Zen Orchestra – Zen Orchestra

From the ashes of Walking on Ice, a British prog rock band unknown to me, a new band has emerged that is very much worth following called Zen Orchestra. This formation has released their self-titled debut album and thanks to the excellent promotion, this has caught my attention. Since I didn't know a single note yet, I first snooped around on you tube and I came across an edited version of two tracks that are also on the album but in a somewhat more extensive version. Enough reason to order the CD from the band and since then the disc has been playing its rounds regularly in my player.

Who are we talking about here? Singer Mark Barett and keyboardist Steve Smith are the founders and composers of the band. Steve Rix is the drummer and he was already active in the aforementioned Walking on Ice. Initially Steward Milner was active on bass, but due to his sudden death, in consultation with his widow, a new bass player was sought and that became Alberto Rigoni. And a prog band without a guitarist is of course possible but was not an option and so in the person of James Stephenson the line up has been completed.

Then to the music, what can we expect? I am often careful with mentioning references but like most who say this, I change tack and would like to put Frost forward. Maybe a little less virtuoso but in terms of sound definitely comparable. What is striking is that the vocals are a bit awkward in the mix, but that does not hide the fact that Barett is a great singer and his voice does indeed resemble that of Jem Godfrey and John Mitchell. A bit higher and less hoarse but still, and immediately the name It Bites comes to mind. No bad references and this band deserves that because it is high-quality prog with nice swaying keys that demand a bigger role than the six-string (although you don't know that for sure these days). Yet we certainly hear a number of nice solos because Stephenson can play very well.

The time is taken to build the tracks into more than sing-along, bite-sized chunks. Except for the closing Coda, the other six tracks all clock between six and ten minutes. Most tracks have a decent tempo but also contain quiet passages in which Smith can show his cinematographic side. Listen to the end of Faces, on a heavy surface of keyboards, Stephenson delivers a wonderfully lingering solo. This track is also the longest on the album at almost ten minutes. There is some kind of pattern in most of the tracks and they all contain a chorus with a melody that sticks. Sometimes nice, bombastic and dramatic and sometimes almost mesmerizingly quiet. Heartless starts calmly with a subcutaneous tension and ends nice and bombastic again. There actually are no weak tracks on the album and that is of course a great achievement for a first album. Still, this can be explained to some extent by the fact that some tracks have been worked on for decades and have been refined considerably. 

Lyrically, all kinds of social topics are addressed, Billionaires is, how could it be otherwise, about the unfair distribution of wealth in the world and the way in which the rich deal with this. Barett is not only a fine singer but also a capable lyricist. As always, I like to leave the interpretation to you, as listeners.

What is that, no criticism at all? Hello, I'm a Dutchman so of course I have something to complain about. The already mentioned mix is not my thing, it sounds very (too) full and the vocals sometimes drown in the fairly heavy overall sound. I also miss some frivolity and adventure on the compositional side, the songs are quite similar and that is an advantage in terms of consistency, but too much recognizability can lead to boredom. To put it bluntly, all tracks score a seven or eight, which is good, but a nine is missing.

There is definitely a chance here for a next album, I very much hope that there will be, because it is clear that Zen Orchestra is a real asset to our genre. I have a strong feeling that there is still more, and maybe even better, to come.

As you know I'm also into covers and in this case I'm not quite sure. We see someone with his back turned to us who is looking at...., yes what actually? Is it a UFO made of two dinnerplates stacked on top of each other? A fairly simple design that looks nice actually. Of course it's about the music and that is just good. Go listen and give this band the attention they deserve.

Music 78

Cover 65