Future Clouds and Radar
Peoria
Star Apple Kingdom
Nothing ever really goes out of style, including pretentious conceptual progressive rock. With that thought in mind, it HAS been a few years since someone fired a melodic shot gun at a hyperspace of weird time signatures and came up with something like Yes or Emerson, Lake and Palmer. Future Clouds and Radar isn’t quite as good as those old school acid eaters, but they’re no slouches either. While most of their songs clock in at the de rigueur 3:05 pop-tune length, there’s enough soundtrack-from-_Exodus_ orchestration and odd percussion to make any sci-fi soundtrack sound epic and exotic. A guy named Roger Harrison performed and produced this interesting disc with some help from a long list of people neither of us is likely to meet.
FC&R reminds me of the sort of super arty local bands I used to follow in my Midwestern college days. They slide jazz, lounge, rock, classical, and for all I know gamelan, polkas, and Tibetan chants into the stew and pull up challenging but usually listenable stuff that makes you sit there and think “Yeah…the world IS messed up. Waitress! Another espresso!” This is the thinking man’s progressive pop, suitable for any occasion where you need to appear inscrutable.
Star Apple Kingdom: http://www.starapplekingdom.com
