Chronometree

Glass Hammer | Format: Audio CD

Product Details

• Audio CD
• Number of Discs: 1
• Label: .
• ASIN: B00004U8PD
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (33 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #18,946 in Music (See Top 100 in Music)
  • #43 in Music > Indie Music > Rock > Progressive

Track Listings

1. Empty Space, Revealer

2. An Eldritch Wind

3. Revelation, Chronometry

4. Chronotheme

5. A Perfect Carousel

6. Chronos Deliverer ***

7. Shapes of the Morning

8. Chronoverture

9. The Waiting, Watching The Sky

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Who is the more foolish.......?, March 19, 2003

By 

Jeff Hodges (Denton, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Chronometree (Audio CD)

As much as I love the "progressive" founders of the style that time has come to identify as "symphonic" rock, I am as equally critical of projects that are, in effect, sampling these groups. Granted, it takes a respectable musician to recreate the best moments of Yes' "Relayer", but is there really a difference between playing homage to one's influences and Xerox-copying them outright while playing off the differences with changes in studio technology?

This, and beyond this, is the point that "Chronometree" trying to make. Read on....

Glass Hammer has the every potential for falling into the latter "Xerox" category. Although Fred Schendel and Steve Babb are multi-instrumentalists, they wear their keyboard influences on their sleeve. They freely and convincingly toggle between Emerson- and Wakeman-isms. However, keyboard influences aside, I think it is really hard to say that "Chronometree" as an overall project "sounds like" Yes or ELP. Even though they are playing in the style of these bands and moments of the album could have been lifted from "Going for the One" or "Tarkus", "Chronometree" distinguishes itself from these classic albums in several convncing ways.

Sonically, Babb and Schendel's choice of auxiliary musicians help to distance "Chronometree" from its influences. Usually, I am the first to have issues with melodramatic prog-rock singers, and it seems that many reviewers seem to take issue with the vocals of Brad Marler. However, I think that he is one of the jewels of "Chronometree". Marler has a unique style. He is in no way trying to cop Jon Anderson or Greg Lake, or any of the classic singers for that matter. In the prog-rock business, I think that stance is pretty bold and practically difficult. Most importantly, Marler is impassioned without coming off as cheesy or melodramatic. Add to this the tasteful and sometimes blistering stand-in guitar chops of Arjen Lucasson (of Aryeon fame) and you create some fantastically electrifying moments that distance "Chronometree's" best moments from the occasional "Awaken"-style church organ or the "Eruption"-style Hammond stab.

Most importantly, the musically derivative moments of "Chronometree" can be attributed to the unabashedly clever concept of the album. You see, "Chronometree" is a rock opera/concept album about a guy who listens to too many rock operas/concept albums. The main character, Tom, is a pot-smoking prog-rock junkie that starts to think that aliens are trying to contact him through lyrics. In the end, he drags his friends out to a field where he waits, Great Pumpkin-style, for four-dimensional alien enlightenment.

Think about it - you really can't go wrong with this one...

As silly as it sounds to read, the concept is actually quite heady in execution. Without a libretto, it would most likely take the listener a while to figure out that at its core, "Chronometree" is a self-referential satire. I think Obi-Wan Kenobi said, "Who is the more foolish, the fool or the fool who follows him?" The closer you look at "Chronometree", the more you become the fool. It pokes fun at you for looking too closely at its meaning. In the end, the hidden message that it seems to be trying to convey is that the music is what is most important - at least to Babb and Schendel it is.

And if the music is what is important, that is what one should focus on. All of this subtle humor is delivered with an academically straight face within some of the most well-composed modern symphonic rock being produced today. Thematic and harmonic recurrences make this a 45-minute journey into both the past and the future. As with many well-composed concept albums, it is difficult to suggest a single track to give the listener an idea of what to expect. However, the stand-alone interlude "Perfect Carousel" hands-down the best Rick Wakeman song written that Rick Wakeman never wrote. If you like that track, the rest of the album will blow you out of the water.

The lowdown: "Chronometree" is a great progressive/symphonic rock album that will make you sing, think, and perhaps even snicker to yourself if you care enough to pay attention. Probably the most distinctive thing the Hammer has done. MOst importantly, it FEELS good to listen to. The musicians involved seem to be genuinely challenged and joyful in their creation. `Nuff Said!

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An amazing CD from America's unsung prog rock heroes!, January 29, 2002

By 

Just Bill (Grand Rapids, MI United States) - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Chronometree (Audio CD)

Glass Hammer is an amazing band with lots of heart, humor and musical talent. This is the second album of theirs I've heard (the first being The Middle Earth Album) and it's even better than I thought and hoped it would be.

