KINETIC ELEMENT – POWERED BY LIGHT – INDEPENDENT

One of the issues of being known as a reviewer, plus also taking some years out of the scene to concentrate on collating some books, is that material can build up. In the end I decided to keep up to date with the most recent material and delve into the older material when I had time. Due to multiple reasons neither of these approaches have worked, and I now find myself in a position where I still have albums to review which were sent to me years ago as well as being somewhat behind on the more recent albums (although I have committed to reviewing every single album ever sent to me). One way of slowly dealing with this is that when I am sent an album by a band, and I have yet to review the old one, then I do both at once. That is what has happened here, as I am pretty sure keyboard player/singer Mike Visaggio sent this to me nearly 7 years ago but given I have recently received the new live release, I dug this out of the vaults and put it into the pile, which led me to discover this is a real delight and I definitely should have played it sooner!

This was the debut album from the quartet, released in 2009, and as well as Mike features Todd Russell (guitars), Tony D’Amato (bass) and Michael Murray (drums, backing vocals). There have been quite a few changes in the band over the years since then, and only Mike and Michael are still involved. I have no idea why there was a six-year gap between this and the second album, ‘Travelog’, but during that period a decision was made for Mike to drop lead vocals and concentrate on keyboards, which to my mind is a shame as vocally he is very strong indeed. This album is built around the keyboards, and I found myself having internal debates as to whether this section or that sounded more like Keith Emerson or Rick Wakeman, as his use of Mellotron is reminiscent of both. There are times when the music does sounds as if could have come from the Seventies, that is mostly due to the keyboard sounds being deployed, and for the most part this is a very modern sounding album indeed. The keyboards and use of piano are indeed evocative of Procol Harum, yet there are also plenty of others when it is more like 3 or a fresher Flower Kings.

Melodic and incredibly accessible, this is progressive music which has much in common with classical in the way some of the keyboard string arrangements are set, and one can imagine songs such as “Peace of Mind, Peace of Heart” having a major live presence, building from an emotional keyboard-led vocal into something far funkier and more dynamic. Overall, this is an incredibly polished and enjoyable progressive rock album which just gets better the more it is played.

Kev rowland 8/10

Kinetic Element – The Face of Life Revealed

Martin Kornick at Man In The Mountain known for his work for such acts as PINNACLE, KEITH EMERSON BAND, TRANSATLANTIC is back in the saddle again working on the new Kinetic Element album art for “The Face of Life“. We have been given permission to release the front cover art.

Martin Kornick also created the album art for the two previous Kinetic Element albums Travelog (2015) and Powered by Light (2009)

Fred Schendel and Steve Babb are also back in the saddle and best known as members with US prog band Glass Hammer, Fred and Steve will be handling the mix and mastering for The Face of Life at SOUND RESOURCES in Chattanooga TN (USA) Fred and Steve were responsible for the mix and mastering of Travelog (2015)

The Face of Life” will be released on CD and High-Resolution Digital and for the first time in the band’s history on Vinyl and will feature the following songs
– Face of Life
– All Open Eyes
– Epistle
– Last Words

Kinetic Element
St. John Coleman: Vocals
Mike Visaggio: Keyboards & Vocals
Mark Tupko: Bass
Michael Murray: Drums & Backing Vocals
Peter Matuchniak: Guitar

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