Silver Ray - Humans

  by Philip Vincent

published: 8 / 2 / 2005

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Review

Ooh, prog music ! It reminds me of stoned evenings staring at my lava lamp listening to 'Wish You Were Here' by Pink Floyd in my uni bedroom. Which seems to just like that last sentence sum up many stereotypical visions of bands of middle aged men standing very still with huge light shows and production budgets to match. "Humans', however, doesn’t have quite the same sense of pomp that the older generation of prog had. I believe this is down to the fact that Silver Ray are a 3 piece . With the energy of the music only split three ways rather than mulitples of ten this makes making them sound slightly more interesting. The second track 'Live Then Die' sounds like Lennon and Mcartney on overdrive but with a little less balls. The final track draws good comparisons to contemporary jazz, which of course totally instrumental music with track running times of over ten minutes will always get! The obvious comparisons to this band are Godspeed You Black Emperor, Sigur Ros and perhaps Mogwai during their gentler moments. At the end of the day it, however, is not quite in the same class and in my eyes it never ever gets going. It’s a bit like when you were a teenager, you and your girlfriend are playing around whilst her parents are out and then suddenly they return, leaving you both a little bit pent up. In essence what you have here is a Prog-Chillout album with a definite rosy edged tint. I haven’t heard their earlier work but from what I have read they are considered quite dark. 'Humans' is not like this at all, and although it has its tense moments (about the ten minute mark in track 3 'Big Mystery') these feel more like an escape scene in a film than the bit in 'The Terminator' when the world gets nuked. It is in its own way a pretty cool piece of work,. The absolute lack of vocals will always turn a few people off straight away, but in my eyes this allows the more open amongst us to draw our own interpretations into what the musicians are trying to portray. I have to say to me it sounds like an album that would be most at home after a heavy night out when people are determined to stay awake. I just wish there were some vocals!

Track Listing:-

1 Winter Is Behind Us
2 Live Then Die
3 Big Mystery
4 Live In Hope