Author: Aleš Podbrežnik
Artist: Flying Colors
Label: Provogue Records
Release: 2012
Length: 59:40
Rating: 4.5/5
»American neo-progressive rock« is surely an ugly, crude and far too loose genre tag. One of its main protagonists, you could even say its founders, was Spock’s Beard, who burst onto the scene in the nineties. To this day they’re seen as a sort of answer to the post-Genesis prog vocabulary of British bands, from the other side of the world. If for some Genesis is the basic platform their prog sticks to, for the Americans of Spock’s Beard it’s without a doubt Kansas first and foremost.
In the eclecticism of symphonic progressive rock, the Americans have always trailed behind the Europeans. Only with the arrival of Kansas did they manage to reach more convincingly, in sheer audacity, into merging symphonic elements with the esoterica of dazzling solo adventures and a combination of more demanding rhythmic textures. Of course, Kansas were primarily influenced by Yes, a European band. Often, though not always, it happens that American prog bands are better schooled in fusing jazz and rock elements than European ones. Nor do they build their atmospheres in a dark setting that shows you heaven and hell at the same time; instead they always create a positive sentiment of sonic warmth, mostly playful and occasionally even a touch naive in temperament.
All this long intro has a point. Without it, there would be no Flying Colors today. They’re a new American prog supergroup, bringing together seasoned and highly respected musicians with untouchable artistic pedigrees. Let’s list them. First up is the Dixie Dregs duo of Steve Morse (guitar) and Dave LaRue (bass). The famous drumming madness is in the hands of former Dream Theater heavyweight Mike Portnoy, the arrangements neither know how nor are able to hide the unmistakable songwriting craftsmanship of Neal Morse (solo, ex-Spock’s Beard), while the icing on the cake, in the search for unique and distinctive-sounding attributes in the Flying Colors sound, is the vocals of the lesser-known Casey McPherson (Alpha Rev, ex-Endochine)! He’s a singer with an extremely interesting character of vocal color, one that fits like a glove with the art-rock reach of Flying Colors’ music.
Listing the members of this supergroup is actually unavoidable in this review. Why? Because the album »Flying Colors« is a document of an extremely successful spectral distribution of bits of the musical vocabulary of the home bands the musicians in this new supergroup belong to. The sound of the drums, as well as the typical transitional »rolls«, don’t hide for a second that a former »Dream Theater guy« is sitting behind them. The guitar solos clearly reveal that they can only be played with the singular touch of a man who, with his charisma, breathed a unique stamp into two Kansas albums of the eighties, who is the main carrier of the Dixie Dregs sound, and who, since 1994, has fatefully shaped the face of every new studio release by the forefathers of metal, Deep Purple. Then there’s the one-of-a-kind bassist Dave LaRue, who effortlessly keeps up with Portnoy and only confirms with his playing that it wasn’t for nothing that even the founder of guitar rock, Joe Satriani, lured him into working together.
Keyboardist Neal Morse deserves a special paragraph of this review, because Neal is the key figure behind the Flying Colors debut sounding rather compact, melodic and easier to get into throughout, and behind the song structures keeping a clear »head and tail« (a clearly built »verse – chorus« link). All of this embodies, both back in the day and still today, the music of Spock’s Beard, which also points to the musician’s development while listening to Kansas, The Beatles, Yes,…. Of course, Neal Morse also pours the stamp of his solo studio albums into the arrangements of the Flying Colors songs. Master Neal Morse takes an interesting adventure in the song Everything Changes. About three minutes in, it comes within a hair’s breadth (thanks to the keyboard arrangement) of the Supertramp sentiment of the late seventies and the cult album »Breakfast in America« (1979). The intro and outro of Everything Changes, meanwhile, pull toward the solemn symphonic feel of the old Kansas school, which is later considerably deepened by the addition of string arrangements.
The choruses are polished, melodically complete and extremely infectious. They give the songs a high degree of variety, and the album as a whole a highly dynamic flow of events. Take one of the most striking choruses in the song Kayla, where the band brilliantly harmonizes the melody with multi-voice singing, the opening Blue Ocean, the already mentioned solemn Everything Changes, the easygoing Love Is What I’m Waiting For, the dreamy Better Than Walking Away, or the darkly irritated Shoulda Coulda Woulda, which with its peculiarities undoubtedly stands out on the album. The song with the biggest surplus of prog charm is the closing Infinite Fire, where the band takes on, in the glow of the great majority, the peculiarities of jazz rock fusion »whirling American-style« and adds, once again, the glorious symphonic element of Kansas charm. Here’s another absolute oddity of the album. The song All Falls Down, which with its symphonic element in the arrangements comes within a hair’s breadth of the achievements of Euro power metal (a chorus set up like that would, in a different studio environment, be devilishly exploited by metal bands like Jag Panzer and lifted into a whole other dimension). Along with Shoulda Coulda Woulda (the opening part), All Falls Down is also the moment on the album that comes closest to elements of prog metal. The laid-back Fool In My Heart is tailor-made for Mike Portnoy’s vocals. It’s the drummer’s personal, confessional note of vocal interpretation, and the excellent link with Neal Morse’s work once again proves that the two musicians, who have been working together for many years (Neal Morse solo, Transatlantic,…), know each other down to the hair-splitting detail and that there are no secrets between them.
Besides the vocal peculiarities of Casey McPherson, Steve Morse’s guitar vocabulary is the little tongue on the scales of the album »Flying Colors«, the thing that keeps the songs from accidentally following the curves of the home bands the musicians united in Flying Colors come from. Of course, the songs carry an enticing sentiment throughout that clearly signals where the musicians come from, but not a single song falls into the feeling of replicating the artistic expression of Dream Theater, Spock’s Beard, Neal Morse solo, Kansas,…
Flying Colors is a triumphant new supergroup! The debut »Flying Colors« is an absolute oddball that, with its musical vocabulary, teases fans of the bands these out-of-the-ordinary musical talents belong to (in their past as well as present activities) in just the right dose, while at the same time achieving a unique expressive flexibility and eclectic breadth that, with full credibility, puts Flying Colors in a special place. We can only hope it grows into a permanent fixture, puts out another studio album or two, and delights its fans with concert tours as well.
The Flying Colors debut is one of the most interesting creations that progressive rock, cut for new times, has delivered this year, cut in the characteristic American approach to the genre, and so it’s a more than welcome addition to the album collection of everyone who absolutely demands insight, originality and musical difference. These three coexist in Flying Colors within a singular symbiosis of melodic catchiness and the bravura of instrumental acrobatic trickery. The latter is kept under control throughout within the firm form of the songs, so they never fall prey to the danger of the »fragmentation« syndrome and instead maintain high melodic appeal. It’s precisely this that can spark interest even among those of you who struggle with the usual »complicating« in the musical culture of the character traits of the (sub)genre “new American progressive rock”.
Lineup
Casey McPherson – vocals, keyboards, backing vocals, guitar
Steve Morse – guitar
Neal Morse – keyboards, backing vocals, vocal duets
Dave LaRue – bass
Mike Portnoy – drums, percussion, backing vocals, lead vocals on track no. 10
Production
Peter Collins
Track list
1. Blue Ocean
2. Shoulda Coulda Woulda
3. Kayla
4. The Storm
5. Forever In A Daze
6. Love Is What I’m Waiting For
7. Everything Changes
8. Better Than Walking Away
9. All Falls Down
10. Fool In My Heart
11. Infinite Fire