Chronometree sounds like a cross between ELP, King Crimson (in some of the guitar solos), Yes, early Genesis, maybe a little Gentle Giant -- yet none of it sounds derivative. It sounds extremely vibrant and fresh, with lots of moving and beautiful keyboard passages.

Glass Hammer, in case you haven't heard of them (and, sadly, chances are you haven't), is two men (Steve Babb and Fred Schendel) out of Chattanooga, TN. They're more or less a prog-rock equivalent of Steely Dan -- two talented guys who are also studio wizards with the ability to assemble killer musicians from time to time that help them make remarkable music.

Their albums (they have five or six) are among the more creative and noteworthy of any recorded in America. They don't have the notoriety of, say, Spock's Beard or Dream Theater...yet I find their music to be just as magical. And, in some cases, better.

In fact, track six off Chronometree ("Chronos Deliverer") is on Repeat right now...and has been for two hours. It features an angelic choir, a big, big sound with mesmerizing keyboards/organ/guitar flourishes and such an uplifting feeling that even though it's a gray, cold day outside right now -- inside of me I feel all sunny and warm. (Of course, could I have expected any less with a choir singing "Gloria in excelsis Deo" over a vintage organ that seems to fill all the corners of my mind?) What an amazing track! It gives me the chills!

What is a Chronometree? Good question. You should check out the CD booklet and the band's official Web site for more information. Without giving away too much of the story, a Chronometree is the invention of an over-zealous prog-head who's favorite album is Yes' Close to the Edge. The story in the CD booklet is very funny.

If you enjoy melodic, expansive, magical music played with more intelligence and heart than you're likely to find anywhere, you'll love Chronometree. The nine tracks on this album will transport you to another world -- one which you'll only reluctantly leave behind.

Buy this album...and tell as many people as you can about Glass Hammer!

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A concept album that's a takeoff of prog-rock concept albums, February 4, 2003

By 

woburnmusicfan (Woburn, MA United States) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Chronometree (Audio CD)

On "Chronometree", Glass Hammer gives progressive rock the same tribute/roast/sendup treatment that the Rutles gave the Beatles, or XTC's Dukes of Stratosphear gave psychedelia. It's done as a concept album about Tom, a man convinced that the music in his own prog-rock concept albums is conveying messages from an alien race on how to build a time machine. Like any good prog-rock epic, the single long track is given subheadings and sub-subheadings.

It's a very clever idea, but a joke that no one will want to partake of if the music isn't good. How's the music? Surprisingly good, after a dozen listens, especially since prog-rock isn't easy to write (I'm speaking from experience). Frankly, the concept allows Glass Hammer to get away with murder -- when there's a generic riff, a cheesy synth sound, or an unnecessary time signature change (and there's some of each), GH can just call it a satire of prog-rock clichés. I hear a lot of Yes and ELP in the music, a bit of Kansas, some organ runs that sound like UK, and a hodge-podge of a hundred long-lost bands from Babylon to Trillion. The lyrics of "Revealer" are a great send-up of Yes lyrics. "Shapes of the Morning" reminds me of Camel, and the hidden closing track is a perfect take on Gryphon. I don't hear much Genesis, except for the Mellotron parts in "Chronometry" and "Watching the Sky" (the latter, naturally, paraphrases "Watcher of the Sky"). The one cut that is truly as inspired as GH's influences is the uplifting "Chronos Deliverer", with soaring choral voices, wailing slide guitar, and pipe organ underpinning. "Empty Space/Revealer", "A Perfect Carousel", and "Shapes of the Morning" are also good, and all of the other songs have some good moments. In true prog-rock style, the closing "Watching the Sky" reprises a theme from the opening "Empty Space".

One thing keeps this from being a perfect copy of the great progressive rock bands: Yes, Genesis, and ELP had great singers. Glass Hammer has Brad Marler, who's game, but just not up to the task. At his best, on "An Eldritch Wind", he sounds like a poor man's Steve Walsh. At his worst, on his own song "A Perfect Carousel", he's a serious distraction. You'll wonder just how great this song could be with Jon Anderson singing it, with its acoustic guitar, "Strawberry Fields Forever" Mellotron flutes, and "Awaken"-style pipe organ. Overall, the music on this album isn't as good as the albums that inspired it, but the high concept is good enough to bump it up half a star. If you're a big prog-rock fan, you'll find it worthy of repeated listenings.

(1=poor 2=mediocre 3=pretty good 4=very good 5=phenomenal)