Coralspin: Honey And Lava

Billing themselves as a "mod-prog" band, The UK's Coralspin have released a debut album intended to blend modern progressive music with straight ahead rock and the prog traditions of old. In fact the band's bio lists acts as diverse as Muse, Biffy Clyro, Yes and Genesis as reference points. After spending quite some time with Honey And Lava, I have to be honest and say that I only found one (and even then only the once) of those bands listed as strong pointers as to what this well above average album sets out. Essentially a three-piece of Ellie Blyth (vocals/keys), Blake McQueen (keys) and Jake Simmons (guitar), augmented for this album by Steve Kightley (bass) and David English (drums), Coralspin rely strongly on melody and hooks to create a kind of trad-prog-AOR hybrid that straddles everything from poppy bursts and sing along choruses, to intricate musicianship and jazzy overtones.

Unsurprisingly, given that they outnumber the guitar 2 to 1, it is the keyboard contribution from Blyth and McQueen that sets the tone for much across the eight expansive tracks on Honey And Lava, although the vocals will also have a large say in just how much you are seduced or put off by this album. Now that makes the strong, rich tones that Blyth provides sound like a weak link in Coralspin, something which would be distinctly unfair, as the young lady is indeed a fine and confident singer. However her tendency to deliver all of the vocals on the album in a similar pitch - and one which often sounds like a controlled male falsetto - does grate on the nerves the more you get to know what should be a warming syrupy mixture of Honey And Lava. Musically the three-piece, expanded to five, are skilled and classy, with an ability to cleverly link focused, busy keyboard sounds with more straight ahead rhythms and structures, making for songs which are reassuringly welcoming, but which challenge rewardingly. With a bright production and well chosen keyboard effects, the eight songs on show and especially "Bun My Eyes" make a striking initial impact and one which has pretty decent staying power. Add to that a couple of left turns in the shape of the piano and voice led "Aching", or "Mistimed", which lands somewhere between 80's synth-pop and latter day Genesis, and Coralspin have enough about them to hold the interest throughout what is admittedly, at just under 40 minutes, an all too short album.

Hopefully as Coralspin grow across their next few releases they will be able to add a few more colours or tempos to their armoury of musical weapons and also rely slightly less on the vocals to lead from the front quite so often. However as debuts go Honey And Lava promises, and crucially, delivers much.

Track Listing
1. Sons of the Sleeping Giant
2. You're Wrong
3. Mistimed
4. Burn My Eyes
5. Sky's End
6. Songbird
7. Night Stalker
8. Aching

Added: March 17th 2014
Reviewer: Steven Reid
Score:
Related Link: The Official Coralspin Website
Hits: 3346
Language: english

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