Little Atlas - Hollow


Year of Release: 2007
Label: 10T Records
Catalog Number: 10T10025
Format: CD
Total Time: 57:38:00

I wasn't sure what to expect from Little Atlas - clone of some well-known 70s prog? Modern prog so modern than saying prog was just a wishful thinking appellation? The answer is somewhere in between. Well, in between classic and modern. Or both classic and modern simultaneously. No two pieces are the same, although they don't feel out of place with each other. And although keyboards and guitars are very much in evidence, what seems most prominent consistently are the drums, never out of balance with the rest of the instrumentation, but certainly assertive and uncompromising.

The opening, title track is not bad, but it seems pedestrian compared to the more dynamic and interesting pieces that follow. Hear "Hollow" and you think, perhaps, we've got another mid-tempo, rock-leaning, progish American band. This track is deceiving in some ways, because what follows draws from so much more.

You want touchstones? In a nutshell, Little Atlas benefit from 50, 60 years of music in all its permutations - ambient, blues, fusion, jazz, prog, reggae, and rock in particular. "Silence" starts out as a subtle, drifting atmosphere, then becomes a Floydian exercise in languidity - Dark Side Of The Moon (and earlier) being a reference point. It's Floydian, even down to the warm tones of saxophone that float through the piece. By the halfway point, we have punchy, growly tempest of a rocker. It's a piece that also doesn't forget to include some pastoral textures, leading into the explosive final minute of the track. At 10-plus minutes, it is the epic of the album.

Also on the mellower side is "Contumacious." It is a bit ironic in that it is anything but rebellious; yet this soft-spoken, spacey piece is like your darker side whispering in your ear, which can be seen as a subtext? Although in truth one can suppose any sort of impediment made manifest - man against nature, man against himself (or inner self), or even man against the darker elements of the universe. Which is a grandiose way of saying --- well, there is very much a undercurrent of religious faith running through the songs, so that opposition could be the side of? well, evil might be overstating it, but nevertheless, that opposition is the protagonist here. Ah, but, we could really flip this and the protagonist is actually the element of good running opposition to the element of bad?

And there's the pastoral "Hiding" - acoustic guitar textures and a sparser arrangement give this the necessary warm feel. Here we might mention Genesis; and, in the brief percussion transitional pause, and later, a sharp, singing guitar solo, Marillion. Well, in truth, the former made me think of a similar transition from Ian Mosley on Misplaced Childhood; the latter, a more general Steve Rothery reference? though there a Steve Hackett element to it, too. But this doesn't really sound like anything Genesis did, or Marillion for that matter. It's not a neo-prog piece. Nice hints of piano-like keys in there as well.

In a similar vein, there's the folksy 60s are evoked in the album's closer, "Special." It's a shuffling acoustic based piece built around a cheerful arrangement, given a soft focus with a hazy and relaxed vocal delivery. Quite the contrast to "Symbiosis," which precedes it.

"Symbiosis" is a punchy, rocking piece dominated by crashing percussion, and goes in a direction not at all evident by the widdly organ intro, that suggests something more traditionally classic prog. The furious energy here is akin to fusion, though you can find soaring guitar solos, throaty guitar solos, and even a sweetly lyrical solo during a particularly calm moment. It is a piece that has varying textures that all come back to the fiery aspect that is the main thrust.

Speaking of fiery, the big feel to the wild, fusiony "Paranoiac" (at track 3) has more the feel of an epic than "Silence." The colour palette is broader, but it is a track that fits into the 70s inspired progressive rock slot - widdly, psychedelic keyboards and Hammond organ, complex interplay - and yet brings a very modern element to it as well, with Steve Katsikas' sometimes speak-sing delivery? not rap, not even a hint; maybe a feathery brush of it ? with in a bit of a snarl. Also classic prog sounding is "Orderly," full of warm vocal harmonies, flute-like keyboard passages, more organ, all with an overall energetic tempo.

High energy is what characterizes "Stage" - a bold and punchy statement that smacks you with bursts of furious bass and crisp percussions. Treated, throaty vocals give this a rawer feel, angry and defiant. Here again Little Atlas sound like the 21st century prog band they are. Oh sure, there's some rolling keyboard that is jazz influenced, but unlike some of the other pieces, this is not in away retro. Screaming guitar gets to solo for a passage. As I write this, here's what flashed through my mind on this listen through - A.C.T, Man On Fire, and a tenser Izz. It is a tightly wound track that doesn't really let up.

Finally, though not the last track as this comes as the mid-point, "Preying," is a Beatle-esque/60s-esque jazzy reggae number, but even that doesn't entirely define the arrangement as we get some rock in there, too. It sounds upbeat, happy, even if the lyrics are not. Irony again.

Entertaining and well worth repeated plays, it may not enter the hallowed halls of a progressive rock classic, but this varied and dynamic release will leave you feeling anything but "hollow."


Tracklisting:
Hollow (5:02) / Silence (10:47) / Paranoiac (5:47) / Contumacious (4:28) / Preying (4:45) / Orderly (5:05) / Hiding (5:50) / Stage (4:32) / Symbiosis (7:14) / Special (4:05)

Musicians:
Steve Katsikas - vocals, keyboards, saxophone
Rik Bigai - bass, synths, cuatro
Roy Strattman - electric and acoustic guitars, vocals
Diego Pocovi - drums and percussion
Joanna Katsikas - additional vocals

Discography:
Neverworldly (1998)
Surface Serene (2003)
Wanderlust (2005)
Hollow (2007)
Automatic Day (2013)

Live In Louisville 18-Nov-2011 (DVD) (2012)

Genre: Progressive Rock

Origin US

Added: June 15th 2008
Reviewer: Stephanie Sollow
Score:
Artist website: www.facebook.com/littleatlas/
Hits: 3354
Language: english

  

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