{"id":8567,"date":"2022-04-18T11:48:39","date_gmt":"2022-04-18T09:48:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/kessel-tamerus.nl\/Esthers_Blog\/?p=8567"},"modified":"2022-04-18T11:48:44","modified_gmt":"2022-04-18T09:48:44","slug":"rick-miller-old-souls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/kessel-tamerus.nl\/Esthers_Blog\/cd-recensie\/rick-miller-old-souls\/","title":{"rendered":"Rick Miller – Old Souls\u00a0"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Canadian multi-instrumentalist Rick Miller has been active in prog rock for some time now. For his latest album ‘Old Souls’, he took inspiration from bands like Genesis, The Moody Blues and Pink Floyd. As a result, the ten songs are soft, dark and melodic.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the quiet intro in ‘Time’s Way’ you immediately notice that the sound is clear. You hear a special mix of various instruments. The opening track remains subdued, yet there are quite a few layers in the music at times. The slow, dreamy vocals fit into the whole. Occasionally the background vocals are used as instruments. The cymbals are appropriately gently played. The turn is surprising: tempo and volume go up for a moment. The build up to the end is brief.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Guinevere’ starts with the sound of string instruments, a galloping horse and birds, among other things. You sometimes hear fingers gliding across the strings of the acoustic guitar. The guitar playing is beautiful, but sometimes takes just a little too much attention away from the sound of the cello. This song quietly flows on without a clear build up to the end, it doesn’t touch me as much as I hoped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In ‘Haunt Me’ the beautiful mix of acoustic and electric guitar play is striking. The sober sounds of the strings touch me during the intro of ‘Virgin Rebirth’. Because of the electronic sounds the sequel is different than expected. There is a fine mix or alternation of electronic sounds and light rocking guitar play. With the sound of a storm, this instrumental track runs over to ‘The Red Sky’. Again it is the sombre sounds of the string instruments touch me. The quiet flute playing fits in well with this. The lyrics are quite sad, but the sound of Rick’s voice doesn’t go along with that, he keeps his dreamy sound. In terms of vocals, there are few differences in emotion to be heard. These are present in the music, which by the way is very extraordinary in its composition. That’s why the regular outro is a bit disappointing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The sound quality is good, so the details in the music come into their own. This also applies to the special sounds of both music and sampling in ‘Ixtlan Awaits’. This piece is special and experimental. ‘A Stitch in Time’, with its intriguing intro also has a special texture. This is partly due to the touch of Arabic influences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

‘Don Quixote’ is divided into several chapters, the first being largely instrumental. There are many beautiful details in the music, you keep hearing new things. Spanish influences give the turn to the second chapter. A single phrase is spoken.
After a vocal section, there is a slight restlessness in the music. Then you hear (in the third section) the whooshing sound of windmill sails. The unusual (Theremin like) sounds form a great combination with the wonderful touch of rock. When the sound of the windmill wings is extinguished, the music becomes melancholic. Again, the balance between the instruments is very good. In the last part, some details in the percussion are repeated quite often. The end of this cool epic is quite abrupt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The twists and turns in the instrumental ‘Time’s Way Reprise’ flow nicely into each other. The flow of this last song is pleasantly calm.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There is quite little variation in the vocals. This applies to pitch as well as tempo and volume. Moreover, there is hardly any emphasis on certain words. As a result, a number of sentences lack the emotion that does exist in the lyrics. As a because of this, the longer vocal pieces are somewhat less fascinating. But Rick knows what he can handle, and he stays safely within that.
All the intros are nice to very nice, the outros are a bit disappointing at times.
In several songs there are quite a lot of repetitions in the percussion. Certain instrumental parts are definitely proggy, but not bombastic. These experimental pieces are very engaging and a joy to listen to.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(72\/100) (Progressive Promotion Records<\/a>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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