RIVERSIDE

Polish proggers perplex and impress with pimped-up plastic portfolio.

There’s almost certainly a lucrative business to be made flipping limited edition, coloured vinyl variants of Polish prog rock classics. Back in 2011, InsideOut reissued Riverside’s second, third and fourth albums in varying hues, and all three have gone on to become three figure regulars on the second hand market. Whatever else these times of austerity bring us, Discogs clearly remains unaffected.

A BAND WITH A HUGE ARMOURY, SHOWING RESTRAINT.

The band’s recent Wasteland album – their first without late guitarist Piotr Grudzinski – clambered into the heady reaches of the Prog writers’ end-of-year Top 10, so this second batch of reissues could not be more serendipitously timed. It gives the chance for recent converts to explore some of the band’s earlier work on contrasting shades of plastic (variously black, orange, yellow, blue and green), and for eBay chancers to line their wallets still further.

2005’s Second Life Syndrome is up first, a double LP. It’s a genuine classic, and the title track is about as good as modern prog music gets. Clocking in at just under 16 minutes, it showcases everything Riverside do so well. They’re a band with a huge armoury, but – unlike many – they’ve always shown restraint when using it, allowing their songs to gently unfold rather than lurch from one trick to the next. The song moves from Knopfler-esque atmospherics to Jon Lord-style organ flurries via stuttering, metallic riffs, drifting naturally from one mood to the next with a flow that defies haste yet never appears to meander. Some of it sounds like Yes, some of it sounds like The Cure, some of it brings Massive Attack to mind, and towards the end it all climaxes with a series of spiralling guitar solos that soar without ever showboating. Even when singer Mariusz Duda utilises growled vocals, as he does so effectively on Artificial Smile and Volte-face, it’s done so sparingly that it retains the power to surprise.

Rapid Eye Movement (2007) is next, also a double LP, and while it might not maintain the lofty standards set by its predecessor, it’s still a fascinating beast to behold. From the juddering riffs that appear from nowhere in the middle of Beyond The Eyelids to the ritualistic fervour at the heart of Schizophrenic Prayer and the bubbling trance loop that pops up briefly in Lucid Dream IV (2010’s 02 Panic Room EP is included as a series of bonus tracks), it’s completely compelling. The single-disc Anno Domini High Definition (2009) is more of the same, and by the time Egoist Hedonist – a four-to-the-floor club banger disguised as a nu-metal funk excursion – rolls around, you’ll be convinced Riverside can do anything.