Touchstone - Discordant Dreams (2008)

2014-03-28T17:08:15Z

Touchstone - Discordant Dreams (2008)


1. Intro (1:35)
2. Discordant Dreams (5:56)
3. Curious Angel (4:45)
4. See The Light (7:01)
5. Being Hannah (5:11)
6. Shadow (6:47)
7. Winter Coast (0:22)
8. Ocean Down (2:23)
9. Blacktide (5:49)
10. Dignity (5:43)
11. The Beggar's Song (11:04)
12. Wthwt [Hidden Track] (6:52)

Kim Seviour - Vocals
Rob Cottingham - Vocals, Keyboards, SFX.
Adam J Hodgson - Guitars, Backing Vocals.
Paul "Moo" Moorghen - Bass Guitars, Backing Vocals.
Alasdair Melville - Drums and Percussion
+
John Mitchel - guitar solo on "Dignity"

Touchstone is a young progressive rock band from Great Britain releasing their first studio album in 2007 named Discordant dreams. I was very pleasent surprised about this first album of this fantastic new band, great ideas, some excellent vocal arrangements and above all not a single piece is boring or unpleasent. Taken influences from neo prog in places but keeping that crossover feel and symphonic aproach all the time Touchstone really knew how to make a great debut iin progressive rock scene. Absolutly excellent are the alternation between the female voice with the male voice, very worm and right to the heart are the vocal arrangements, well done. The instrumental passages are elaborated and very good, from mellow parts to more rougher in places Discordanr dreams is a total winner for me. See The Light or The Beggar's Song are perfect ex of sheer briliancy of this young band. Powerfull guitar work , awesome keyboards arrangements and excellent vocal parts. What else I need more when I want to talk about a band from new generation who has great skills and inventive pieces. I will give easy 4 stas for this debute, one of the album who needs a wider recognition from progressive rock listners, they are really good. Similar with Mostley Autumn, but less folky and at some point with Magenta but less neo prog more towards eclectic music. Recommended. --- b_olariu, progarchives.com

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Touchstone - Oceans Of Time (2013)

2019-03-22T16:07:22Z

Touchstone - Oceans Of Time (2013)


1 	Flux 	6:01
2 	Contact 	4:52
3 	Tabula Rasa 	7:04
4 	Fragments 	3:55
5 	Spirit Of The Age 	7:25
6 	Shadow’s End 	6:57
7 	Solace 2013 	4:46
8 	Through The Night 	4:05
9 	Thunder & Crickets 	1:03
10 	Oceans Of Time 	9:24

Bass, Synthesizer [Bass Pedals], Backing Vocals, Guitar – Paul 'Moo' Moorghen
Drums – Henry Rogers
Guitar [Guitars], Keyboards – Adam Hodgson
Keyboards, Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals – Rob Cottingham
Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals – Kim Seviour

UK band TOUCHSTONE has been releasing new material on a fairly steady basis ever since they crafted their initial EP "Mad Hatters" back in 2006, and have since then issued a full length live album and four full length studio productions. "Oceans of Time" is the most recent of the latter, and was released through the Hear No Evil label in 2013.

Touchstone' choice of label may not be all that obvious to those familiar with Touchstone as a progressive rock band, as the label does appear to specialize in the more mainstream oriented parts of the hard rock and metal sphere. To my ears this appears to be a natural fit though, as Touchstone to my ears do come across as a band with a potential to reach well outside of the arguably limited spheres of the progressive rock universe. Limited in the sense of a buying audience I might add, as everyone familiar with progressive rock are fully aware that there are few if any limitations to that genre in terms of musical expression.

