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The title of the sixth Prog Collective album telegraphs the direction in which the music goes; moody and minor-key is the order of the day. Less a group than a project, the Collective is the brainchild of Billy Sherwood, the mult-instrumentalist, singer and songwriter best known as the musician hand-picked by Yes\u2019 Chris Squire to take over on bass when Squire succumbed to cancer.<\/p>\n
But Sherwood\u2019s fertile well of creativity has always extended well beyond his role in Yes. He launched Prog Collective more than a decade ago as a vehicle for his own prog excursions. Drawing from his extensive contacts within the music community, he called upon the talents of a who\u2019s who of prog (and some notable names outside the genre) to realize his projects.<\/p>\n
As on previous Prog Collective outings, the format is this: Sherwood writes the tunes and lays down nearly all of the instrumental parts. He\u2019s adept on bass, guitar, keys and drums, so it\u2019s no stretch. And then \u2013 through file sharing (a modern miracle that\u2019s now commonplace), his roster of guest players and vocalists add their parts.<\/p>\n
Previous releases have been a mixed bag. Some, like the self-titled 2012 debut, scored positive notices. Others have been less well-received. 2013\u2019s curiously-titled Epilogue<\/i> focused on vocals, and suffered somewhat for that choice. On Dark Encounters<\/i>, all but three of the 13 tracks (not counting the dubious \u201cbonus\u201d tracks, but I\u2019ll get to those later) are instrumental. That approach lends itself to the format, and gives the guests opportunities to shine.<\/p>\n
Sherwood\u2019s list of guests tends to center around those with some connection to the Cleopatra\/Purple Pyramid label; certain guests pop up on Prog Collective releases (as well as the multiple tribute-project releases from the label). This time around we get Steve Stevens (best known as Billy Idol\u2019s guitarist), and other ace axemen contribute as well: Steve Hillage, Steve Morse and Ron \u201cBumblefoot\u201d Thal and John Etheridge all turn in appealing work. Bass-playing guests include Joe Bouchard (ex-Blue \u00d6yster Cult) and Kasim Sulton (ex-Utopia). 1970s-era King Crimson violinist David Cross plays a lead on \u201cAt the Gates.\u201d Keyboard virtuoso Patrick Moraz contributes to one tune. Drummers Chad Wackerman and Pat Mastelotto lend their immense talents to the project as well.<\/p>\n
The most soaring instrumentalist work on the set comes during \u201cThe 11th<\/sup> Hour,\u201d the album\u2019s rare turn toward actual prog-meets-jazz, with a skittering and complex rhythm track adorned with some out-there soloing by Soft Machine\u2019s Etheridge. Sherwood\u2019s bass playing on the track is knotty and muscular as well.<\/p>\n The music is nominally prog, but listeners expecting tricky time signatures and sweeping, ambitious arrangement might find themselves disappointed. The music is all solid stuff, heavy on minor-key atmospherics. But it\u2019s not especially ambitious in design nor overly hooky in construction. And somewhat flying in the face of prog values, the longest tracks are but four minutes in length.<\/p>\n Kasim\u2019s guest turn, \u201cLonely Landscape\u201d is a somewhat unexpected standout. Though it has perhaps the highest degree of Sherwood-ness of all the tracks, it\u2019s also arguably the best; competing for that title is \u201cThe Quasi Effect,\u201d a track that\u2019s all Sherwood, all the time. That fact does call into question whether all these guests are even needed, beyond their value of drawing in potential listeners.<\/p>\n Yet as a kind of audio busman\u2019s holiday, Dark Encoutners<\/em> is a pleasant way to spend an hour, and the occasionally virtuosic playing is never less than enjoyable. Dark Encounters<\/i> won\u2019t change your life, and it\u2019s unlikely to show up on many best-of-2024 lists, but it\u2019s far from an embarrassment for its participants.<\/p>\n But, but…<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n Bonus tracks are supposed to make an album better. At the very least, they\u2019re a \u201clittle something extra\u201d \u2013 a lagniappe<\/em>, as the Cajuns say \u2013 for the faithful. But as solid an album as Dark Encounters<\/i> is, the two tracks appended to it running order arguably make it worse. Sherwood really should have left well enough alone.<\/p>\n There\u2019s no detailed information in the liner notes explaining what exactly is going on with this \u201cnew\u201d version of Todd Rundgren\u2019s classic \u201cI Saw the Light.\u201d All that\u2019s noted is the participation of Rick Wakeman and Rundgren himself. So listeners might not know quite what to expect. What they likely would neither expect — nor want — is what we have here: a disjointed reworking of the song that takes Todd\u2019s original vocal track (and his harmony vocal tracks), chops them up and re-channels them into a different sequence. This version doesn’t follow the structure of the verses and choruses; it repeats some lines, leaves out others. At first I thought my CD player was skipping, that the CD was damaged and repeating sections of the song. Nope: it\u2019s intended to be like that. And the net effect feels like young Todd singing along to a band that doesn\u2019t quite know where the changes are. It\u2019s a dreadful desiccation and desecration of the original. And as superb a keyboardist as Wakeman is, the keyboard flourishes that are dotted across the arrangement are wholly inappropriate. If you\u2019ve ever heard the abomination of Rundgren\u2019s work that is 2000\u2019s Reconstructed<\/i>, this disaster makes that sound like a work of genius. Simply put, it\u2019s terrible. It\u2019s not even good for a single, cursory listen; it\u2019s an insult to the original, and has no reason to exist.<\/p>\n Not quite as strange \u2013 but equally out of place \u2013 is the album\u2019s other “bonus” track, a cover of 10cc\u2019s \u201cI\u2019m Not in Love\u201d featuring Wakeman again, plus Nektar. Now, Nektar is a truly great progressive\/psych band that has done some terrific work. 10cc\u2019s lush classic seems an odd fit for the band, and in fact it is. Seeing how Sherwood \u2013 man of a thousand instruments \u2013 laid down the instrumental bed for this and the other recordings on Dark Encounters<\/i>, we\u2019re left to wonder what exactly Nektar did. I can\u2019t provide any guidance here, sorry. Wakeman\u2019s keys are nice enough, but again, they don\u2019t improve upon the original song. And if all this isn\u2019t strange enough, the track is clearly listed inside, outside and in the accompanying one-sheet as an \u201cinstrumental version.\u201d How exactly that squares with the prominent lead vocal \u2013 yes, vocal<\/em> \u2013 is a mystery I find myself unable to solve. Either way, trust me on this: you don\u2019t need this song.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The title of the sixth Prog Collective album telegraphs the direction in which the music goes; moody and minor-key is the order of the day. 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