German Translation

January, 2004

Left Coast "Worlds of Mystery“ (Eigenproduktion)

Left Coast out of San Diego is Neal Hedegard (g, b), Chris Kokesh (synth, p, org), Alan Smithey (b), Roger Nigg (dr, perc) and Richard Paveled (voc). They play a gothic-influenced dark Neoprog, which has a prefence in the sound of dark heavy metal. But there are no more relationships of “Worlds of Mystery” with metal. The 11 songs show a lot of typical characteristics of prog rock: complex composition, multi-layered arrangements, encapsulated rhythms with lots of breaks and changes. The are no longtracks, Left Coast keep back from that prog idea.  The whole album is solid and put in a nutshell. Not to find are boring drag outs. The band attaches great value to recognized melodies and takes a lot refrains. From time to time Left Coast shows their preference to weird stuff not that much, they play more the symphonic mainstream, what is weird and strange enough. The most songs on “World of Mystery” are inspired and filled with life, with some little exceptions, which not satisfy like the other tunes - at first some of the long vocal passages with acoustic guitar, where the singing is too simple and too much and long and a bit boring with the minutes. Sometimes the structure is a bit too common, that reminds me in soft moments to TV-sounds. But that is not the most of the album. The ambitious work is to praise. There are much interesting, sweep away moments, at first in the genius drum playing with its complexity and very good, natural sound. Very good! It’s the same with the guitar playing with lots of good solos. This production rocks!