NANOSTORM: Tunnel Of Time (PROGRESSIVE ROCK): review / opinion to read on Music Waves

French quartet already author of two first albums totally unnoticed, Nanostorm offers us in this year 2021 its third delivery, "Tunnel of Time", presented as a mix of psychedelic, progressive and experimental rock.

If the last aspect is hard to find, the beginning of the album with 'Daily Systems' plunges the listener immediately in the atmosphere proposed by the two first adjectives attached to the style of the band: a very present bass rhythms this first track, on which the saturated guitar evolves in a strident way accompanied by some vintage keyboards. The tone is given, and this very typical 70's atmosphere is going to accompany us all along the 57 minutes of the album, through tracks where the instrumental passages take the lion's share, especially since two epic tracks allow the band to develop multiple themes and ambiances.

Thus, from the top of its 19 minutes, the bewitching 'Through the Tunnel of Time' unwinds its convolutions around a main theme, alternating vocal parts and long instrumental developments. Among these, an interesting analogy with a certain 'Echoes' is to be noted (around the 14th minute...). The regular presence of flute and the permanent melodic aspect also bring some passages closer to Camel.

The group also finds a good balance between the various instruments, without putting one more particularly in front than the others, which makes it possible to perceive all the nuances of the sound space and to benefit as much from the lines of bass as from the many soli of guitar or the layers of keyboards. This effect contributes in particular to keep a very captivating atmosphere throughout the album, giving really the desire to take it back to the beginning once the last notes of 'Learn Again' faded away.

However, there is a drawback to bring and that concerns the vocals; besides the mixing of this one which makes that we often find it in the background, it sometimes proves to be approximate and its falsely naive character leads to a lack of charisma (but it is perhaps related to the production?) to really make counterpoint to the instrumental passages which end up taking the upper hand.

Finally, "Tunnel of Time" remains an album to be discovered, which reveals itself over the course of the listening and whose undeniable qualities will allow it to take a good place in the discotheque of any self-respecting prog fan. - Official website

NANOSTORM

TUNNEL OF TIME

AUTRE LABEL

PROGRESSIVE ROCK