Titan
A Raining Sun Of Light And Love For You And You And You

THE REVIEW

The Progressive genre has long been (to be reductive, since '77) the genre not to be mentioned among your listening preferences, under penalty of being immediately labeled as a loser, retrograde, and musically narrow-minded.

Punk had knocked it out and killed it in no time, continuing for years to dance over its remains in an advanced state of decomposition. A dance passed down through generations, making a mockery of both guilty parties and innocent victims of the time. To condemn the guilty pachyderms (which are not so for everyone, let us recall), the most diverse groups, which had little in common with canonical Progressive, ended up disappearing from the shelves and the players of many. Just think of ensembles like the Family, pioneers of the movement, with their fragile balance between folk, psychedelia, and more, the gentle harmonies of Caravan, or the dark-folk atmospheres of bands like Comus.

With the new millennium, there seems to have been a slight turnaround both in terms of criticism, more open to making the right distinctions within the Progressive scene, and from those who make music. Especially in the heavy psychedelic realm of the last 10 years, many bands have "progressively" distanced themselves from Kyuss influences to move towards more complex structures, with more or less Progressive influence. This is the case with this first album by Titan.

Consisting of four tracks, each around 10 minutes long, "Raining Sun..." is progressive in the structure of its tracks, but maintains a heavy guitar appeal and expands everything with space rock effects in the style of Hawkwind and psychedelic rarefactions of the Teutonic school. The folk intro in the style of Comus of "Annals Of The Former World" seems to contradict what has been said, but already at 1'20", guitar and organ stage a duel worthy of forgotten bands like Arcadium, but with triple the decibels. As you can imagine, it's difficult to describe the whirlwind of changes, rhythms, and refrains that follow one another relentlessly throughout the album. Guitars, now folk now almost metal, go hand in hand with Canterbury school Hammond, while odd rhythms alternate with hints of jazz-like moments.

Surely for many this soup may remain indigestible, due to the heaviness of the ingredients and the sometimes excessive seasoning of the dishes, but if every now and then you can't resist the temptation of a nice ice cream after a sandwich with krauts, sausages, and mustard, well this album is just for you.