Colossus, the Finnish progressive music association, started their CD production career with a multi-band concept album of the Kalevala. The success of this album convinced them to try a number of other concepts, of which Odyssey is the fourth. There are nine bands on this album, producing one song each, with three songs per disc. To give the music a sense of cohesion, and presumably to broaden the market, the bands were required to use only seventies instruments and effects.This is the first Colossus collaboration that I have picked up. The fact that I knew and liked three bands on this album convinced me that it was a fairly safe bet, and indeed each of these bands turned in a solid performance, and I also liked the idea of using the album as a sampler for the bands that I had not heard. I also liked the concept. The sword-and-sandal genre has provided some wonderful excess from Hollywood, and so I reasoned it should also work as an overblown progressive epic. And with nine tracks, all over twenty minutes long, it was never going to be anything other than overblown.
I was pleasantly surprised by the consistently high quality of the music here. Nathan Mahl, of whom I had not heard a note previously, provide a wonderful opening, and for me the highlight of the album, but each band seems to have produced at least a few memorable highlights. For me the most disappointing band was Simon Says, who spend a little time stranded on the island of cheese. Their corny lyrics and overt Emersonian keyboard riffs grate on me every time. Even so, they manage a couple of really interesting musical passages, including some interesting intertwining vocals between the lead singer and female backing singer. The cutest addition for me was the throat singing in the middle of the XII Alfonso track.
Lyrically, there are a number of different approaches to the narrative. There are a couple of instrumental tracks, which attempt to tell the story musically. There a few literal approaches, with the parts being played out by different singers, notably Glass Hammer. There are a couple of songs that tell their part of the story from one point in time. Most of the lyrics are in English, though a couple use Spanish or Italian. Then there's Minimum Vital, who sing mostly in French, but there are so many nonsense words mixed in that there is not even an attempt at interpretation in the liner notes. The different approaches worried me at first, but now I quite like them. It's a bit like going to see an art exhibition from nine different artists who have all been asked to create a work based on the same theme. The different approaches make it more compelling.
I really enjoyed listening to this album. Although the bands chosen are all play their own relatively standard form of symphonic prog, they are, in general, the better examples of the style. All the bands I knew before put in strong works, and I now have to add Nathan Mahl and C.A.P. to my list of bands to check out. This is a pretty safe bet for fans on the modern symphonic scene; there are strong melodies, nine epic tracks, and of course Genesis, ELP amd Yes are all shamelessly fleeced.
review by Conrad Leviston — 5-1-06 —
