Ovrfwrd – Fantasy Absent Reason – 180g Black Vinyl (Black Vinyl)
The sophomore album from the Minneapolis quartet.
“Progressive rock is my musical comfort food. When done right, it takes me back to some of the first music I heard that really captivated me. And just like the dishes that may be your comfort food, music is not automatically good just because it’s in the same genre. Ovrfwrd gets it right, however spinning their variation on the classic ideas of progressive rock and seasoning it nice. Producing quite a tasty dish. (I will now let go the food metaphor.) Fantasy Absent Reason continues the strengths of their debut, and maybe even improves a bit, coming in as a solid instrumental progressive rock album, full of vintage keyboard sounds, clever arrangements, and multi-part suites, all without sounding forced or pretentious. It also doesn’t sound dated, in spite of the vintage keyboard sounds. Piano is once again Chris Malmgren’s most prominent instrument, with some nice fat analog lead lines, organ, heavy strings, electric piano, and even a tasty harpsichord to open the title track. Mark Ilaug’s guitar playing is just as varied, ranging from lovely acoustic to semi-jazzy clean electric to screaming distorted electric, for the most part avoiding stock phrases, and using some tasty octave melodic lines and complex chords. Images are conjured up of such diverse bands as Djam Karet, Baletto di Brozo, King Crimson, Electric Asturias, and more. More contemporary comparisons would come from Eccentric Orbit and Spontaneous Rex. Further mixing it up from their debut, where all the tracks were over eight minutes, this time they include two shorter tracks, including the kick-ass Brother Jack McDuff. I suppose there might be some listeners who would prefer to have some vocal content, but I’m fine with instrumental music like this. Ovrfwrd is one of the bright lights in American prog in 2015” – Jon Davis – Expose’ Online
Musicians:
Mark Ilaug – Electric & Acoustic Guitars
Kyle Lund – Bass
Richard Davenport – Drums & Percussion
Chris Malmgren – Piano, Hammond B3, Keyboards
Tracks:
Side A:
- Fantasy Absent Reason
- Brother Jack McDuff
Side B:
- Dust Nova
- Utopia Planitia
- Creature Comforts
Format: 180g Black Vinyl
Artist: Ovrfwrd
Release Date: October 30, 2015