I love Prog Rock. I've seen Seventies Prog Rockers Yes, Genesis, Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Gentle Giant live. Prog is a hard genre to describe but you know it when you hear it and despite the trio called Staring Into Nothing's bio describing them as Prog Rock, I just don't hear it. Granted, the link to their album on Soundcloud didn't work so I only have the lead off single, Big Brother from their new cd Power, to judge them by but to me they sound like a pop rock band in the basic style of bands like Keane. Melodic, but standard structure pop with a rather lush arrangement. There is none of the structural complexity or shifting time signatures, or multi-instrument solos that are typical of the Prog Rock genre.
Staring Into Nothing features Steve Rodgers on keyboards and lead vocals along with guitarist Savannah Rogers and bassist and guitarist Kurt Barabas. The CD, Power, was produced by Mark Needam and Matt Chamberlain helped out on drums, David Levita on guitar, Jamie Muhoberac on keyboards and Pop Levi and Andrea Meli on background vocals.
The first single, Big Brother, has an overtly political narrative which is always timely but even more so these days. The term, "Big Brother", originally from George Orwell's apocalyptic futuristic novel, 1984, written in 1948, has always been one of dread and impending doom, not one of a reassuring presence. A big brother that's a bully who will stomp you if you don't do what he says. This musical version is one more warning but delivered with a pretty piano intro that breaks into an uptempo pop toe tapper. It's almost insidious for a song to make us want to singalong and bounce our head when the lyrics are so dark and serious but I guess you catch more flies with sugar than with vinegar.
I wish I could hear more from this band and it may not be the band's fault I can't access their Soundcloud account, I'm often technologically deficient, because the single is catchy, melodic, well sung and performed and well produced. Again, I'd place it in the Pop Rock category, not Prog but that's a good thing as Prog isn't exactly a hot genre these days. At least I'd like to see a photo or two of the musicians themselves rather than stock images as it's always nice to see that there are real people behind the music and not a computer deciding that this is the next big sound. Which is kind of what the song is warning us about after all. Maybe Staring Into Nothing is a Prog band and this first single is their "commercial" calling card. Maybe the rest of the Power CD is full of guitar and synth solos or mellotron washes and each song lasts eight minutes. If not, and the single is typical of the rest of the album, that's perfectly fine. It just needs a different audience, that's all. Now I'm in the mood to listen to my King Crimson CDs.
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