
Wobbler are a Progressive Rock band from Norway. Formed in 1999, this is their fourth album from 2017. I was looking at some new Progressive music at the Record Connection last March and came across this band Wobbler. There were five records by them and I decided to buy this one. I picked a winner! According to the website Progarchives it was the highest rated record of the century until 2021 and the top Norwegian record of the year. They play old school Progressive Rock sounding like Yes, Genessis and ELP using pre-1975 instruments. Singer Andreas Prestmo sounds like Jon Anderson at times making this sound like a long lost Yes album. The first song, the title track is a 21 minute epic. Starting off with some aggressive organ, bass and drums after about 3 minutes it gets quiet with some synthesizer sounding like Genessis with very Yes-like vocals before picking up the pace again adding some flute. After about 9 and a half minutes this section comes to a stop with more rocking organ and flute and later guitar for about five minutes before another quiet section and returning to the another verse of the opening lyrics. Mellotron takes over from here with another bit of vocals before going quiet once again with some synthesizer to the end. This is followed by a short instrumental “Rendered In Shades Of Green” with some melancholy piano and Mellotron. There are two tracks on side two, rhe 10 minute “Fermented Hours” and the 13 minute “Foxlight”. “Fermented Hours” starts out like Yes’s “Sound Chaser” before some faster guitar and some melodious vocals, with a bit of Latin. This continues for the rest of the song. The mellower “Foxlight” opens with pastoral acoustic guitar, ARP synthesizer and flute with some whispered vocals until becoming more aggressive about 4 minutes in. More Yes sounding harmony vocals at this point. Then acoustic guitars take over with more faint vocals and another quiet part sounding like something from Genesiss’s Selling England by the Pound with some thing sounding very much like Tubular Bells in the background. Vocals return after this for a couple more verses until the end. I have played this a few times already and I like it more every time I hear it. Truly a remarkable album. Of course over the last few months I have bought their other four records and I will be listening to them on other Progressive Saturdays.