30 December, 2003

Review: Entering The Spectra (Karmakanic, 2002)

Fan reviews of this hard-to-find solo album from TFK's Jonas Reingold were largely favourable, generally describing it as a heavier version of the Flower Kings; indeed, most members of TFK appear on various songs, amongst other guest musicians.  This sounded like something I'd particularly enjoy, so I managed to obtain a copy; it took something like two months for Amazon to order one for me.

Maybe all this had built up my expectations too much, but I found it disappointing. It was much as described, with something of a TFK feel to some tracks, but the comparison wasn't favourable; it was even more bombastic and 'hippy twee' than TFK in places. A high point was 'Space Race No.3', and I've put the album on a few times solely to hear that track, but I don't rate any of the other tracks as more than listenable, and two tracks are awful. I've only played 'The Little Man' and the bulk of 'Welcome To Paradise' once. If they were jokes, I didn't find them particularly funny, if they were serious, they're embarrassing.