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“City Calls Revolution,” the new CD by Green Milk from the Planet Orange, on Beta-lactam Ring Records, one of the coolest labels you’ve never heard of, is all over the map, inaccessible to the bulk of mainstream listeners and utterly self-indulgent. And, man, this is a terrific disc. As GMFTPO cites on the back of the CD packaging, “Progressive rock is not dead.” Few people seem to remember that Yes, back before they pretty much went pop, were responsible for some of the most long-winded, meandering, exploratory, prog-to-a-fault progressive rock. Self-indulgent prog achieved critical mass on Yes’ “Relayer,” an album that had only three tracks but which was full-length due to the excessive running time of the songs, the shortest of which was around 9 minutes, as I recall, and the longest of which was over 20 minutes long. “City Calls Revolution” exists in a similar realm though in a way more in line with the music of today. But in terms of breadth and scope and long, exploratory, freestyle-seeming passages that even made Rush seem poppy, GMFTPO is right there. Four songs fill out this disc, the longest clocking in at over 38 minutes and the shortest being around 7 minutes. What goes between is filled with a strange and compelling conglomerate of multiple stylistic influences. The structure is pure prog, but, bear in mind, prog can occur in a variety of musical styles. Prog, as a genre, is sort of perpendicular to others, in that it can be rock, metal, emo, whatever. There’s a lot of emo here, which identifies Green Milk with the fascinating new musical direction that has become popular of late, a resurgence of progressive rock growing out of the emo scene with such bands as Coheed and Cambria and, to an even greater degree, Mars Volta. (It must be admitted Tool has been plowing its own unique prog furrow, as well.) As emo, it’s often loud and raucous, with a tendency toward hyper bombast; it’s a little reminiscent of At the Drive-In except that the Mars Volta half of ATDI hadn’t yet discovered (or at least explored in-depth) the whole prog concept. The music is shifty and in-flux, erratic and mathy. It can grow from quiet and tinkling to aggressive and skittering. Green Milk from the Orange Planet’s “City Calls Underground” is a welcome addition to my CD collection and the newly re-burgeoning prog world. Indeed, progressive rock is anything but dead. If you’re gonna be prog, you might as well take it to the limit. Not, mind you, that prog has any limits. -- review by Kristofer Upjohn
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