Out on a limb (Lunatic Soul) (LP 3030 - 3035)

Lunatic Soul  Lunatic Soul (CD, Kscope Records, 2008) ****  

Lunatic Soul  Lunatic Soul II (CD, Kscope Records, 2010) ****  

Lunatic Soul  Impressions (CD, Kscope Records, 2011) *** 

Lunatic Soul  Walking On A Flashlight Beam (CD, Kscope Records, 2014) ***** 

Lunatic Soul  Fractured (CD, Kscope Records, 2017) ****

Lunatic Soul  Under the Fragmented Sky (CD, Kscope Records, 2018) ****

Genre: Prog rock

Places I remember: Fopp, HMV

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: Cold (Walking on the Flashlight Beam)

Gear costume: Out On A Limb (first album)

They loom large in his legend (The Album Collection playlists): Part 1; Part 2; Part 3; Part 4; Part 5

Active compensatory factors: It's maybe a little hard for the uninitiated to figure out where Riverside ends and Lunatic Soul begins, even though they go in different directions.

Both are the musical children of Mariusz Duda - Polish bass guitarist, singer and composer extraordinaire.

Lunatic Soul began life as a side project for Duda - a very prog rock thing to do. The sound on the first album is a lot more experimental, atmospheric and short of guitars (generally, Riverside are big on guitars and prog metal sounds). Instead, it has ambient passages and uses electronic soundscapes to project a pretty heavy sound - the project is named Lunatic Soul remember.

The second album veers away from prog metal even more with hypnotic beats and electronics taking centre stage. It even sounds vaguely Middle Eastern at times. The lyrics by Duda maintain a very introspective stance throughout.

Duda was a busy guy - his third album under that name came out a year after Lunatic Soul II. 

Impressions is an album employing ambient sounds and with no vocals. Each of the tracks is called Impression I to VIII. It's another successful experiment. The ambient nature means it floats by very pleasantly.

Lunatic Soul took a bit of a rest as Riverhead were reactivated, but were then back for 2014's Walking On A Flashlight Beam.

Duda appears a lot more like his prog rock self on this one. The vocals are back and the songs are back. Not only that but they are prog rock length - in fact Pygmalion's Ladder is over 12 minutes long. The interest is sustained during these longer songs. I think this one is Lunatic Soul's best album to this point. 

Fractured continues the momentum. Like the title and the cover image it moves the Lunatic Soul sound forward. As he said prior to its release: I’d call it dark melancholic trance with more electronics and more powerful sounds. But there will also be some lyrical fragments, and a couple of tracks will feature a symphonic orchestra I have worked with for the first time in my career.

The almost techno beats do take a little getting used to, but his bass sounds, his vocals, and other instrumental textures like sax contribute to the success of Fractured.

The final album in my list is Under The Fragmented Sky from 2018. It was intended as an addendum to Fractured but grew legs into a full album. It has predominately instrumental passages compared to Fractured but also builds well on that earlier album.

Where do they all belong? Their latest album from 2020 - Through Shaded Woods, so far has alluded me - will look for that one, although I'm not desperate for it. A lot more to come when we get to Riverside!

The struggle for survival (Riverside) (LP 280)

Riverside Wasteland (CD - InsideOutMuisc, 2018) ****

Genre: Prog rock 

Places I remember: FOPP (Covent Garden)  

Fab, and all the other pimply hyperboles: The Struggle For Survival - a 9 minute epic that showcases the band's strengths well.




Gear costume: The Night Before - meditative closer is the perfect final track.  

Active compensatory factors: I love Riverside. Much more than I love mainman Mariusz Duda's spin-off band Lunatic Soul. I have all of the CDs those bands have done (being a completist is tough at times) so I think I'm in a position to judge.

Riverside is the big deal. For some reason Riverside's combination of musicians works for Duda, and the, even darker, solo stuff, although interesting, doesn't quite.

The album is a return to bone crunching prog metal for the most part, with some ethereal tracks for variety.

In total, I've only heard the album three times but The Struggle For Survival immediately stood out. Up there with the best of Riverside.

Where do they all belong? Return to prog metal form after the death of a band member and the noodling electronica of the previous album, Eye Of The Soundscape (worth checking out if you like that sort of thing).