A Sound Mind - Harmonia (Album)
Melbourne is home to a shitload of rock bands. Pretenders mostly, wannabes and the like. But some, a select few, are the real deal. One such outfit is A Sound Mind. Their debut LP, Harmonia, is something else entirely; prog-rock at close to its finest, majesty and movement throughout, while refreshingly free of any and all pretensions. These boys have something extremely rare in the world of rock, and impossible to fake: utter sincerity in their musical expression. I’m taken in immediately by this, and from there this record gets better and better and better. Each member’s technical ability suggests years of toil, to which my hat is tipped. The arrangements are epic, moving and spine-tingle inducing. The production quality is incredible; it definitely achieves the grandeur of sound that the arrangements require.
Honestly, I can’t speak highly enough of Harmonia. It is one of the most accomplished debut records I’ve heard from an Australian rock band in recent times, up there with The Living End and Highly Evolved. Tracks like Venus and Mars, Empathy and The Horizon make it easy for me to consider A Sound Mind alongside the best rock acts that this country currently offers.
Aside from creating a fantastic debut LP, I feel I should mention another of the band’s accomplishments. A Sound Mind has established their own online distribution network, “to eliminate the need for a record company”. And here’s the tremendous part: For every record sold, a significant portion of the proceeds, the portion that would otherwise go to the record company, is donated to the fan’s charity of choice. How philanthropic!
In summary, A Sound Mind are a band that I would love to see succeed. The honesty of their approach to music is invigorating. The songs are wondrous, the album a complete one. For the boys who have spent the last few months hawking their album to passers by, with iPods and headphones, outside Melbourne’s HiFi Bar, I say: Well done.
