Artist: RPWL
Label: SPV Records
Release: 2005
Rating: 3.5/5
RPWL? I haven’t heard such a daft name in a long time. It’s made up of the initials of the surnames of the (founding!) members of the band (Risettion Postl Wallner Lung). As if the lineup from the debut would last forever! Like hell it will! Changes have already happened, and by rights the name should now be MEWL. Anyway, let’s set that aside. What does the record with the admittedly “overridden” title have to offer? Judging by the cover, you’d blurt out right away that these guys are total psych-heads. Not quite, though. At the start the guys were a “mini Pink Floyd cover band”. Well, the first two records slapped them with the thankless rep of Pink Floyd copyists. And that’s a pretty lousy send-off for any further breakthrough. But the fourth one, “World Through My Eyes”, surprises, given this huge shift in the band’s new direction.
That shows in the material itself, which we can now say without mincing words is no Pink Floyd imitation, but a stylistically distinctive bundle of ten songs of its own: polished, sonically full, and never for a moment losing the red thread, in the sense that the music would falter through a lack of fluidity or atmosphere because of some odd sequence of motifs (there’s none of that!) and so fail to convince through its expression. It’s as if the band went through a little death, grew back from the remains and transformed into a unit that knows how to think for itself. Now RPWL have practically taken their first steps on their own two feet.
What does still recall Pink Floyd is Lang’s velvety, “Gilmour-esque” vocal and the guitar here and there (only here and there!), in a few glissando licks…otherwise the progress and the difference from their previous studio efforts lie in the fresh guitar arrangements, which are finally and definitively their own! Another matter is the integration of the new drummer, Manfred Müller, who brought a far more technically accomplished and varied style of drumming, which RPWL largely have to thank for sounding even more modern!
The band has also worked a bit of Hinduism into the music, as the tabla-backed “beat” of the opener Sleep flags up right away, and as for blending, or fusion, one of the loveliest adventures is caught in the title track, where sitar and tabla slot superbly into the band’s otherwise prog rock outlook. The keyboards fill out the sound picture and give it gorgeous depth and expressiveness. The motifs are laid out in a listenable way, flow smoothly through the ears and link up with each other just as smoothly. On top of that, the band masterfully adds assorted synth embellishments to the arrangements, lifting the mood. There are also a few impressive duels between guitar and keyboards (the title track) that never “drag” the songs down. RPWL also have an exceptional sense for arranging multi-vocal harmonies, which come off especially expressive in the chorus of the title track. The production is clear and, despite its cleanness and balance, keeps an exceptional fullness and juicy liveliness. The basic form of RPWL, meanwhile, comes from The Beatles (Everything Was Not Enough, then the intro to Three Lights). Three Lights jumps in its motif to the “Beatles-esque” Across The Universe, but otherwise RPWL drive the whole song along in a very unpredictable way, since it’s later spiced up with fantastically placed solos and motif switches through the instrumental middle and outro. Dreamy and offbeat, but with a lot more composure than some extraterrestrial Yes (in the seventies). So it’s not all sunshine, there’s the cruel everyday too. Day On My Pillow, of all the tracks, calls out most convincingly for a revival of seventies prog rock.
RPWL are typical preachers who express themselves through “green language”. In Bound To Reach The End they bring their apocalyptic vision to life with artfully added verses in which they say that blessed are those who are granted not to be cowards at heart and who can rise high enough to find unconditional love in their hearts, through revelation (a handful), while the rest will drown together in the abyss of self-destruction (the majority). Today such a sermon is even more important with the Western world gone completely mad and the tyranny of the USA. Otherwise RPWL sing hymns of praise to Mother Earth and nature and rejoice along with her (Sea – Nature). They seek contact with nature, which for today’s crazy little human, armed with every imaginable robotic gadget that satisfies his everyday needs, became a thing of the past long ago. And if the little human does find time for an outing today, it’s quite often just a Sunday visit to Janković’s shopping-mall temples.
Roses is a special song that could easily have come out as a single and only proves the group’s exceptional talent. It carries a modern “beat drive” and the track flies along on its wings. Ray Wilson (the last and ultimate singer of the legendary Genesis) guests on vocals in this song. The guitars are pushed a bit into the background in the production, but besides glissando jumps they also occasionally use a motif reminiscent of, say, the “Floyd-ian” Take It Back. The spacey sound of the synthesizers contributes superbly to the high atmosphere. The melancholic chorus is especially expressive. The track Wasted Land carries a similar atmosphere. With the English-speaking guy stepping up to the mic on just one single song, Lang’s unfortunate accent when stressing English is felt all the more on the other tracks. So the record’s only weak point is the English singing. The hushing consonants are a tougher crowd, so the word “direction” gets sung with a “stubborn” “ch”, like “dairekchn”, instead of the proper “dairekshn”. That takes some of the seriousness out of the product.
With all the excellence, this remark nearly fades away completely. The band has finally started walking. The copycat remarks have become pointless, which makes “World Through My Eyes” a very important achievement for the band. This is really the true beginning now. RPWL surely still hide all their musical potential, so “World Through My Eyes” isn’t yet the peak of their journey. In the future the accent will need polishing so it sounds more English, but otherwise the record as a whole is a great little thing. It’s not a progressive masterpiece, but a very, very beautiful record that slides tastefully through the ears and masterfully gives them a massage. “World Through My Eyes” is a lovely mix of highly ambient melodies in gorgeous conversation with the poetry of peace-loving preaching, confidently and resolutely carried out, which speaks to the band’s high intellect. And we can expect even more in the future. Maybe the band will finally also give itself a “cool” name, instead of the current cipher you can break your tongue on. So, a record for people who miss Pink Floyd! “World Through My Eyes” is a splendid extraction of the musical forms of the “Floyd-ian” legacy through their own language, in the original, and therefore a special record that will surprise many of you.
Lineup
Yogi Lang – vocals, keyboards
Karlheinz Wallner – guitar
Stephan Ebner – bass guitar
Manfred Müller – drums
Special guest:
Ray Wilson – vocals on ‘Roses’
Tracklist
1. Sleep (7:11)
2. Start the fire (5:02)
3. Everything was not Enough (8:43)
4. Roses (6:36)
5. Three Lights (8:30)
6. Sea-Nature (8:21)
7. Day on my Pillow (4:23)
8. World through my Eyes (10:14)
9. Wasted Land (4:52)
10. Bound to reach the End (6:56)
Bonus track on the special edition:
11. New Stars (6:30)
Album length: 70:50
