Milky Way Gas Station - Somewhere / Anywhere

For me this is an album of many different but quite recognizable progressive musical styles and in the bargain peppered with a huge conglomerate of various influences from bands such as Genesis, Neil Young, Pink Floyd and Gnidrolog. Generally, the compositions are extremely well put together with some really good exciting passages of play especially the combinations of lead guitar and keyboards which are truly excellent. I really though was not at all enamored with most of the vocals delivered by “Rob Ijpelaan” finding them to be quite drab, limited and without much expression. Certainly his voice is not all bad but I think a more able all around vocalist would have taken this album to a much higher plain. I hate to be critical in this respect but to me it could be the difference between this bands being just good as opposed to totally fantastic. There was though in my opinion a vast improvement in vocal quality and technique, especially the discordant notes, when, in the very last track a different vocalist (“Sanne Jonges”) was employed to deliver the goods and which also included some nice melodic harmonies. At this point I do have to single out, for special mention, this last track “Telescope Sight” as being totally absorbing and at 25 minutes long quite worth the price of the CD alone.
More specifically, throughout the various tracks, there is a definite arrangement of the instrumentation gliding along in what seems a strictly set time pattern and then from which bursts many interesting harmonic sections of guitar and keyboard with arrangements dipping in and out together creating interesting musical patterns.
“Niels Hope” on lead guitar certainly exudes a variety of different styles and produces some beautifully executed and well-structured runs and these are well complimented by some tasteful acoustic guitar, melodic bass and gentle well considered percussion. This basic band set up is then suitably reinforced with a collection of excellent guest musicians on keyboards adding further style and colour to the proceedings with outstanding interplay and fills.

Summary: An interesting classic progressive rock album.

Artwork: By Paolo Todde -an excellent Digi pack full of style and beautifully presented.

Milky Way Gas Station is:

Rob IJpelaan, zang, gitaar
Niels Hoppe, gitaar
Harald Veenker, drums
Jeroen Vriend, bass

Tracklist
1 37 Part I 5:15
2 Neutral 10:01
3 Why? 3:20
4 37 Part II 6:16
5 Moon Phases 11:03
6 Torn Grain 5:00
7 Second Attempt To Catch Nectar Drinking Butterflies In An Empty Arbour On Camera 5:38
8 Telescope Sight 26:54