The Norwegians of 'Tammatoys' release their first album while they are already twenty years old and only two EPs which already date from the early 2000s, 'Circles' and 'Within A Dream'. In a progressive style taking us back to the 70s, they offer us 5 titles including 3 long developments for 45 short minutes and I quote their Bandcamp page : "The idea behind Tammatoys was to make prog rock with inspiration from bands such as 'Porcupine Tree', 'The Church', 'Genesis' and 'Pink Floyd', interspersed with a dose of pop with the melodies at the forefront." which summarizes their universe well.
'I Will Follow' opens the album and we immediately get into the theme of the album on conflicts with a first piece highlighting the keyboards and vocals of 'Kjetil Bergseth' and with accessible melodic lines, then, 'Downfall' is the first long development that takes us on for 11 minutes in an imaginative progressive in several drawers with, first of all a catchy first half with two sung parts that leave room in the middle of the title to a much quieter section in a 'Floydian' spirit with a remarkable crescendo instrumental final. Follows 'Politics', which is much more muscular and which settles down in the last minute with a new aerial keyboard solo, then, the 14 minutes of 'The Conflict (Part 1)' (certainly part 2 should see the light of day in a future album) offers us a new progressive fresco with a long introduction alternating spoken parts and an atmospheric atmosphere and the title takes off in a quiet ambiance with first a sung part then a remarkable instrumental section with oriental sounds supported by keyboards bringing us back to the 70s and the second part continues in a very uncluttered atmosphere with some piano notes which give way to a catchy part unrolling beautiful melodic lines and which falls back on the end with the starting theme. It is with the 8 minutes of 'Time' that the album ends in the continuity of the previous title with layers of aerial keyboards preceding a quiet rhythm with beautiful vocal passages embellished by a 'Floydienne' guitar and with a magnificent final epic.
In summary, the Norwegians of 'Tammatoys' are releasing an imaginative and sought after progressive rock album influenced by references of the genre while keeping an original imprint which destines 'Conflicts' to an audience loving long developments containing all the ingredients of a refined progressive music... | |
