Band: XANG

CD Title: “The Last of the Lasts”

Label: Galileo Records

Release Date: 2006

Musical inspiration can be a funny thing. You never know where it comes from sometimes. And certainly when it comes to progressive rock, musical inspiration can take some unusual twists and turns tackling everything from C.S. Lewis to child-abuse. So when I saw that the new Xang CD entitled The Last of the Lasts was themed around World War I, I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. Here the concept explores the inhuman conditions on the battlefield and the all too prevalent disconnect between the political leaders and the soldiers on the front lines.

Xang is a French quartet formed in 1996 and The Last of the Lasts is their second CD release. The band consists of Matt Hooge (bass), Manu Delestre (drums), Antoine Duhen (guitars) and Vincent Hooge (keyboards). The band has called upon four additional musicians to help on specific tracks; Sonia Rekis (accordion), Alexis Therain (guitar), Thomas Duhen (acoustic guitar) and Simon Godley (voices on the track “Sons of the Empire”). With all the talk of this being a concept recording about World War I, did I mention The Last of the Lasts is an instrumental recording? That’s right, the CD booklet contains illustrations and text relating to each song’s theme and then the music is left to convey the emotion. The music for a project like this, as you might imagine contains many varied moments. It will go from soft and acoustic one moment to more aggressive heavy guitar the next. The music shifts time and tempo as well as texture as each piece attempts to convey the emotions of the composition. There are eight tracks ranging in length from three and half minutes to just over twelve minutes, but interestingly the length of the songs are kind of meaningless because even in the shorter songs there is a fair bit of variation. For most of the tracks the guitar infuses the rockier sound while the keyboard-leads tend be more in a soft-jazz vein and then for a few of the tracks the background is an orchestrated keyboard-wash simulating strings. Given the subject matter it’s to be expected that much of the music will be chaotic, aggressive or sad to reflect the mood of the fighting but there are also moments of tender poignancy that stand in stark contrast to the heavier emotions.

This is one of those recordings that’s particularly tough to pigeon-hole or stick in a slot. In many respects it’s everything a progressive rock recording should be, varied and moderately complex. The fact that it’s instrumental will appeal to many prog fans that dislike vocals and want to listen to the musicianship. It’s all there to be heard. The guitars provide a real edge and give this a very modern sound. I wouldn’t call it progressive metal, because there is much more going on, but when the guitars are the focus there are certainly moments where you get that prog-metal feel. But then the band rarely stay in one place for very long so the music changes moods constantly. Xang are to be commended for tackling such a difficult topic. The Last of the Lasts provides a varied and satisfying listening experience that should appeal to a wide range of progressive rock fans.