Artist: Aviary

Title: Ambition

Produced by: Aviary

Label/ Date: AV Records/ 2003

Tracks:

1. Hello [3:20]
2. The Sun, the Sand [4:26]
3. Apathy [3:47]
4. Ambition [3:18]
5. You [3:55]
6. Desert Songs/ Pharoahs March [11:10]
7. I Should Of Know [4:56]
8. Eva's Birthday [3:40]
9. Fine Lines [5:42]
10. Working Girl [3:37]
11. Yes and No [3:20]
All songs recorded in Los Angeles 77-79 except Eva's Birthday recorded 73.

The Review:

Aviary is one of those great American rock and roll bands that over looked by rock and roll history. They just came onto the music scene too late as punk reshaped how popular music was looked at.

Aviary's music has wonderful multi-layered vocals ala Queen, E.L.O.,Ambrosia & The Sweet, which should appeal to fans of Echolyn, Land of Chocolate, Izz, Bubblemath amoungst other modern day bands.

Although they can be classified as art-rock/glam rock band, they're rooted more into the progressive rock camp more than their contemporaries.

Upon listening, Brad Love's vocals often remind me of Todd Rundgren's at times. Brad also provides all of the piano playing.

The other keyboard sounds are provided by Paul Madden. Paul’s keyboard playing goes above and beyond for the glam sound. I'm not sure how many of the glam bands had Mellotron, Mini-Moog or Hammond B2 in it as much as Aviary did. His keyboard playing is not done in flashy “show-off” way. He just knows when and when not to add his flare. Unfortunately, Paul is one of the unsung heroes in the progressive music circle but he should be remembered for his contribution.

Their bass player, Ken Steimonts should be ranked up there with the amazing power styles of Geddy Lee, Chris Squire & John Wetton. He played a Rickenbacker, which if I recall so did Geddy & Chris.
Sadly Ken has since passed away, but his musical legacy will live on in Aviary's self titled debut and Ambition recordings for future generations to listen to.

All of the songs were recorded between 1975-79 for a possible second release on Epic but the record company had other ideas and scraped the album. The music laid dormant until 2003 when AV Records released this archive set as Ambition.

Ambition is chockfull of memorable sometimes complex time changes makes this as classic as anything released by the Prog giants of the day.

One such tune is a classic sounding 11+ minute epic, "Desert Songs/Pharoahs March". With the symphonic based musical instrumentation and some complex time changes.

Some of my personal favorites of the disc is “Hello”. This has a Beatle-esque vibe to it while being completely original with the multi-layered vocals and melodies that surely could have been on heavy FM radio rotation.

"Eva's Birthday" has more of an experimental raw style to it than the other songs It was recorded back in 1975 which per-dates the other recordings. This song could possibly have been more influenced by the glam scene at the time. I hear some Roxy Music influences.

I have to highly recommend Aviary' Ambition as a fine addition to any music lover’s collection. Please click on the cd cover to order.

~Ron for ProgNaut.com [September 4th, 2003]

To get to the artist's website, please click on the CD cover.

Band Members:

Brad Love - Lead Vocals, Piano
Paul Madden - Hammond B2 w/ perc., Mellotron, MiniMoog, Prophet, Rhoades
Ken Steimonts - Bass, Vocals
Richard Bryans - Drums, Vocals
Toby Bowen - Guitar
Tony Dart - Drums on Eva's Birthday

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