Brett Kull
Orange-ish Blue

In the 90s and this early new millennium, the United States has contributed to the progressive cause with numerous excellent bands, among which names like Spock's Beard, Discipline, Glass Hammer, IZZ stand out, just to name a few. In this hypothetical "creme" of American prog, Echolyn surely holds a prominent place due to their undeniable artistic merits, certainly above the average ("Suffocating The Bloom" and "As The World" are true masterpieces of 90s prog). That they had talent was also noticed by those "foxes" at Sony who indeed took Echolyn under their wing, only to drop them when they found themselves with a work like "As The World" that didn't quite resemble the plastic pop still in vogue (who knows what they expected...).

This brief preamble leads us to talk about Brett Kull, who is the guitarist and "co-vocalist" of Echolyn and the main creative mind alongside Chris Buzby. Kull has always been quite active musically, handling recordings, productions, mixings, and playing, not only with Echolyn but also with Grey Eye Glances and Still-Always Almost (one of the two bands born from Echolyn's ashes). Among numerous activities, the talented American guitarist seems to have found time to compose something exclusively his own, and indeed here he is releasing this first solo work that I went ahead to listen to with great curiosity.

The CD, characterized by not exactly an exciting cover and a very bare booklet, contains 13 songs all of medium-short duration. In the album, besides Kull, two members of Echolyn play (Paul Ramsey on drums and Chris Buzby on keyboards and orchestral arrangements), as well as Dwayne Kessel on keyboards, Jordan Perlson on percussion (credited as a member of Echolyn on "Cowboys Poems Free"), Molly Decker on vocals, and various guest musicians on violins, cello, and vocals. So what can we expect musically?

As had already occurred with the first solo works of Neal Morse, leader of Spock's Beard, in this CD you will not find a trace of the original group: no Echolyn reminiscences then, but just a collection of pure and simple pop songs. Too little to interest the prog fan, you might think, but I assure you it isn't so. Apart from the fact that man does not live by progressive alone and that sometimes one must relax the brain with something less intricate, it must be said that writing a beautiful song is as difficult as writing a mega prog suite and requires great talent (I'm talking about songs with a capital "S", not what MTV serves us).

Brett Kull has a lot of talent, and the 13 tracks contained in this "Orange-ish Blue" fully demonstrate it. It starts grandly with "Kisses In The Sun", in full Beatles style (main inspiration for Brett), in which the guitar plays a leading role alternating rather retro accompaniments characterized by tremolo and wha-wha to slide-guitar parts. It continues with "Mister Greenlight" in which the sunny chorus cannot help but remind of some of George Harrison's solo works while the next, poignant "All The Rage" gives goosebumps with its delicate vocal melody and its exquisite arrangement of acoustic guitar, cello, and violins. After so much beauty, the fourth track did not particularly strike me despite the presence of charming female backing vocals, while we are already back to higher levels with "When I Dream", a ballad characterized by well-studied guitar arrangements and beautiful vocal harmonies. The late George Harrison peeks through again in the following "Main Street", a rock-tinged track with more carefree and light tones but not inferior in quality, while again the Beatles influence "15 Hours". After "Change" and "Come On Joe" (which are not earth-shattering), we reach the album's final part with "Something Love Forgets", another melancholic ballad featuring an excellent string section, and then with "Untitled #1", another piece rich in pathos showcasing beautiful vocal interweavings. The album closes with "I Won't Say Goodbye" and "End", worthy epilogues for a truly beautiful album.

In conclusion, who should I recommend this album to? Certainly not to the prog scholars, those who are scandalized if groups on the fringes of the genre are reviewed in prog-dedicated magazines (okay, they even get scandalized if Spock's Beard is reviewed...): for them, we'll try to unearth in the future some Uzbek group that perhaps in '73 played prog accompanied solely by bagpipes. To those who take themselves a bit less seriously and have a less dogmatic approach to music, I can only highly recommend this album: a work made with the heart before the brain by an artist who, after giving us so many "progressive" emotions, manages to enchant us with weapons that in the musical field always prove winning: melody, good taste in arrangements, and intelligence. If you think this is little...