Artist: Aviary
Title: Ambition
Produced by: Aviary
Label/ Date: AV Records/ 2003
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.
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