Protos is another one of those bands that started out in the late 70’s, well passed the heyday of progressive rock music. They did manage to put out an album in 1982 titled One Day A New Horizon. Now that it has finally been released on CD, more can hear it’s beauty especially in the opening track The Fugitive. To my ears this is a long lost classic prog song. Why you ask, well it combines everything I love about the genre including the cinematic keyboard sounds, the fluid guitars and the rhythm section that gels so well.
To make the cd more appealing, at least to listeners such as myself, they added two bonus tracks “The Flea” and “Variations on a Theme by Iain Carnegie”, which is taken from keyboardists Rory Ridley-Duff's solo album Passing Decades. I’m sure fans of the original release would be pleased with these additions as well.
I’ve been reading how some reviewers are classifying Protos as neo prog, I can agree to some extent but I hear more of a symphonic vibe than anything. Maybe it was the times the music was originally recorded in but it doesn’t matter because the music is so enjoyable to hear over and over. The other thing is since Protos is all instrumental they don’t fall into the clichés of the neo prog genre. The focus is 100% on the music.
Being I’m rather a new comer to the genre, even though I have 17 years of prog listening under my belt, I’m still at awe with all the great music that comes out of the woodwork in this digital age. Kudos to Rory Ridley-Duff for bringing this and other of his releases to the progressive rock table. If you enjoy well structured instrumental keyboard based progressive music, then look no further and add Protos’ ‘One Day A New Horizon’ to your collection today! Your ears will thank you thousand fold!
Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on April 29th, 2007
