Voyager
Ghost Mile
IAV Records
2017
Voyager is an Australian band, with several albums under their name that would fall under the larger prog label, with mostly melodic, poppy vocals rarely interrupted by growls, but rather idiosyncratic, technocratic, modern, slightly spastic, djenty rhythmical parts.
While the album opens with “Ascension”, which is somewhat trimmed down, in the weirdness department, “Misery is Only Company” gets things closer to how the band typically sounds. “Lifeline” reminded me of 80s pop star Rick Astley, in a twisted way and from that point onwards the album keeps on zig-zagging between more direct poppy tracks and more twisted convoluted ones; the title track, “Ghost Mile”, being a good example of the latter case. “What a Wonderful Day” sounds like the bastard child between Tears For Fears or Dead Or Alive and Mayhem, if such a project was ever viable. “This Gentle Earth” sounds like a 70s prog number hijacked by TFF once again – while “As the City Takes the Night” is a bit reminiscent of FSS, if only a bit poppier still.
While the band does manage to fuse together seemingly scrappy and inconsequential sounds and styles with a great degree of success, the resulting music feels more like a novelty and less of a challenge, primarily because it resorts to the same mannerisms again and again, instead of using forms with a greater degree of freedom, which is ironic, as most of these “prog” bands are meant to openly defy boundaries, instead of adhering to “different” ones. Still, it can’t be denied that these Aussies are quite talented and some people, possibly the younger generation of prog fans, might find their music quite “interesting”.
While the album opens with “Ascension”, which is somewhat trimmed down, in the weirdness department, “Misery is Only Company” gets things closer to how the band typically sounds. “Lifeline” reminded me of 80s pop star Rick Astley, in a twisted way and from that point onwards the album keeps on zig-zagging between more direct poppy tracks and more twisted convoluted ones; the title track, “Ghost Mile”, being a good example of the latter case. “What a Wonderful Day” sounds like the bastard child between Tears For Fears or Dead Or Alive and Mayhem, if such a project was ever viable. “This Gentle Earth” sounds like a 70s prog number hijacked by TFF once again – while “As the City Takes the Night” is a bit reminiscent of FSS, if only a bit poppier still.
While the band does manage to fuse together seemingly scrappy and inconsequential sounds and styles with a great degree of success, the resulting music feels more like a novelty and less of a challenge, primarily because it resorts to the same mannerisms again and again, instead of using forms with a greater degree of freedom, which is ironic, as most of these “prog” bands are meant to openly defy boundaries, instead of adhering to “different” ones. Still, it can’t be denied that these Aussies are quite talented and some people, possibly the younger generation of prog fans, might find their music quite “interesting”.