German progressive rock band  Electric Mud release their latest sublime album Quiet Days On Earth, paying respects to the early 70’s prog but also displaying their unique harmonious style.

Release date:  available  now

Label: Timezone

Format:   CD / streaming / download

Tranquility Base, Electric Mud have landed. A soundscape that creates a most calm, luxurious atmosphere from the start. Lilting acoustic guitar, luscious soothing ocean effects. The addition of keyboards accentuate the atmosphere; it turns more stirring, rising briefly before gentle cymbals signal the arrival of a slight increase in pace. So the Quiet Days On Earth begins with the birth of an Aurora Moon.

Silhouettes Floating Down A Rain Slicked Street, suggests enough in the poetic title itself and although the keyboards set a slightly bleaker scene, the imagination can run riot. The next track,  Mer de Glace, is more gentle and sugary as the tingling melodies add rays of brightness. Latin, classical guitar and radiophonic effects are shared with subtle electronic effects in the background that runs through the title track. A bubbling synthesizer has you wondering what is nestling in this virgin new land before a stunning guitar solo has a freshness of life emerging.

Opening with a cacophony of creature babblings brings to your view a new order in  Wading Through The Waters Of Time. As the tension increases and erupts, you can picture a land before any human life exists. In fact, the opening five tracks together seem to replicate a new world at its genesis.

Your perception could be totally different; nevertheless what is evident to everyone is the majesty and intricacy of the music. By the end of the Echoes Of Acheron we are eventually shaken up with a powerful guitar solo before we merge into The Loneliness Of The Somnambulist in which we first hear a  human voice, but in brief conversation not singing.

This brief resume of the first half of the album continues with the remainder of the tracks ranging from light to dark but continually sublime. There’s a clever blending of acoustic and electric elements and like a lot of recently released new progressive music, paying more than a nod to the 70’s. This resurgence of respect to our early prog heroes is welcome, especially when delicate and tender shades of music are entwined with a more robust and rougher-edge.  The track titled The Blinding Absence Of Light is a perfect example of this.

They describe their music on this album as “a movie for your ears.”   For me, it’s definitely a main feature and entices me to give their previous albums a listen. Electric Mud masterminds Hagen Bretschneider and Nico Walser deserve the plaudits they have received and their spectacular latest release will enhance their reputation as purveyors of European prog rock.

Electric Mud online :  Website / Facebook / Twitter / Youtube / Bandcamp

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