TALC is a Swiss trio consisting of Herve Baumgatner (six strings bass),Vincent Verselle (drums, percussion, synths) and Antonin Wiser (guitars, keyboards, electronics). They were founded in 2009 and they perform instrumental progressive rock, being a blend of space rock, prog rock, post-pop, psychedelic rock, and fusion. This is their third album, and it contains six new tracks. The opener of this album is called Mesarthim and sets the tone for the rest of the album so after seven minutes you know what you can expect from the rest of it. Mesarthim is packed with prog and psychedelic musical elements, featuring heavy guitar riffs, hooks, and melodies galore and the guitar playing of Wiser definitely dominates this track. Betelgeuse kicks off with atmospheric keyboards before it evolves into another groovy guitar dominated track and the guitar solos here are rather intriguing, as well as the experimental sounds throughout the entire song. Antares is almost a long jam session with lots of tempo changes and other musical twists and turns and standout rhythm section work by the drummer and the bass player. Aldebaran is the longest song of the album, and it is again a heavy, doomy song with lots of distorted guitars, while Theemin features lots of guitar arpeggios and a rather dark and sombre sphere. Finally, Voyager 111 ends this album and for me it is the least interesting track of the album as it is filled with experimental electronics that sometimes remind me of Hawkwind. Overall, TALC's third release is a great album for fans of psychedelic space rock, and you have to play it LOUD to appreciate it even more. ***+ Martien Koolen (edited by Dave Smith) Where to buy? |
