Self-released
Release date: July 6, 2020
Production: Denis Smith
Album length: 46.18 min
Genre: neo-progressive rock
Rating: 8.0/10
Scottish neo-prog outfit Abel Ganz are back with a long-awaited new studio album that sports a ‘mile-long’ title – “The Life of the Honeybee and Other Moments of Calirty”. The title alone sounds like something a young Peter Gabriel would’ve come up with back when he was still in Genesis, and the new Abel Ganz sound mostly draws on both classic Genesis and Gabriel’s later solo ventures, which isn’t exactly common among modern prog revivalists and makes for a pretty interesting listen.
Well-versed ears will also catch a few not-too-experimental Gentle Giant influences on the new Abel Ganz record, but only where the string arrangements come in. In every other respect, Abel Ganz are fairly classic neo-prog, lately closest in style to their comrades Jadis, Big Big Train and The Tangent, mainly thanks to loads of ‘pretty’, melodic arrangements, a refusal to overcomplicate things, and an all-pervading melancholy that marks their latest album too.
“The Life of the Honeybee and Other Moments of Clarity” would be a very good album if it didn’t have a pretty ‘sleepy’ middle section, with two ballads and one instrumental acoustic piece. Which is a shame, because the opening title track sets up an excellent, eclectic start that plenty of fans of the bands mentioned above will enjoy, even though Abel Ganz bring quite a few sonic and songwriting traits that are all their own. Mick Macfarlane is a superb singer whose vocals cut across many genre borders and are often the key reason you can’t accuse a single track on the album of lacking soul. The original, jazz-tinged finale with a sax solo that’s slightly reminiscent of the unforgettable Steely Dan works especially well.
The rest of the album, as said, comes off far less impressive than the opening (and closing) stretch. Instead of stepping ‘on the gas’, letting loose and carrying on in a similar vein, the band catches us off guard in a bad way with the saccharine, acoustic-leaning ballad “One Small Soul”, which also shows up as a bonus track in a shortened radio edit. The male-female duet does work well and guest vocalist Emily Smith delivers a confident performance, but that love ballad fades into oblivion all too fast. “Arran Shores” is a still-life instrumental built on acoustic guitar, very much Davie Mitchell’s turf, dedicated to the Scottish island of Arran. “Summerlong” is a folk-rock dirge with mournful piano and strings that, apart from a lively Moog solo by Jack Webb, leaves no deeper impression.
With “Sepia and White” the band wakes up from its ‘hibernation’ and serves up another interesting prog-rock epic, high in quality, that – like the title track – would get a nod from the likes of Big Big Train. It’s also the album’s hardest-hitting moment, even though the band mostly swears by a melancholic mood. The closing “The Light Shines Out” is excellent too, though it’s almost too blatant a copy of some of Peter Gabriel’s later solo work. Lead vocals this time go to drummer Denis Smith, who really does sound a bit like the ‘mature’ Peter Gabriel of the “Up” (2001) era, while the assorted percussion, programmed electronic samples, orchestration and whistle sounds with world-music flavors add plenty to the sonic kinship.
“The Life of the Honeybee and Other Moments of Clarity” is an album with a splendid opening and closing stretch, while its middle section is best suited for ‘night music’ before bed. In the eighties Abel Ganz were pretty much overlooked compared with their more famous neo-prog countrymen, but their later albums got a more positive reception and won them plenty of new followers. Their latest effort sadly doesn’t ‘push boundaries’ and sinks too deep into sentimentality in the middle, but thanks to the opening and closing stretches it still deserves some attention from fans of modern prog-rock revivalism.
Author: Peter “Dr. ProgRock” Podbrežnik
Track list:
1. The Life of the Honey Bee and Other Moments of Clarity (12:37)
2. One Small Soul (5:52)
3. Arran Shores (2:40)
4. Summerlong (5:22)
5. Sepia and White (13:31)
6. The Light Shines Out (6:16)
Lineup:
Davie Mitchell – guitar
Jack Webb – keyboards
Mick Macfarlane – vocals, guitar, bouzouki
Stephen Donnelly – bass guitar
Denis Smith – drums, vocals on track no. 6
David King – guitar, keyboards on tracks no. 1 and 6, drum programming on track no. 6
Guest musicians:
Alan Hearton – keyboards on tracks no. 1, 5, 6, vibraphone on track no. 5
Fiona Cuthill – whistles, recorders on track no. 1
Alex Paclin – harmonica on track no. 1
Snake Davis – saxophone on track no. 1
Emily Smith – vocals on track no. 2
Frank van Essen – strings on track no. 4
Stevie Lawrence – whistling on track no. 6
Signy Jakobsdottir – congas, percussion on track no. 6
Marc Papaghin – French horn on track no. 6
