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Mind Gallery: Three Meals From Revolution(CD, 60:28) Mind Game Productions
Mind Game Productions
3318 E. 27th Ave.
Vancouver, BC  VSR 1P7
CYBERHOME: http://www.mindgallery.com

Mind Gallery, and their latest release Three Meals From Revolution is
a tough release to categorize.  The band basically take the ideals of the 60's,
the prog rock musical structure of the 70's, the loud grating keyboard
sounds on the 80's, and the oft over-simplified song composition (yes,
simplified prog is possible - just listen to Marillion) of the 90's and
mixed all the elements together on their Year 2000 release.  Do all these
differing styles work when thrown together on one album?  Well, "yes" and
"no" -- mostly "no."

Three Meals From Revolution is the Canadian instrumental quartet's
fourth release, but curiously feels like a debut or sophomore effort due to
some seemingly tentative decisions on the band's musical direction.  There
are some excellent pieces on the CD, the track "Free the Free" mixes an
Middle-Eastern vibe with some great frantic guitar breaks and an excellent
keyboard riff that ends the composition.  Another standout is the
neo-proggish "Walking the Dogma," which despite its repetitiveness is
pleasant to listen to and contains some nice work by guitarist Gary
Bourgeois.  However, most of the tracks on Three Meals. seem to hover
in the sonic ether, waiting for some sort of musical inspiration that never
really shows up.  You needn't delve any further into the CD to find an
example of this than the opening cut titled "To the Four Winds," which is an
8 minute song that unfortunately never really gets off the ground.  Sure,
there's some semi-interesting aggressive sounding guitar riffs peppered
throughout the song, but even they sound a bit forced and if they were just
thrown into the song to give it some "progginess."  The sixth track, "Ennui
in You," starts off with a very nice piano/acoustic guitar duet that would've
made a nice 1 minute intro to a more intricate song, but unfortunately
the passage never develops into anything very challenging and loses steam
about a quarter of the way through.  Judging from the standout cuts on this
album, it's obvious that Mind Gallery knows how to write a good song,
unfortunately they're the exception rather than the rule here.

As far as musicianship of the band members go, these guys are certainly more
than qualified.  Three Meals is a very keyboard heavy album, but I
think the real standouts are Tracy Gloeckner on drums and Gary Bourgeois on
guitar.  Gloeckner knows where to be subtle and where to whip out a Neil
Peart style drum fill, and his playing is very appropriate.  Bourgeois is
often muffled by Elio Bruno's keyboards (more on him later), but when his
guitar takes center stage the songs really go up a notch - especially when
he "Fripps Out" and tears into some riffs that'll make you think you've just
entered a monster movie.  However, keyboardist Bruno's habit of jumping from
sample to sample detracts from the album, and makes for some difficult
listening.  Sometimes the keyboards sound forced - Bruno seems intent on
filling the entire CD with his keyboard work, even where it's not needed.
This is especially annoying when the bass/drums/guitar are kicking out a
cool jam and all of a sudden they're stepped on by 80's corporate rock style
keyboards.

Three Meals From Revolution has a few good moments, but they are not
sufficient enough to cover the cost of admission.  The guys in Mind Gallery
definitely have enough musical talent to cut a good CD, they just need to
make some decisions as to where to focus that talent.

- Michael Askounes (michael@gscyclone.com)

CREDITS:
Mike Anderton: Bass, Bass Pedals
Tracy Gloeckner: Drums
Gary Bourgeois: Guitar
Elio Bruno: Keyboards

TRACKLIST:
1. To the Four Winds (8:06)
2. Armageddonouddahere (6:13)
3. Free the Free (4:45)
4. Nothing is Not (4:35)
5. The Increate (6:55)
6. Ennui in You (3:10)
7. What Goes A Round (4:58)
8. Walking the Dogma (6:55)
9. Medieval to Fullevil (7:45)
10. Custer's Last Stand (7:05)


More information on Mind Gallery can be found at http://www.mindgallery.com



This review featured in:


Mind Gallery: The Lemmings Were Pushed (CD, 59:29); independent release MGP-001

	This Canadian band presents a strong presence of keys and guitar interplay. You will find hints 
of Electrum and North Star but with more guitar crunch and edge. A gestalt debut Asia period 
comes through as well on keys and guitar. Compositions are put together well, tight, and offer 
plenty of time-sig variety. Early and mid-period Hackett solo releases echo on several tracks. A 
stand out track, “The Odd Evenings”, was like a Cast instrumental, Angels and Demons 
era. Can you believe little Happy The Man flourishes dotted liberally? Yup, them too. Best 
track for a Fripp/Belew, (circa Discipline) cloning was “This n’ That n’” that truly jumbled my 
neurons nicely. They got heavy with “The Holey War” which to me was Led Zep meets prog head 
on. Only “filler track” was the last song, which just went nowhere repeatedly, and predictably for 
6:08 but . . . Overall, I definitely recommend this release to guitar/synth and prog/fusion folk. And 
no vocals.	~ John W. Patterson



Mind Gallery: Guilty Until Proven Rich (CD, 58:45); independent release MGP-002

	This later offering of Mind Gallery retains all the same band members, similar synth styles and 
guitar prog rock crunch but more straight up rock comes through. On this release you have a 
more playful and experimentally peppy pace to songs and less of that staccato-tightened tension of 
mean and squeaky-clean instrumental prowess. I heard that Dixie Dregsian fuse-boogie/reel and 
The Magic Elf attack in at least three or four songs. Experience Billy Preston keys meets Zeppelin 
guitars on “Busting Around the Beast”! My favorite pieces were “Vertigo”  -- an Ozric Tentacles 
dirge mixed in a progressive metal blender, “The Last Drop”, and “Thru the Cracks” which both 
were a good blend of New Sun, Djam Karet, Rush, and a thin film of S.F.F. To satisfy hardcore 
symph-proggies there is a 12:44 track, “The Eighth Sea”. A very solid release, a bit rock-harder in 
places but not as fusion-tight as their earlier The Lemmings Were Pushed statement. Still, 
cool enuff for me.	~ John W. Patterson



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