Detailed Reviews [Mosher, Scott - 2002 - "Virtuality"]

Prologue. "Virtuality" is the debut album by Scott Mosher. The numbers of Solo Pilots have grown again and the fresh forces regularly arrive on a scene.

The Album. On the whole, Scott Mosher's "Virtuality" is a rather original album. He himself defines his music as Neo Progressive Ambient Trance Cyber Rock. Certainly, Scott never did hear the US band Braindance, who are the pioneers of the style of Progressive Dark Wave (to read the review of the latest Braindance album, click here). For the most part however, the music that is featured on "Virtuality" reminds me of a pared down (i.e. Light Neo) version of Progressive Dark Wave more than anything else. The decent tracks on the album are those that feature the parts of real instruments, apart from the programmed bass and drums, and various sequenced solos. These are: Virtuality, The Human Machine, A Season of Fire, Re-Define, The Dreaming Eye, Sometime After Midnight, The Promise of Truth, and Sorrow In a World of Darkness (tracks 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9, & 12). And all of them consist of structures that, in my view, fit the style of Neo Progressive Dark Wave even despite the fact that the basis of these structures is completely 'synthetic'. The majority of solos and passages of keyboards represent cycled sequences, which often makes them too monotonous. A few of the real keyboard passages are featured only on Sometime After Midnight and Sorrow In a World of Darkness. A real bass solo is heard only in the end of The Promise of Truth. The vocals are present on Virtuality, The Human Machine, Re-Define, The Dreaming Eye, The Promise of Truth, and Sorrow In a World of Darkness. All eight of the said compositions contain heavy guitar riffs. However, most of them aren't as expressive as the guitar solos. The latter are also featured on all of these eight compositions, and the majority of them are tasteful and virtuosi. So thanks only to them, two thirds of the contents of this album are more or less listenable from a progressive standpoint. As for the four of the remaining tracks, namely Upon the Frontiers of Infinite Night, Attillon Sunrise, Shores of a Cosmic Ocean, and Infinity Burns (tracks 5 & 10), they aren't progressive at all. While two of them: Attillon Sunrise and Shores of a Cosmic Ocean, entirely consisting of the 'ambient' sequences, represent just a dead music.

Summary. As I have previously said, Scott Mosher's music is on the whole original. So I can consider him a pioneer of Neo Progressive Dark Wave. However, unlike the Classic 'example' of this style, the music of "Virtuality" has little to do with real Progressive Rock. On the other hand, it has a huge commercial potential, but that is another story.

VM. April 19, 2002