many times. Symphonic Art-Rock textures now alternate with heavier, Prog-Metal-related ones, now give way to the piano and acoustic guitar-laden Jazz-Fusion. If Steven McCabe keeps the directions paved on the first and the last tracks when finishing the recording, and get rid of the numerous repetitions on the second track, the next Elegant Simplicity outing may well be their best album to date. Vitaly Menshikov: September 26, 2002 Related Links: Elegant Simplicity