Long Distance Calling is a group that many probably have never heard of at this point, but for those in the Progressive Rock field, the band has gained plenty of notariety. This German group found success with their debut release, Avoid the Light, and two years later bring their steady fan base a follow-up album, the self-titled effort Long Distance Calling. While the release consists primarily of instrumentals, the material here is done well, and can speak volumes towards the band's creativity without going out of their way, or having to go through over-the-top means to set an atmosphere that stands out against many bands of today in this style.
Much of the material on Long Distance Calling is of a lighter nature, but really has a thick atmosphere to it. Chances are good that for each listener, the experience may not be the same, but for the most part the atmosphere typically feels dark, as if staring out to the sky at night and watching stars and spacial anomalies whiz by, and not in a grim and scary sense. At times, the atmosphere can come off more like liquid, as if you were to relax, close your eyes, if you were to reach out you could move the matter, even the air in front of you like liquid in a dream. All of this leads to a very soothing experience, though not without losing all of it's bite. The tuning on the guitars is just right to give the album an extra kick throughout, such as "Invisible Giants" which takes that heavier guitar tone and runs with it to weave a harder track that feels like a Space Rock track, but has more of an epic sense to it that matches the song's title perfectly.
The only problem is that the band seems to stick with the darkened skies, star gazing type of atmosphere, at least that's how I wind up interpreting it. Many of the lighter tracks on here come off with that kind of sense, and really just utilize the same ideas over and over. The songs are generally lighter, have the same atmosphere with no real differences to be found in it at all, and the guitars that enhance that atmosphere do the exact same thing and often share very similar chords. This happens right at the start with "Into the Black Wide Open" setting up a fantastic introduction to the album, "The Figrin D'an Boogie" essentially picking up where "IUnto the Black Wide Open" left off, then "Timebends" basically takes those last two songs and rehashes everything about it. Luckily, the band does throw some curve balls into the music, such as the aforementioned "Invisible Giants", as well as "Arecibo (Long Distance Calling)" which sounds like a more popular Hard Rock/Alternative song that was already recorded, and at times has some trace elements that make you want to shout the chorus of the Filter single "Hey Man, Nice Shot" in the chorus.
Long Distance Calling isn't just settled on atmospheric instrumentals. The second the vocals on "Middleville" belt out, the response is a resounding "Thank you, God!" for not being yet another atmospheric track similar to "Into the Black Wide Open" or "Timebends". Instead, it keeps the more space atmosphere through sound effects during certain bridges, and the guitars take on a more traditional Alternative Rock composition with a hint of Progressive atmosphere to them. The vocals themselves are also pretty impressive, matching the song perfectly, with their mid-range Rock sound and attitude, being harsh when need be, and rather clean the rest of the time, showing great range in all aspects. Of course, the album closes out in a not-too-familiar, yet all-too-expected all ambient instrumental piece that gets the job done, but essentially isn't anything all that spectacular, as well as goes back to that original atmosphere and some similar concepts that were present in "Into the Black Wide Open" and "Timebends" once again when the Ambient start comes to it's end.
Long Distance Calling is another well done piece of Progressive Rock, but the main issue is that it seems to overuse some of the material. While it's great that the band came up with a constant idea for the album, it isn't so great that they just took that idea and essentially ran with it for well over half the album, even though the closing track isn't a direct clone of those ideas, but seems more to be based off them and take a slightly different approach to use similar sounds and ideas. Either way, Long Distance Calling isn't really a bad CD, it's just that it's nothing we haven't already heard, and it rehashes plenty of ideas throughout the course of the CD, leaving it to be a little bland, and a little less then what we should have expected.
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