Strong selling points for Touchstone is that they have a compelling lead vocalist in Kim Seviour, and that they explore a type of music that fits her vocal talents very well. Alternating between fairly soft and smooth verse constructions with harder edged, metal-oriented chorus sequences is a specialty of this band judging by this album, and they are not afraid to craft choruses with strong sing-a-long sensibilities either. Compelling bass lines sets the mood and spirit more often than not, a firm and often fairly hypnotizing core foundation in most compositions at hand on this occasion. Keyboards are used to contrast and complement the guitars as well as being the key element when creating richly layered, majestic arrangements, and when exploring gentler territories frail guitar and piano notes are used to good effect for the subtler effects too.

There are many fine songs on this easily accessible piece of AOR-oriented progressive rock with metal edges. Personally I find Touchstone to be least interesting when exploring the more AOR-oriented parts of their repertoire. Well made music, but somewhat lacking in identity as I experience those songs. But whenever they add a few subtle additional touches the end result becomes all the more compelling for it as I experience this band, with title track Oceans of Time and Fragments as the songs I'd highlight in this context, the latter of them most of all and a clear album highlight for me.

Accessible hard rock with half a foot inside heavy metal is what Touchstone provides on Oceans of Time, a production that can be regarded as both of the above, as well as AOR, progressive rock and perhaps even progressive metal. It all depends on the listener, and what frames of reference you want to emphasize. An album that merits a check by those fond of easygoing music that resides in the borderlands of the five genres mentioned, and especially if you have a soft spot for bands of that kind sporting finely controlled, female lead vocals. ---Windhawk, progarchives.com

Kapela przygotowała dla swoich fanów trzecią pełnowymiarową część swojej płytowej machiny i jak zwykle w jej przypadku, poprzeczka została postawiona wysoko. Dobrze to rokuje, bo zespół z płyty na płytę rozwija się w dobrym kierunku...

Krążek zawiera jedenaście kompozycji i bez bicia mogę powiedzieć, że to jest naprawdę bardzo udany album. Przede wszystkim muzyka jest tak osadzona, że wgniata mocno w fotel, każda partia sekcji jest świetnie zaaranżowana, słychać każdy, pięknie brzmiący instrument, a werbel i klawisze po prostu rozwalają. Każdy harmoniczny takt, przyśpieszona perkusja, poruszenie z wolnego w umiarkowany rytm i nabrzmiewanie instrumentarium do tzw. czadu - po prostu super! Utwór oznaczony jedynką, „Flux”, naszpikowany jest elementami klasyki heavy metalu, a kompozycja nr 8, „Solace 2013”, zaczyna się intrygująco zmodulowanym syntezatorowym wokalem i kotłami, że już jest cudnie, a potem następuje wokalne uspokojenie Kim i… naprzód! Świetny numer. Generalnie każdy utwór odsłania jakby całość układanki i pewnej dalszej części czegoś, co już słyszeliśmy lub słyszeć chcemy. Ale to nie przeszkadza. Touchstone nie chce burzyć schematów, nie przełamuje barier, nie sili się na superoryginalność i nie chce wynajdować prochu. Tego nie potrzeba. Grupa po prostu gra swoje i robi to naprawdę w niezłym stylu.

Podsumowując wydawnictwo „Oceans Of Time”, to jest ono po prostu udane, wszystko jest w nim na swoim miejscu i w określonych proporcjach. Nie mam żadnych uwag do tego albumu, no może oprócz jednej - że jest za krótki. Trwa „tylko” około godziny, a mógłby trochę dłużej. Mocno polecam wysłuchanie najnowszej produkcji kapeli Touchstone z nadzieją, że uda się kiedyś zobaczyć ten zespół na żywo. Ciężkie brzmienie, zwiewna melodyka, świetny aranż, piękne przestrzenie wypełnione klawiszami i wokalami, bardzo interesująca rytmika, przebojowość - czegóż chcieć więcej? Na pewno będziemy w Małym Leksykonie nadal śledzić dalsze losy tej wielce interesującej grupy! ---Robert "Morfina" Węgrzyn, mlwz.pl

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Rock, Metal

Touchstone - Discordant Dreams (2008)

Touchstone - Oceans Of Time (2013)