ProgressoR - Detailed Reviews - Rick Ray (USA, Ohio) - 1999

1. The Night Crawls In is quite original song with heavy guitar riffs, some truly progressive arrangements, beautiful guitar solos and unusual singing. Slightly monotonous programmed drumming.

2, 3, 4. The Dolphin Endorphin, Mental Block, and titlesong You People are instrumental compositions, full of diverse arrangements accompanied by hypnotic guitar riffs. Electric guitar solos are incredible. The fourth is the longest (about 10 mins) and most profound track on the album.

5. Pictures of Darknes features vocals and typical for this work on the whole mid-tempo heavy hypnotic guitar riffing.

6. Distorted Faces sounds in the vein of other instrumental pieces of "You People". Good.

7. The City is made up of diverse "doomy" riffs, and it sounds progressively even without guitar solos. Nice vocals.

8. The Nasties are Coming, apart from the same hypnotic slightly "doomy" riffs, has an obvious bluesy feeling, good vocals, some virtuostic guitar solos. A bit monotonous, unlike the majority of other songs, but still quite effective.

9. The Big Bad Wolves is structurally close to the previous track. The same drawling riffs and some bluesy solos, though Rick's vocals sound here again unusually, a bit brutally, compared to the opening song.

10. Talk to Me is instrumental with a monotonous basic theme, but the solos are OK.

11. The Garden, along with track 10 and unlike all the previous tracks from 1 to 9, is more or less fast instrumental. Monotonous basic theme / fast virtuostic guitar solos / guitar's rhythmic chords (I hear for the first time). The ending changes interestingly (original riffs).

12. Bizarre Spangled Banner is once again not like 1-9. More or less effective programmed drumming, slightly psychodelic and atmospheric structures, heavy guitar soundscapes. The shortest. A piece, composed by one F.S.Key, though rearranged by Rick.

Summary. Step forward after the previous album, with no doubts. These very original compositions need if not a "fully-blooded" line-up, but first of all "alive" drummer and, probably, keyboardist to make this work one of the most original Prog Hard albums in the second half of the '90s. But I cannot understand where is Rick's friend with his clarinet? I never heard him on Rick's albums. Am I stone-deaf? Also. Lots of noises in pauses between tracks - as always, though. Why? Hey, Rick, where you are? Could you please write me a message?

VM. February 20, 2000