Album review: PERVY PERKIN – Ink

August 5th, 2014 by alanjones

Rock CD Records – Release Date: March 2014

OK, settle down at the back of the class – we’ve all had a dodgy teacher called Pervy Perkin at one time or another during our schooldays haven’t we?

So why, given all the band names available in the world, did this progressive rock five-piece from Murcia, Spain settle on Pervy Perkin…?

That information is not to hand at present, and anyway, what’s in a name – it’s the music that counts, right?

And what music this is – fair to say that this sprawling two hour-plus double album of progressive rock magnificence absolutely blew me away – and then some.

Split into two parts ‘Book Of Equinox’ and ‘Book Of Solstice’, the band seem to have taken the Progressive Rock Handbook – read all the chapters on time signature changes, light and shade, pastoral and heavy, and an indefinable concept – then taken it outside, given it a good kicking before setting light to the thing.

There is, quite literally, never a dull moment as the music progresses from swirling keyboards and delicate acoustic guitar to ferocious and anthemic riffing, from gossamer-like piano figures to howling guitar solos and from almost whispered vocals to the occasional (dreaded) death growls.

Throw into all this mayhem a bit of jazz (‘nice’), a splash of middle-eastern rhythms, a parp of Mariachi, a blast of King Crimson’s ‘Pictures Of A City’, a little Hawkwind here, a little Genesis there and even a smidgeon of Americana, together with the band’s own Spanish take on the genre and it’s easy to see why the listener is left breathless by the end.

The best example of this is ’T.I.M.E. (Part 3)’ which is split into eight parts, lasts twenty minutes, has more changes of tempo and genre than you could shake a stick at and is just the most astonishing piece of music you could wish to hear.

Inevitably over such an opus there’s bound to be the occasional faux-pas – the dreaded occasional death growls (can someone tell me what they add?), the odd risible lyric here and there and an attempt at humour on ‘Asleep In The Wormhole’ which fails miserably as neither clever nor funny spring to mind as apt descriptions.

But away with such trivial things – ‘Ink’ is simply a wonderful piece of work, breathtaking in its conception, exemplary in its execution – a veritable behemoth of an album that bears comparison with any era of progressive rock’s long and distinguished history.

An album of this length that has so many different facets and mood swings and which sets the boredom threshold at zero is a massive achievement – given that this is the band’s debut album it is nothing short of incredible.

*****

Review by Alan Jones

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