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12/04/2009:
Aquaplanage Interviewed on Total Rock Radio
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| 04/04/2009: Some More Reviews |
| 14/03/2009: Album Review in Musicians Magazine |
| 24/02/2009: Robert Illesh featured on alloutguitar.com!! |
04/02/2009: Review by the Dutch Progressive Rock Page |
| 17/01/2009: International Aquaplanage |
| 10/01/2009: Dark Peak Productions |
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09/01/2009: Fragile - Warm Up Date 18th January 2009 |
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19/12/2008: CD Baby Review and Featured Album on Christmas Day! |
19/12/2008: CD Baby Review and Featured Album over Christmas!
The following is all
wording by employees of CD Baby in the USA:
We love your "AQUAPLANAGE: Aquaplanage" CD so much that we're going to
feature it on the CD Baby front page for a day, and in our Editor's Picks
section from now on.
We're *really* picky about what we feature. We receive about 300 new albums a
DAY, (over 300,000 total), and yours is one of the best we've ever heard.
THE DATE YOUR CD WILL BE ON THE FRONT PAGE OF CDBABY.COM
(This is the big day - make a note of it somewhere.) Thursday, December 25th
2008 Link - aquaplanage
| CD Baby REVIEW Progressive rock is tough to pull off. By its nature, the genre requires more players than the average band, and with the chops it takes to successfully fulfill the requirements of the oft-complex arrangements, there's plenty of room for error. This London group has been at the prog game for a while, with some of the core members having cut their teeth in a celebrated Yes cover band. It must have been great practice, because this, their debut of original material (which has been years in the making), is classic rock prog done right: the time changes are challenging, the layers of instruments are distinct but cohesive, and the vocal harmonies are spot-on, serving as one more instrument in the already impressive arsenal. If there was any doubt as to the level of ambition invested in this record, the 15 minute-plus opening track, "Ode to Grey Mornings," is clear proof that this is no band of amateurs. It's a huge song, twisting through various sections while never straying too far from the initial intent of the track. And that's just the beginning. If you're a fan of Jethro Tull, early Genesis, and, of course, Yes, you'll definitely want to check this out. |
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10/01/2009:
Dark Peak Productions
Aquaplanage
are pleased to announce a collaboration with Dark Peak Productions http://darkpeakproductions.com/ .
This has secured a supply route for Aquaplanage CDs for Eastern
Europe and the Far East.
09/01/2009:
Fragile - Warm Up Date 18th January 2009
Fragile,
Europe's Premier Yes tribute band are launching their 2009 activities with
a warm up date at St Mary's Church Speen near Newbury on Sunday 18th
January at 4.30pm. This will be a progtastic event, rekindling memories of
Rick Wakeman doing similar things in the late 70s. There's even a holy
well there. See www.yestribute.com
for more details and other 2009 dates.
17/01/2009: International Aquaplanage
Within a month of the release of the Aquaplanage album and without the main promotional campaign having started in force, Aquaplanage has already gone around the globe, mainly thanks to word of mouth and online selling. At present, there are copies in the following countries, and the list grows daily:
Australia
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
Finland
Germany
Hungary
Indonesia
Japan
Malta
Norway
Peurto Rico
Poland
Romania
Thialand
United Kingdom
United States of America
04/02/2009: Review by the Dutch Progressive Rock Page
Excerpts
from Aquaplanage review on the Dutch Progressive Rock Page by Geoff Feakes:
You’ve
got to admire Aquaplanage for their bravado proclaiming this self titled
debut release as "The next classic prog album". But then again
they should know their progressive chops being a side project of Yes
tribute band Fragile who’ve been active in the UK for the past 10 years.
They open
proceedings with the album’s obligatory epic length piece Ode To Grey
Mornings. Divided into five distinct but harmoniously integrated
sections it showcases the bands melodic and readily accessible sound. Innocence
is a pastoral excursion into prog-folk territory guided by acoustic
guitar, flute and multi part harmonies before Pleasure’s Mine
takes a sharp left into King Crimson terrain with jagged Adrian Belew
inflected guitar. The mellow The Journey features some wonderful
guitar picking and wistful vocals in the style of Strangefish’s Steve
Taylor before the jubilant Rebellion with its Hackett flavoured
melodious guitar, rumbling bass pattern and fuzzed Hammond solo. The
finale Wiser builds from ambient electronic beginnings into a
confident guitar and synth melody with Carney adopting an early Marillion
era Fish vocal tone.
The
Sands Of Time is
full of Eastern promise with its ethnic chants and colourful
instrumentation in the spirit of Led Zep’s Kashmir. Illesh
provides a fine orchestral arrangement making good use of the guest string
section. Nature's Sunday is a song of two contrasting halves
beginning with a tranquil guitar, piano and vocal lament reminiscent of
Genesis circa Nursery Cryme before morphing into hard rock section
complete with in-your-face guitar histrionics. Written by Hunt, Solara
is a keyboard delight complete with fast but melodic Emerson style piano
flurries, gothic pipe organ and Wakeman rich synth noodlings. It concludes
with a dreamy Vangelis influenced synth soundscape straight out of Blade
Runner.
Appropriately, the albums title track Aquaplanage is also its strongest. Composed by Illesh and former Fragile keys man Gonzalo Carrera it features counterpoint acoustic guitars with delicate violin and flute embellishments. There is an air of Hackett at his most languid here together with shades of Oldfield particularly in the classical guitar work. Shimmering strings provide the icing on the cake.
