Band: The Rebel Wheel

CD Title: “diagramma”

Label: 10T Records

Release Date: 2007

Have you ever caught yourself with a preconceived notion that proved to be so very wrong? I’m sure we all have. Well it happened to me the other day. I’m looking at the new release of a band called The Rebel Wheel called diagramma and I’m thinking by the look of the cover this is probably something either really hard and heavy or maybe just weird. Well once again I’m reminded not to judge a book or in this case a CD by its cover.

The Rebel Wheel is an Ottawa, Canada based quintet where besides the traditional instrument line-up everyone plays keyboards. The band consists of Alain Bergeron (drums, keyboards), David Campbell (guitars, vocals, bass, programming, percussion, keyboards), Paul Joanis (guitars, keyboards), Gary Lauzon (bass, bass pedals, keyboards) and Angie MacIvor (saxes, vocals, keyboards). Now you might think with so many hands on keyboards the music here is going to sound lush and symphonic, but you would be wrong. While there are some moments such as this, with lovely Mellotron sounds and so forth such as on the track “Hiding and Waiting” (6:42), for the most part the music created here is a dark, moody, angular and at times industrial sounding progressive rock. The 7 compositions on diagramma each display a strong musicality. Everyone here is really playing off each of the band members producing a kind of rock-fusion with a hint of jazzy undertone because of the business. However the compositions are highly structured and arranged, allowing for the faster sections to be offset by the slower, the busy moments to played against more pastoral Mellotron or synth atmosphere. The vocals all display a kind of Pink Floyd breathiness but rarely dominate the powerful musicianship. Most of these compositions are on the long side, the longest being “Threads” (8:01), Awakened (11:33) and the epic length title track “diagramma” (21:23). The shortest track “Three Valley Gap” (2:12) acts as a kind of bridge from the busy opening track and displays some gorgeous acoustic guitar and Mellotron. Another aspect to the music of The Rebel Wheel is that is carries a strong element of discord; the composition will roll along in a certain melodic fashion only to be upended any number of times with a massive rolling sense of aggression and dissonance. The neat thing is it all fits extremely well together, making the symphonic passages sound even more wistful and sublime: a kind of sweet-and-sour effect where each enhances the flavour of both styles.

I have to say how impressed I am with The Rebel Wheel’s diagramma. Philosophically it sounds very proggy, yet very modern and very unique. Full of challenging melodies and unusual structures this is a winner for any number of prog sub-genres. I’m putting this on the list as one of my favorites for 2007.