Titan - A Raining Sun of Light and Love and Sweet Dreams I read about the band Yes long before I ever actually heard their music. They were built up in print as musical geniuses. I read about mindbending progressive rock, with experimental soundscapes and touches of classical music influence. I was intrigued, and imagined the sound was like the rock bands I had already heard, visceral and exciting, only smarter somehow. But when I actually heard a Yes album, disappointment set in. It was not like the rock bands I knew. The excitement had been bled out of the sound to allow room for noodling that bordered on the dainty. At the time, it sounded to me like they were the kind of "rock" musicians who owned tight leggings and puffy shirts, and though I would eventually appreciate their efforts more, that image has always stuck with me.
The point is that Brooklyn stoner/prog band Titan is what I always wanted Yes to sound like. They craft fifteen minute long slabs of driving, exciting prog rock, and never does it sound like they might be wearing capes of any kind. True, the beginning of their 2007 album A Raining Sun of Light and Love does begin with a brief fingerpicked guitar passage and some odd vocals, which represents their nearest approach to the Renaissance Faire style of prog material. But even that bit is quickly taken over by echo and delay effects until the sound completely decays and, in an introduction to Titan's take on prog rock, you are launched full force into space by muscular guitar and Hammond organ over a driving beat. With A Raining Sun of Light and Love, Titan manages to make sprawling prog epics sound energized and vital, like you are traveling at extremely high speeds over bizarre and unfamiliar terrains, which is no small accomplishment considering that their albums are largely instrumental.
Titan's follow up effort was 2010's
Sweet Dreams, which is a more manic affair overall. The virtuosity is ramped up on this release, with the guitars, bass, and organ moving in and out of sync above the jazzier, though no less propulsive drumming. The difference between the two is that while
A Raining Sun of Light and Love pushes you along,
Sweet Dreams tends to pull you apart. You find your attention racing in so many different directions that the effect can be dizzying. The mostly instrumental quality again does Titan many favors, though to their credit, when they do bring in some vocals (as they briefly do on "A Wooded Altar Beyond the Wander"), they manage to eschew the high-register singing and frankly embarrassing lyrical content that prog bands tend to utilize with baffling regularity. Titan lets their music tell the story, which of course will be different for each listener.
Listening to Titan, I find myself wishing that I could take their entire sound and airbrush it onto the side of a 1975 Econoline van. In the end, I imagine that's the greatest seal of approval I could give them.
