Those Men have released the most ambitious concept album that recalls pink Floyd’s The Wall. The album, Theman Simpulse, is by far one of the most difficult albums to ever review. It has so much going on both of the 2 discs that it‘s almost impossible to categorize outside the art-rock/punk/prog arenas.
The album has a narrator that helps the listener at the direction of the story. Yet I have honestly don’t know what’s going on lyrically. I would say it’s very British (a compliment) sounding, obviously with the narration as well as the vocals. The vocalist, Martin Clark, reminds me of a mixture of Roger Waters and Andy Tillison (The Tangent, PO90).
The story line from what I can hear as well as research I‘ve done, is about a man called Themen Simpulse and who he meets on his amazing 4 second journey. It almost sounds like Theman ‘s very odd dream. The song lengths range between 1 minute to 15 minutes. The album is divided into two discs. On each disc it’s subtitles as Second One through Second 4.
I’ve heard this album several times and I still have yet to digest it’s ambitiousness the band has created. I feel that this is not for the casual listener. Serious music connoisseurs will be amazed at this album. They will also appreciate the epic nature of this 2 disc album., the band has created.
You can follow Theman’s journey on Facebook and MySpace through an episodic format. Hopefully it’ll help explain the themes going on here. I really can’t recommend this to the general population, it is for those that enjoy more “difficult” music. I think fans of the avant side of progressive rock will welcome this album into their collection.
The album is housed in a dvd size case which includes the two discs as well as a booklet that further explores the journey of Theman. If this appeals to you, then I’d suggest you first visit Those Men’s MySpace page and listen to the samples. At that point, you can decide whether or not to purchase this album, which was created by two musicians (Martin Clark - lead vocals & Mark Elliot - both are multi-instrumentalists). Take a chance if you dare!
Reviewed by Ron Fuchs on August 8th, 2010
