January 22, 2008
The All Music Guide

The Attila & Dave Project - Illuminated

By Joseph McCombs

More precision and less bombast mark the third full-length release from the Bay Area prog outfit the Attila & Dave Project. With ably tight assistance from drummer Rusty Aceves, nominal bandleaders Attila Medveczky (basses, keyboards, synths, lead vocals) and Dave Stevenson (guitars and backing vocals) have created an album that dwells on slow developments, slow realizations. Where the previous year’s Lifeline had been a touch show-offy, privileging the music far over the lyrics, Illuminated carries an aura of hyperaware pessimism: the failed dreams of “A Game of Chess,” the deceptions of “Smoke & Mirrors.” Its songs rumble along, draggy, druggy, like Ace Frehley fronting the Bubble Puppy. But while the track lengths scream “epic,” the songs really aren’t overconstructed or overplayed; Dave’s axes and Attila’s Mini-Moog stay within the atmosphere this time around. An interesting curiosity is the ELP-ish “The Golden Gates,” a Biblical rehash heavy on bleak nihilism (God to Abraham: “I’d like to eat your son for lunch”), but the disc’s standout is closer “The Neon Light,” a smirking celebration of either big-church religion or big-box shopping. (The parallels are unsettling.) Vocally unimpressive, Illuminated isn’t the best example of modern prog, but it’s more than a genre workout and is a leap forward for Attila and Dave in its songcraft.