Aquaplanage
have certainly gone to a good deal of trouble to produce an album that
runs a gamut of styles without once challenging the listener’s
involvement. Given their background they should also be applauded for
avoiding what would have been the obvious Yes sound alike route. This
release comes packaged in some very nice artwork from my favourite album
designer at the moment Ed Unitsky plus meticulous production values
courtesy of chief protagonist Robert Illesh.
For
the full version, please visit http://www.dprp.net/reviews/200905.php#aqua
14/03/2009: Album Review in Musicians Magazine
Aquaplanage
has just received a stunning review in Musician Magazine, the Journal of
the Musicians Union. Here is the full text:
"Aquaplanage: Life-affirming prog rock from a six piece who wear
their 1970s influences on their sleeves, yet mould these timeless traces
of vintage British ventures into their own musical landscape of excellent
dynamics, stunning solos and consumate lyrical expression. Ode to Grey
Mornings is set to be a prog classic, as its 15 minutes and five sections
find superbly-produced lead and group passages, plus flute and sound
samples delivered in brilliant succession. Anyone seeking a modern edition
of Genesis's Selling England By The Pound, Jethro Tull's Thick As A Brick
or Yes's Close To The Edge should grab every opportunity to catch this
band. A simply tremendous album."
(From the Spring 2009 edition www.musiciansunion.org.uk
)
As the album gathers momentum, more and more positive reviews are being made worldwide.
The first one is from www.znrcds.com who are Prog music specialists based in Kentucky USA:
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Absolutely beautiful CD! Hints at Yes, Camel, Anthony Phillips and, more recently, The Flower Kings & Thieves Kitchen. Beautiful guitar playing, both acoustic & electric, and real nice orchestral arrangements highlight this fine disc. Singer Steve Carney sounds SO much like Jon Anderson at times that it is positively eerie! (Yes should've gotten him to stand in for Anderson on the recent tour!) Nice melodies sung & played with great transparency & interspersed with fine instrumental sections in the best symphonic prog tradition! Parts of this really sound like the perfect marriage of Yes' "Awaken" with Genesis' "Blood on the Rooftops'! OK, no new ground is broken but still this is one fine album! Fans of the genre will not be disappointed at all! |
The next one is from http://www.missingpiece.net/ a very Prog friendly website:
"Here's
the next great new progband! Aquaplanage hail from London, and some of the
members have a background in a Yes cover band, which of course is a great
practice to a prog musician. Now they have come up with original material,
and not only are the songs very good, and very well performed, they are
also very original. A part from the obvious Yes influence, you can also
hear quite a lot of Kansas, old-school Genesis and Jethro Tull. A very
interesting new band with a very strong debut album! HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Rating: 8"
The following
link is a review from a Belgian website and is in French:
Click here
for Belgian version
English Translation
Pascal Laurent 4 stars
Music in Belgium
We are in the presence of their first album which begins with the very large 15 minute “Ode To Grey Mornings”. Very progressive, beginning with birds, guitar-flute, beautiful harmonious voices, a little like if Crosby, Stills & Nash accompanied Jethro Tull. The next passage more dark aka King Crimson, then the calm after storm where choruses begin again. A part of piano pointing out “Awaken” making place with final chamarré especially from the point of view of the guitars evoking in turn Robert Fripp, Steve Hackett, but especially Steve Howe. In places the voice evokes Jon Anderson. A piece of traditional progressive rock, perhaps not very original, but it does not matter, it is very good.
It is to be explained if I say to you that Aquaplanage is a musical project resulting from Fragile, which had recently the honour to turn in the company of Steve Howe (having passed by Spirit of 66 in Verviers). I was unaware of it with the first listening and so much better, that enables me to deliver more neutral impressions. The musicians of Fragile had the idea to create and record their own music at the time of a voyage in… Belgium! Let us cease this digression, but the presentations had well to be supplemented.
“The Sands of Time” continues in a more original way, with Egyptian instruments, a beautiful bass line recalling the large albums of the beginnings of Marillion with guitars to Howe on one side and Hackett on the other. The oriental party gives a small Robert Plant side which is far from being unpleasant, that swings very well, really pleasant. This stage, and by taking account of the membership of the musicians in Fragile, one can already note that the group has the good taste to avoid the plagiarism of Yes - Steve is singing with his voice without imitating Jon Anderson.
“Nature’s Sunday" begins a little more in the Andersonienne-Howe-Yes line, arpeggios of guitar punctuated by harmonics way of “And You And I” but a little softer. One awakes while entering the heart of the piece, much nearer to Deep Purple than of progressive rock, and one finishes as one started.
Two instrumentals follow, “Solara” dominated by the keyboards (it is Max Hunt who wrote it). Virtuosity with the piano in entry, organ and emphases (all Wakemanienne), to return to the subtle simplicity of the piano in Erik Satie – pretty! “Aquaplanage” then, acoustic guitar ahead (compliments of Robert Illesh), Asian environment, pointing out certain nuances of Steve Hackett or California Guitar Trio, releasing, melodious, really pleasant!
Now to the more unspecified part of the album, “Heaven’s Gate”, ballad style Genesis of the Eighties, Steve Carney singing like Jon Anderson. In “A Song To Stand Above Them All”, they flirt with the style of FM, Asia or Foreigner, played well. A return to instrumental acoustics with “Theme”, also pretty like “Aquaplanage” and they finish with “One Star” a Christmas pop-ballad.
A very interesting album. Why not round off, by including some renditions of Yes?
The Aquaplanage project holds the road, we await the next opus.
An finally for
our Polish friends (and we have many):
Click here
12/04/2009: Aquaplanage Interviewed on Total Rock Radio
Enjoy!
Aquaplanage
