Synopsis:
In most of the Inquire-related reviews I've read the band's music is called Neo Progressive, which sounds strange - unless those reviewers regard Pink Floyd, Eloy, Camel, Rush, and Kansas as Neos, too, which, though, would be complete nonsense. In my honest opinion, the music of Inquire is on the whole even more intricate and intriguing than that on such classic albums by Yes as "Tormato" and "Drama". And by the way, the music of most, if not all, of the Neo bands is above all notable for the presence of distinct influences of one or another 'titanic' band of the seventies, and where do you see influences in the music of Inquire? Well, the first disc of the band's new album features ten tracks, precisely half of which are songs: Nausea, Der Autodidakt, The End of Sunday, The Museum, and The Chestnut Tree (2, 4, 5, 7, & 8), though two of them (4 & 8) feature literally two-three vocal lines. However, each of the remaining three songs is also much richer in purely instrumental arrangements than vocally instrumental ones, even though from time to time, they're accompanied by narration. All of the songs, and also two instrumentals: Bienvenue a Bouville and Melancholia, both of which are the 'boundary' tracks of the album, were created within the framework of a unified stylistics, which is Classic Symphonic Art-Rock with pronounced elements of Symphonic Space Rock and some of those of Prog-Metal and Classical Music (provided mostly by the piano passages). The first track contains in addition a few of the accordion solos done in the vein of the French chanson, and the second has flavors of the music of the East. On some of the other tracks are available even RIO-like arrangements with atonalities, seemingly awry out-of-time beats of drums, etc. The music is distinctly dramatic and is full of mystery and magic. All three of the parts of Anny (3, 6, & 9) are about a mellow, somewhat really melancholic Symphonic Art-Rock and, due to their brevity, are less intricate than the other compositions. Nevertheless, while not masterpieces, these are excellent tracks and they very well fit the overall atmosphere of Melancholia.
VM: November 27, 2003
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