I first became aware of Trojan Horse’s music back on Prog
Rock Deep Cuts with Ian Beabout and just being completely blown away by what I
was hearing. They are a quartet from Salford that feature the Duke brothers and
drummer Richard Guy Crawford. This is their second album released on the Bad
Elephant Music label entitled World
Turned Upside Down which was release last year.
And it’s a real mind-blowing experience from start to finish
with unexpected results that will have you on the edge of your seat where the
quartet takes the music of ‘70s Progressive Rock and Post-Punk into one giant
blender. Mixing the elements of XTC, The Mars Volta, King Crimson, Robert
Wyatt, Tears for Fears, and a little dosage of the Zappa twist and Gong thrown
in.
The opening instrumental track, Juraspsyche Park is a real kicker to start things off. Beginning
with a reminiscent of Gong’s Oily Way
with a thunderous guitar-like roar and the switching of the time signatures, it
gives Trojan Horse a chance to have some fun on vocalizations and swirl
Organ-like solos that touches the King Crimson plateau in the styles of The Sailor’s Tale as if it continued
where it left off for the quartet along with Kavus Torabi who guest appears on
the album to reach the jump for light speed.
The ominous spacey rocked-out ascending adventures of Sesame, has this mixture between Amon
Duul II and Starcastle while they pay tribute to the Cardiacs in this wacky and
intense sinister increasing elemental vibrations featuring the Mellotron and
effects filling the halls of insanity from percussions and voices, organ
through the Scuttle. Trojan Horse
also carries the waltz melodies in their music which gives it a real jolt which
is shown on here for the last two minutes.
Waltz’s show the band on what to expect. The title track has
a melodic ballad, but with a twist of the relaxing elements thrown in the
styles of Sweden’s own Pugh Rogefeldt as the haunting folk of Death and the Mad Queen, fits in the
atmospheres of the Lewis Carroll stories and touches of the Pretty Things S.F. Sorrow-era. But the 11-minute Hypocrite’s Hymn is a real kicker!
The 11-minute piece sees the dosage of the Prog, Avant-Rock,
and Crimson homage thrown in that makes it a perfect piece of cake. It will
meld and swallow you up in the midsection as the band travels through the space
of time in the outer limits and then in the haywire effects that will melt you
down like no other. And it gives the band a lot of experimentations and
avant-garde noises to settle the tones throughout the last section and nailing
it at the right moment.
This is my third listen of Trojan Horse’s World Turned Upside Down and I have to
say this was not easy album to listen to from start to finish. But they have
really surprised me the moment during the second and third listen. This wasn’t
your typical prog-rock band, but a balls-out yet weird, surreal, strange, and
crazy adventure that Trojan Horse have unleashed with their second album.
So if you are ready for the insanity and adventures of the
twisted sounds of the Post-Punk and Prog genre, then get ready for Trojan Horse’s
World Turned Upside Down.
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