January 2003
Freelance Writer Contributor to East Bay Express & Oakland Tribune

"Attila Dave Project... Kings of Bay Area Progressive Rock"

By David Goldweber

ILLUMINATED: Attila Dave Project

Attila Dave Project (let's call them ADP) are the kings of Bay Area progressive rock, and they have just released a scintillating new album. Their first LP, Songs of Innocence and Experience (1996) was charming and fresh but uneven as a whole. They followed up in 2001 with Lifeline, which was far more consistent and mature, sounding as if a youthful apprentice had become a seasoned craftsman. Now, just a year after Lifeline, the trio has built on their success with the powerful Illuminated, their most sustained and ambitious work yet.

The big theme, as on Songs and Lifeline, is that of the grand journey: reaching for ecstasy, for enlightenment, for truth, for love. The songs themselves are little adventures that rise and fall, louden and soften, surprising us with tempo changes, mood changes, bursts of light and energy. As we listen, we feel ourselves questing and meandering like mythic pilgrims. Yet the lyrics question the journeys at the same time they expound and extol them; the idealism is laced with skepticism. Will we ever find the big meaning or the full satisfaction? Will the grace of God ever truly shine upon us? If so, might the price be too much to pay? The quasi-title track, "Illumination," offers an ironic answer: "Illumination comes to the drowning man."

Musically, as Songs recalled Genesis and Lifeline recalled Pink Floyd, Illuminated is a combination of Yes and Black Sabbath. The atmosphere is swirling and dreamy, yet we might slip into a vortex or a nightmare at any moment. Here we dance in a sparkling and shimmering dawn, yet there we crawl through a smoldering and smokey dusk. There are echoes, harmonies, lush textures laced with bells, chimes, tambourines, recorders, and, on one track, a harpsichord. At times we meet the medievalesque minstrelsy of Jethro Tull, the sardonic humor of John Lennon, the rugged psychedelia of Smashing Pumpkins, the studied buzz of Soundgarden.

The three East Bay-based musicians seem at once more far-ranging and more disciplined. The steady, rolling drumbeats that Rusty Aceves offers on Lifeline are on Illuminated tempered with a jazzy looseness. The winding riffs of Dave Stevenson's electric guitars can pierce like needles ("The Lotus Eaters") or wash like waves ("Streaming"). Attila Medveczky's lead vocals sound smoother than on the earlier albums and harmonize effortlessly with Dave's (and, on one track, alto Christina Perna's) backing vocals.

Yet despite their ambition and complexity (and despite their unwieldy band name), ADP never forgets their classic rock roots. They never lapse into the spacey pretense or histrionic ostentation that at times marred the efforts of their Prog Rock progenitors. Illuminated is imaginative and demanding yet at the same time meaty and down-to-earth. At an ADP concert you will find fans of Led Zeppelin, King Crimson, Iron Maiden, Rush, the Beatles, and the Grateful Dead sitting side by side, basking in the blaze of the music.

-David E. Goldweber