Artist: Knight Area
Title: Nine Paths
Type: Album
Label: Laser’s Edge

The first thing I would say about this album is that it needs to be treated for what it is. It is Soft Prog Rock, with no pretensions to be anything else but equally over the nine tracks, it steps into nine different spaces – hence the title “Nine Paths”, I suppose. Before listening to this album, I asked some Prog lovers from their native Holland and discovered they’d played at a ProgPower Europe which I’d missed. The general view was that that I hadn’t missed anything. Maybe this was about the expectation, or maybe it wasn’t such a great live performance. The fact is that Knight Area have released 4 albums including this one in their 7 years of existence, and as well as ProgPower and other concerts have played at the Loreley festival in Germany and the UK Classic Rock Society Octoberfest. This does not guarantee quality of course, and this and enjoyment were what I was looking for when listening to “Nine Paths”.

It was important that the opening track kept me interested, and it did. “Ever Since You Killed Me” is expansive and maybe a bit flowery and wallpaperish, but the soft and feelingful vocals were nicely supported by delicate guitar work. Something I liked throughout the album was that when the atmosphere was built up, it never became disproportionately over the top. The level is always calm and consistently balanced within the spectrum of Soft Prog. The keyboards, which are reminiscent of Manfred Mann’s Earth Band and so are unashamedly retro, add an epic dimension. The keyboards burst through again on “Summerland”, which was the only track I didn’t really like on the album. I didn’t mind it being unchallenging, as this is the style. It was nicely played and a bit like a film theme, but what I didn’t like here was the vocals. The singer, whose voice reminded me a little of Sting in parts, was out of range. This was a pity because elsewhere his vocals were superb, especially when applied softly, as on “Please Come Home”. It’s a bit of a Radio 2 ballad which features a male/female duet and blends nicely into the keyboards. This is pleasant, lazy day music which naturally blends into a lovely guitar section. A similar mellow but more expansive mood is created on the sensitive and slightly melancholic “The River”, which had me thinking of Steven Wilson’s Blackfield. “The River” is like musical purity – a superb song, which transforms intriguingly mid-way through into a keyboard extravaganza in deference to the Prog genre this album represents, before leading us back into that dreamy depth to finish. With each track there is a distinct mood. “Clueless” is groovy and sophisticated. This is the sort of thing you could play in the background and appreciate as you hold your “soirée” with friends – ok, so it’s not cutting edge but it’s not about that. The slow track “The Balance” has a very interesting groove with its deep and lush rhythm. It’s a shivering and shimmying track which bursts into something epic in that now familiarly light and airy Knight Area way. Throughout the guitars and keyboards add to the mood, and it’s easy to forget the drums. On “Wakerun”, those drums set an especially delicate tone. There’s a nice acoustic touch before this lively and catchy track builds up in a typically understated way and ends with a bit of Prog keyboard work. The final track “Angel’s Call” lost me a little and although pleasant, didn’t come together for me as strongly as some of the others had, but I did appreciate the little bit of drama and melancholic darkness. Darkness is however a rare quality on this album, and what came across for me consistently over the course of these nine distinct tracks was the smooth blending of instrumental musicianship and the vocals to create a silky finish.

I liked this album. For the most part there’s a harmony about it, like a boat drifting down a river. It’s powerful in a quiet way. What distinguishes the hour-long “Nine Paths” is its unobtrusive richness of ideas, which are well executed, so making it a very pleasant and interesting album to listen to.

http://www.knightarea.com

Andrew Doherty

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