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Having come of age in the vinyl era, some of my media\/format definitions don\u2019t quite match up with their modern usage. An LP was a \u201clong player\u201d and usually ran somewhere between 28 and 38 minutes, divided between two sides. An EP (extended play) was a single with a couple of extra tracks. And \u2013 this may confuse younger readers \u2013 a \u201csingle\u201d had two songs, one on each side.<\/p>\n
Unless you were Todd Rundgren<\/strong>, you didn\u2019t feel the need or inclination to pack an album full of more than those thirty-eight minutes or so. In fact there was a down-side to doing so: more music meant the grooves were packed closer together, reducing the record\u2019s volume. Hence Todd\u2019s liner notes exhortations to turn it up<\/em>.<\/p>\n That all changed with the advent of CDs. I recall Dire Straits\u2019<\/strong> Brothers in Arms<\/em> LP (I was working for a record store in those days). The album was issued in three formats: vinyl, cassette and CD. As a means of enticing consumers to the glorious new digital format, the CD version included longer versions of some of the songs. Longer, yes. Better? Not so much.<\/p>\n My point, finally \u2013 and it\u2019s a crushingly obvious one — is that more is not necessarily better. Quality wins over quantity every time. A good reminder of this axiom is the new, er, EP from Riverside<\/strong>, Memories in My Head<\/em>. Made up of three tracks extending across some thirty-three minutes, the disc is nominally an EP. But in terms of quality, it\u2019s an album.<\/p>\n These days, the Polish quartet Riverside is often thought of as prog-metal; of late their music has leaned toward Fear of a Blank Planet <\/em>era Porcupine Tree<\/strong>, with atmospheric keyboards, kinetic drumming and metallic guitar riffage. But it was not always so: the group\u2019s earlier efforts placed more emphasis on a flowing midtempo melodicism, taking a page from pre-Dark Side of the Moon<\/em> Pink Floyd<\/strong>.<\/p>\n And it is to that aesthetic that Riverside returns on Memories in My Head<\/em>. Recorded and released to commemorate the band\u2019s ten-year anniversary, the EP intentionally revives their earlier sound. That\u2019s clear even before removing the shrinkwrap: the title connects to the group\u2019s 2005 EP Voices in My Head<\/em>.<\/p>\n The trip backwards isn\u2019t so surprising in light of recent history. Mariusz Duda<\/strong> (leader\/bassist\/vocalist\/lyricist) has been moving in a more melodic, atmospheric direction<\/a> on his pair of Lunatic Soul<\/em> albums.<\/p>\n The chugging, pulsating opening of \u201cGoodbye Sweet Innocence\u201d calls to mind Pink Floyd\u2019s \u201cWelcome to the Machine.\u201d But where (on the band\u2019s recent albums) the tune might have exploded into a frenzy after the extended intro, here it unfolds into a dreamy throb, full of Alan Parsons Project<\/strong>-styled synth arpeggios courtesy of Michal Lapaj<\/strong>. When the guitar and vocal come in, Duda sings in a quiet, plaintive manner. Piotr Grudzinski<\/strong>\u2019s soaring guitar lines owe more to David Gilmour<\/strong> than any more modern metallurgists. Piotr Kozieradzki’s drum work adds a modern spin to the music, sounds as it does influenced by the work of Gavin Harrison<\/strong>.<\/p>\n \u201cLiving in the Past\u201d (no, not the Jethro Tull<\/strong> classic) is an example of what Duda calls \u201cspacious, soundtrackish, nostalgic\u201d music. Again, it\u2019s extremely melodic stuff, free from modern metal influence. In fact in places it sounds more like Kansas<\/strong> or King Crimson<\/strong>. It too is long, moving through different movements (a bit like some of the suites on Porcupine Tree\u2019s The Incident<\/em>, but the music never meanders, never fails to compel.<\/p>\n The third and final track on Memories in My Head<\/em> continues the record\u2019s theme of passing time. \u201cForgotten Land\u201d is built initially around a bass riff and Duda\u2019s vocal. The two initially seem to have little do with one another, but the other instruments come in and tie everything together nicely. The song stays just this side of melodrama in its arrangement, eventually drifting off into some chorus vocals (shades of 10cc?) and gurgling mid-70s synth.<\/p>\n With mainstream progressive music this good, there\u2019s simply no good reason to put any more of it on an album than Riverside serves up on Memories in My Head<\/em>.<\/p>\n
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