Friday, 1 April 2022

In Spite Of Harry's Toenail - GNIDROLOG***

Long Live Man Dead/Peter/Snails/Time & Space/Who Spoke/In Spite Of Harry's Toenail

Strangely titled debut album from the British progressive rock group with the unpronounceable name Gnidrolog. They expressed themselves through a wide range of musical styles, making it difficult to pin them down to any particular genre.

“It's easy to categorize Gnidrolog's sound as a cross between Van Der Graaf Generator, Lizard era King Crimson, and early Gentle Giant, but this music is in no way derivative. Emotionally intense and at times frighteningly difficult, on their very first record the band has succeeded in crafting a unique brand of eclectic prog that repeatedly challenges the listener without resorting to overly baroque instrumentation.”

“These guys can create all the atmospheres they want, from cello and flute, baroque like reminiscences as in Peter, to wild free guitar, horn and oboe improvisations over a bashing rhythm section at the tail end of Snails, or finger-picked, folksy inspired acoustic guitar parts as on Who Spoke, but always deliberately keeping the sound spectrum free from overdubs so nothing gets lost.”

“A pretty messy and inconsistent album. One moment they're playing some oddball rock music, sometimes even getting weird to the point of sounding like some mad men abusing their instruments, other times there’s some pretty jazzy folk, then some oddball psychedelia, etc.”

“The title track which closes the album is easily the best song here. Time & Space is also OK but most of the other material sounds rather boring. Even if this album has two clear highlights its still way too inconsistent.”

“The compositional side of the album is a mix of different eclectic prog-rock, with various moods that range from pastoral folk to heavy guitar riffs, not exactly what you would expect from an obscure band buried under the shades of time.”

“Features fairly non-commercial and often discordant prog-rock, with some hard rock passages, all in a concept album style.”

“The sole purpose of every song is to contort the ideas of harmony and dissonance. The tracks have distinctive melodies yet executed in a way that gives it a discordant type of sound.”

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