Album: Flaud Logic
Year: 2013
Label: Self released
Review: Diego Camargo
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Thoughts: We have many ‘band projects’ nowadays. Maybe it’s the fact that you can actually make music on your own with help of computers and then you try to find the musicians to help you out instead of the old-fashioned way of gathering a band together.
Flaud Logic is a band-project. It was originated in Brooklyn, New York circa 2008. It was born from an idea of the musician Michael Kaplan to demo his songs. From them it was slowly evolving to a full album and many musicians were added into the process, including Michael Romeo (guitar), Frank Wyatt (saxophone), Joe Bergamini (drums), Benny Lackner (Rhodes) and many others.
Flaud Logic (2013) was released early this year and like in old days it features 4 songs. Well, not exactly…
The album is indicated to have 2 long songs between 8 and 10 minutes, a short one with bit more than 4 minutes and an epic with more than 22 minutes. Unfortunately, the epic song was divided into 7 different tracks, even though the CD indicates one single track.
When it comes to the music Flaud Logic (2013) is really hard to describe. It’s a big cauldron of influences and ideas thrown into the album.
For example, the album starts with ‘Secret Engine’. It starts as a slow marching band kind of sound but it has Prog Metal crossing his path the whole time. The track has Frank Wyatt saxophones and it’s one of the most interesting on the album.
Also, it’s quite clear that Michael (vocals and keyboards) is a big fan of Dream Theater, cause it’s possible to hear the influence all around. More precisely, on this track after the 6 minutes.
‘Say Goodbye’ is completely different. It is slower and full of ‘smoke’ if it’s possible to classify music like that.
Between the verses you have great vocalizations with different kinds of melodies. But again, you can hear Dream Theater in the choruses, although there’s a great change in the middle of the song.
When it comes to the third track ‘Shannah’, it’s almost incomprehensible why this track is here.
It’s a shorter track with a pop romantic kind of sound that makes me think about Santana in his later years. In my opinion, it’s a weak song, with weak lyrics and completely out of place within the whole album.
The epic ‘One Year’, like I said, is divided into 7 parts. As far as I understood, it deals with a couple that spent a whole year apart. Not really sure what the reason is, though.
‘One Year’ has many interesting ideas and many great moments like the epic piano beginning or ‘Prologue’, the Neal Morse influenced ‘I Got Her’ and the instrumental ‘Truth Of Heart’ that is full of Q&A between keyboards and guitars.
Unfortunately, in general, the transitions between the parts don’t fit and most of the time you feel like there’s too much going on within the music. For example, the fourth part ‘Stronger Than Words’ is pretty much an Evanescence track with female vocals in a Gothic Metal style and on top of that ‘growl’ vocals in the middle.
All in all, Flaud Logic (2013) is an album with many interesting ideas and many great musicians involved. But it needed a bit more polishing in the songs. Not always the instrumental parts fit the vocal melodies and the transitions between the different parts within the songs sound forced sometimes. As if Michael was trying to show that he can play so many styles or like if he wanted to put all the influences and bands he likes within his music. But because of that Flaud Logic (2013) lacks in unity and you feel like there’s too much going on all the time.
One thing for sure, second Flaud Logic will be something to pay attention on.
But still, it is a worthy try and is recommended to give it a try and see it yourself.
The band was included in our Podcast #21 and you can listen the track 'Secret Engine' HERE.