From the moment the alarming mellotronic noise begins, followed by guitar-layered sounds, and someone going on the brink of a nervous breakdown, the clock-ticking riffs come bursting through the doors with a hardcore sound as Nad Sylvan sings about the warning’s on being a ‘Secret Lover’. This isn’t fun and games, this is getting down to business and trying to survive in the prisons that are nearly closing in on you.
Nad Sylvan has shown to be more than being the vocalist in Steve Hackett’s band Genesis Revisited, but known for his work with Unifaun and Agents of Mercy, followed by projects collaborating with The Flower Kings, Anderson / Stolt, Harmony for Elephants, and The Winter Tree. That and his fifth solo album entitled Monumentata released on the InsideOut label, finds Sylvan tackling subject matters that hits you hard as if he’s giving you a giant reality check.
With the who’s who on this album including Nick Beggs and Randy McStine (Steven Wilson), The Flower Kings’ Lalle Larsson and Mirko De Maio, Jonas Reingold, Tony Levin (Peter Gabriel, John Lennon, and King Crimson), The Aristocrats’ Marco Minnemann, and Joe Deninzon of Stratospheerius, they know that this is going to be an adventure that Sylvan has placed them on. And as Bette Davis would say, “Fasten your seat belts, it’s going to be a bumpy night”.
With its heavier attitude between Deep Purple and the Octopus-era of Gentle Giant, ‘That’s Not Me’ talks about trying to adapt in a new city that you’ve just landed. In an interview with The Prog Report published last week, Nad describes about the song as “A very heavy and aggressive song. It’s like, James Brown meets Deep Purple”. You can tell that Sylvan has a love of the soul, but the futuristic and ascending dystopian nightmares that’s about to unfold.
But it’s ‘Monte Carlo Priceless’ that hits home for Nad which pays tribute to his mother, who passed away 16 years ago and his father last July. It’s sombering acoustic structure is a farewell and sending them true love, and honor which comes out of a novel. The reason why the Monte Carlo fits into the song is because Nad’s mom had been with her husband, through the thick and thin, but the strong bond flows into this massive, shining light unveiling in front of our very eyes.
When I think of ‘Flowerland’ I think of this Beatle-sque atmosphere, but with a twist of psychedelic arrangements in the forms of Harry Nilsson and Tim Bowness, and a setting by being free from all of the chaos that we had to endure. It evokes the funk, the pain, and where the future will lay ahead in the years to come before the ‘Wildfire’ starts to spread with its intensive acoustic riffs, organ raising the alarms with its harmonising vocals to really get you going and layered melodies in the chorus.
Then, this is where Nad goes into this cat-and-mouse chase when he goes into this insane time change with its pop-orientated ‘80s structure and medieval-like arrangement on ‘Make Somebody Proud.’ There’s the gospel background, returning back to the Gentle Giant roots, Gabriel-like lyrical textures, clavinet funk, heavy riffs, the backing vocals between Sheona Urquhart and Jade Ell, the igniting midsection, Nad isn’t fooling around, he’s getting down to business.
And if you cross the line with him, let’s just say he will kick your ass so hard, I mean, really hard, you’ll be shitting your pants 24/7 and be home crying to mommy, nonstop. Nad is someone you don’t want to mess with. All of a sudden, it switches from pop to a film-noir late ‘60s crime romance which took me by surprise. The song ‘I’m Steppin’ Out’ has this Italian turned French arrangement which could had recorded back in the mid-to-late ‘60s, but with a detective on the case that makes Sylvan turn into Dick Tracy and getting the puzzle solved in no time.
The title-track closes up the album with a moody, jazzy, laid-back, uplifting score of keyboard strings taking us into slumber land with a sense of relief, understanding, and the hope to move forward. The bonus track ‘Unkillable’ becomes a synthesised-acoustic foot stomp with a pounding beat and what is happening in the outside world. Challenging and right to the core, Monumentata may not be everyone’s cup of tea per se, but Sylvan brings it all to the front with the hope of letting the past and the present be, and moving on to seeing what the future will be for them.
