"Presto Ballet -The Lost Art Of Time"- (Jerry's Review)

There has been quite a bit of buzz on the street about the new Presto Ballet releaseThe Lost Art of Time Travel. Why even the guy who runs the largest new and used record store here in Victoria knew the band was getting great reviews. If you are a fan of that late seventies styled pomp rock produced by bands such as Styx or perhaps Kansas, this release will have you drooling in your cereal. This is classic seventies styled prog that relies on analog synth sounds and yet feels every bit up-to-date. Presto Ballet is the brainchild of Metal Church’s Kurdt Vanderhoof (guitar) and he’s surrounded himself with Bill Raymond (drums), Izzy Rehaume (bass), Ryan McPherson (keyboards) and Scott Albright (vocals).***

The Lost Art of Time Travel consists of seven tracks, a couple over six-minutes, a couple over nine and two over ten. As already stated the music created by Presto Ballet hearkens back to the mid-seventies in all the good ways…and when you add the Albright’s vocal range and tone, this stuff sounds like the best stuff Styx ever created, only Styx never sounded this good. The compositions, feature tons of dynamic musical guitar or keyboard accents, the songs start and stop, change time and tempo and, oh yeah they also rock. Without ever drifting into the prog-metal area, the guitar crunch is balanced by the ever present Mellotrons, Hammonds, synths and pianos. On the longer songs the music starts out in dramatic fashion building in intensity before morphing into the song’s core melodies. And there are plenty of wonderful parts to sing along to, an important aspect to Vanderhoof’s writing style. There’s even plenty of acoustic guitar that shows up from time to time. It’s really on display on “You’re Alive” (4:25) the shortest song of the bunch, which features a bit of a Yes influence with all the ringing guitars and layers of cathedral-styled strings. The standout songs for me naturally are the epics “The Mind Machine” (10:51) and “One Tragedy at a Time” (14:01) although the hook line from “Thieves” (9:05) was mighty catchy. Truth is there is catchy part in EVERY track. After a dozen plays I found myself saying “that’s my favorite track” only to have the next one start and I’d remember the good musical bit’s that were just around the corner.***

The sound crafted by Presto Ballet is classic! The guitars come in at just the right time with just the right sound and that plays off the analog keyboards perfectly. I’ll say this again…imagine your favorite or most progressive Styx track, and then imagine it ‘out-there’ in terms of complexity and arrangement by a factor of four and you’ll get an idea of what to expect with The Lost Art of Time Travel. Put this disc onto my stack labeled, Favorites of 2008!***