Despite the slightly wacky German name, Druckfarben are in fact a Canadian band, and this album is their debut album. It is one of those albums where it is hard to find anything to say other than it is an extremely good album.
Anyways, the Druckfarben guys treat the listener to enjoyable progressive rock with a modern sound by in essence quite retrospective with lots of references to the likes of King Crimson, 70s Genesis, and Yes. There's the organ, the complex song structures, the quirks, the odd time signatures, the at times very big sound, and the elements from the universe of jazz fusion. Particularly the guitar solos are very jazzy, which is one of the hings that I enjoy immensely about this album. The compositions are typically characterized by lushness in one form or another (such as through multi-layered melodies or multiple vocal tracks. The drumming is pretty organic, and the polished production allows the listener to really note all the details in the drumming (something which can be difficult on many of the classic prog rock releases from the era that Druckfarben see so inspired by). While the musical aspect of the album is quite retrospective, the vocal melodies have more of a modern feel to them (except, perhaps, some of the verses in'Influenza' which, for some reason remind me of 'Tax Man' by the Beatles).
Needless to say, the musicianship is top notch across the board, and, as composers, they pretty much ace it too, and what I like is that most of the tracks are pretty short for progressive rock (the longest tracks 'Dead Play Awake' and 'Nonchalant' are "only" seven and a half minutes long), but Druckfarben manage to compress all the good and progressive stuff and complex structures into these relatively short songs, and it works perfectly, as the listener does not have to sit through ten minutes of keyboard wankery to get to his or her favorite guitar solo (and vice versa).
Druckfarben is perhaps not super original with all its references from classic progressive rock, but that does not mean that it is not a good album. In fact it is a very good album, full of details and goodies for the fan of progressive rock to enjoy.
Track listing:
1. ELPO
2. Influenza
3. Smaller Wooden Frog
4. Dead Play Awake
5. Walk Away
6. Seems So Real
7. Nat Nayah
8. Sons Of Anakim
9. Nonchalant
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