Gargantuan by Amplifier (CD and Vinyl versions)

Gargantuan, a beautiful work released by Amplifier on April 4, 2025.

A band founded in 1999 in Manchester, UK, has created an extremely modern and original space rock sound with this latest album, featuring beautiful lyrics, unpredictable bass and drum patterns, and a refined use of distortion that creates a wall of controlled noise that adorns the beautiful compositions and synthesizer melodies. Sel Balamir's voice is beautiful, truly beautiful, throughout the songs, concrete and precise, solid and perfectly centered in the context, a musical instrument at the service of the songs.

And now, for those interested, my Track by Track. Approximately 59 minutes for 9 tracks:
- "Gateway," exactly as the lyrics suggest, is "Like riding an earthquake." Matt's kick drum takes center stage here, a great epic atmosphere, and synthesizers that create an engaging melody. It closes with a beautiful guitar chord and "radio-style" vocals in the background.
- "Invader", Even released as a video preview, the wall of sound starts right away with "Like a space invader in your soul", a beautiful slow pattern of distorted guitars and synthesizers that forms a hypnotic loop that remains isolated to close the song in the final moments.
- "Blackhole", great work by Matt on the toms opens the song over a series of synthesizers, then the piece moves towards an atmosphere of constant rhythmic suspension while Sel's voice becomes light and subtle, duplicating with an interesting singing in two different keys, "Into a Black Hole, Release your light", a beautiful journey "into the Blackhole, turning in (our) mind"
- "King Kong", starts immediately with a strong rhythm and distortion, radio-style vocals, and it seems like we can hear King Kong arriving as "the drums echo along the jungle line". Here, Sel's voice becomes more ironic and decisive. A beautiful piece, moving between a strong and engaging rhythm, at times disturbing synth riffs, and great work by Matt at the end. It's a very prog piece in my opinion, both at this stage and when it accelerates and then suddenly stops. Beautiful, Beautiful, Beautiful.
- "Pyramid," a piece that takes you to the top of the Pyramid scheme. An oriental feel pervades the song with thumping drums and synths and guitars that emulate ancient trumpets and flutes. An epic piece, in which Sel's voice transforms once again, becoming lower and more decisive, making us understand that he doesn't just sing, he interprets. One of my favorite tracks, the syncopated finale features the two having fun in a beautiful instrumental session, a great twenty-first-century prog jam, and while the guitars screech, "Entity" kicks in.
- "Entity," a beautiful instrumental piece of decidedly innovative prog rock, again with a jam effect, a truly complex and engaging interweaving of guitar and drums, they chase each other and almost challenge each other, but only the music wins, with a finale reminiscent of historic hard rock escapades that leads to and continues with the return of the vocals in Guilty Pleasure.
- "Guilty Pleasure," I find the passage "Too much pressure - Could break a mountain in half - In two directions - I'm running - From the future and the past" beautiful here, and I find a lot of heavy prog here, always with a modern twist. Another highlight of the album, in my opinion. Epic.
- "Cross Dissolve" opens with a guitar arpeggio and syncopated drum rhythm that lasts throughout the song, with variations at the end but maintaining a suspended atmosphere that fits the song's title. Here, the melody and lyrics prevail, with the beautiful passage "Cross dissolve, Every face, That you love, That you hate, Cross dissolve, Each embrace, That time, Will erase."
- "Long Road" begins with a delicate echo of sounds that sound like wind chimes shaken by a light breeze... then an electronic rhythmic base enters and the piece opens and slowly builds to a sweeping, emotional finale with beautiful female backing vocals, and the lyrics are also beautiful: "And if we walk side by side, With the storm as our guide, Because time, well, it's short, And it's written in the code, Of the long, long road."

The two colored vinyls and the space-age inner sleeve are beautiful, depicting (one might say) the two band members next to their instruments, a space-king Kong on guitar and An astronaut in a spacesuit on drums, the beautiful and essential artwork on the cover, well-crafted, mirrors that of the CD.

The album in this format contains three additional tracks (bringing the total to 12), the following:
- "Evolution," a riot of distorted synths over a guitar solo and deep, intense drums. Short but a great opener to the album.
- "Spock's Harp," brief with its Japanese-style piano and guitar interplay and a soft pink noise background, which closes as the next track opens.
- "Gargantuan (Pt. 2)" continues with great refinement in the sounds that weave a continuous tapestry throughout the song, distorted guitars with an almost ghostly echo. The drums punctuate the song with deep tom drumming. An almost unsettling sound that opens towards the end with a more pressing and engaging rhythm.

I recently listened to all the tracks on vinyl again, and the sound is truly excellent.

Great work by Sel Balamir (vocals, guitar, and bass) and Matt Brobin (drums), recommended to anyone who loves great music.