2021 Album Eliminations Ep. 23: Wobbler vs. Steven Wilson

Preview featuring The Future Bites Preview featuring Dwellers of the Deep

Spring Roundup Part 3: The Prog Stuff

To continue catching up on this series that admittedly was meant to catch me up a month ago, I am addressing the albums that ended up getting lumped into a category I loosely designated as Prog Stuff.

Before I continue, the argument over what progressive rock is and is not is a huge and divisive topic that I am unwilling to engage here. The albums that follow don’t necessarily fall into the neat characteristics of traditional progressive rock music. Instead, these are all albums that I discovered through progressive rock avenues - either from websites dedicated to the style or from rhizomatic connections to other progressive rock groups.
Functionally, a lot of this music floats between the car and the house, although it feels a little indulgent to subject the whole family to some of this stuff. Still, as is often the case, I have found much of my favorite music this year by searching in progressive rock circles.



Wobbler - From Silence to Somewhere: Wobbler’s most recent release is another example of retro prog that transcends mere imitation. Their distinctive sound delves into heavier realms on From Silence to Somewhere than in the past, bringing to mind the riff-driven work of Rush in the mid-70’s.

Barock Project - Skyline: This album's clean, bright approach to late Neo-Progressive rock did not initially appeal to me at all.  Its strong songwriting and clever musicianship, however, has really grown on me, revealing depths that continue to deliver.

Bent Knee - Say So: Bent Knee seems like a band full of great musicians with just too many ideas. There are times when the concept pops into focus with dramatic results, but overall Say So feels too uneven to rise above mere moments.

Big Big Train - Folklore: Although occasionally marred by goofy lyrics, the positive critical responses to Folklore are largely deserved.  Fans of progressive rock in the vein of Genesis will likely connect with this album, especially if a sprinkling of Celtic overtones in the mix sounds appealing.

The Knells - Knells II: With a guitar player who seems to have broken off the the knob off somewhere between Jimmy Page and Hemispheres-era Alex Lifeson, I find a whole lot of like about this album from an instrumental perspective.  Even more interesting is the classically trained women's trio that collectively function as the lead voice.

Cheer- Accident - Putting off Death:  This is another album that is almost derailed by its own eccentricity, but is grounded by the obvious technical prowess of the band’s members.  The album has a certain sonic relationship to Bill Bruford’s 70’s solo work, which I have a longstanding relationship with.

Soup - Remedies: Remedies is my early contender for album of the year.  It's distinctive balance between Pink Floyd, post-rock, and pan-Nordic bleakness makes everything that I've been listening to pop into sharper focus.

Wobbler, Chris Squire, and Alternate Realities

I seem to remember hearing Wobbler’s name whispered in the virtual shadows of my various news feeds last year, but when they came up on a year-end “Best Prog of 2011” list with several other interesting artists, I ordered Rites at Dawn. Before I continue, I admit that in previous posts, I have often criticized bands that indulge in retro-prog. I feel that they play a role in the stagnation of progressive rock music. In the case of Wobbler, however, their obvious reverence for Yes’ most adventurous and artistically successful period grants them a level of forgiveness. Classic keyboard and bass sounds, coupled with a strong melodic and compositional sense, allows Wobbler to sidestep the sterile results that most retro-proggers get.



Wobbler does a respectable job of using Yes' most  classic period as a launching pad. Within this stylistic framework, however, there are variances in execution due to each member’s idiosyncratic musicianship. For example, drummer Martin Nordrum Kneppen doesn’t really play like either Bill Bruford or Alan White. He’s cut more from the post – Anglagard school of drumming.  Its distinguishing aspects like these that allow me to indulge in theoretical “What If…..?” games with Yes history when I listen to Wobbler.

For example, despite several member changes during Yes' 70s period, the band sustained a perceptible continuity in their musical identity. One member has always stayed constant in Yes, however, and that is bassist Chris Squire. Although Jon Anderson’s distinctive leads are central to the Yes sound, Squire’s backups have always delicately sat on top of them.

Briefly, around 1974, the various members of Yes went on hiatus and each one of them made a solo album. For some of them, this began a long solo career that would run parallel to their involvement in Yes. For whatever reason, Squire never ended up being as prolific a writer as some of his bandmates, but out of this initial crop of solo work, Squire’s Fish out of Water remains my favorite. Predicting Sting’s jazzy approach by nearly fifteen years, Squire’s choirboy vocals reveal their potential at center stage. With a backing band that was effectively a Yes lineup that never existed (including Bill Bruford, Patrick Moraz, and Mel Collins) Squire delivered a consistent set of infectiously melodic orchestral progressive rock.



Despits Wobbler's inarguable Yes-ness, I think that lead singer Andreas Prestmo’s voice has more in common with Squire’s glassy smoothness than the angelic rasp of Anderson.  So what if, after the Yes solo outings, Anderson left Yes and the band continued as a quartet, with Squire taking over the lead vocals. Squire’s obvious melodic sense could have carried the band without radically altering their sound. Rites at Dawn allows me to indulge in this fantasy by capturing a slightly different image of what Yes might have sounded like in their heyday under different circumstances.



At the same time, I genuinely respect the craftsmanship that Wobbler invested in this album. Regardless of how clearly they wear their influences, it takes no small amount of musicianship to effectively construct pieces like the ones found on Rites at Dawn. Somehow, it stands on its own while leaning heavily on its own past, allowing the novel to arise within the nostalgic. If you are a Yes fan that cannot accept Yes’ most recent incarnation, Wobbler may be a solution.