The Faint Signal Story
FAINT SIGNAL is a Craigslist hookup that began with a post asking if Prog rock was dead in Cincinnati. Randy CAMPBELL fresh off a 10 year stint with a regionally successful Power pop band SCREAMING MIMES and Henri EISENBAUM with 25 years worth of life lived out of the music scene, connected after Randy's posting. Randy cut his teeth in progressive rock and Henri had almost an album's worth of music that needed a fresh set of ears. The subject matter deals with social and political issues, awareness, inner reflection and optimism for the future. The Cincinnati music scene is in the midst of busting at the seems with great original music ... but FAINT SIGNAL is the only progressive rock band. They see it as a great challenge with the resurgence of Prog Rock. Odd time signatures, thick harmony vocals, strong melodies, great guitar work and lush keyboards. Mostly written by Henri, the music isn't progressive just to be progressive. It's honestly written with feeling of a life lived and thoughtful opinions of a citizen's look at the world around him in a country in flux.
With the rise of some great progressive bands like LIFESIGNS, PORCUPINE TREE, TRANSATLANTIC, THE FLOWER KINGS, SOUND OF CONTACT ... to name a few ... and the continued interest in bands like MARILLION, SPOCK'S BEARD, STEVE HACKETT'S GENESIS REVISITED albums, FAINT SIGNAL has a fresh sound ... yet a sound that has experience.
With an album released very late in 2013/early 2014, they are well on their way with releasing album #2 . While the core of Faint Signal's music has always been shared by Henri and Randy's writing and engineering, several other veteran musicians from the Cincinnati music scene have collaborated along the way to bring their sophomore album to fruition.
FORMULA
For this release, Faint Signal wanted to add something a little special. We are partnering with the Mr Holland's Opus Foundation, a non-profit that provides musical instruments to children and funding help to school music programs on a national level. Their benevolent work has brought music to children that otherwise would have never had the opportunity.
Reviews
At first blush, it would be easy to categorize Faint Signal’s album, “Formula” as prog rock. However, it’s so much more than that. Yes, the influences of Keith Emerson, Robert Fripp and Jeff Lynne are all clearly evident throughout the record, but those intricacies are balanced with moments of pop simplicity and beautiful vocal harmonies that, when woven together, create for the mind’s eye a sonic adventure filled with aural depictions of sun-kissed peaks and lush, moon-drenched meadows. To get the most out of “Formula”, carve out some time alone, tune out the world, and listen to the album in it’s entirety. In many ways, the listening experience is a sort of musical yoga that challenges and stretches the mind leaving the listener both relaxed and energized at the same time. Forget categorization. The irony in “Formula” is that it is anything but formulaic.
Written By Aaron Sharpe, Former WNKU Presenter
“Progressive rock” has become a phrase uttered with disdain, derision and scorn, but at the dawn of the genre's rise, there was a greater respect for and understanding of its roots and translational genius. If we're being honest, some of prog's greatest proponents actually gave credence to critics who pointed out the bloated, self-indulgent and over-produced mess that the genre had become in the years after its heyday. On their early albums, Genesis, Yes, Kansas, Jethro Tull, Emerson Lake & Palmer and many others masterfully blended classical majesty, rock bombast and pop melodicism to create a sound that was symphonic and powerful and yet still understood that brevity is the soul of both wit and engaging music. Before too long, prog's most inventive pioneers disappeared up their own asses with pompous hour-long suites and story lines that would have given Tolkien a migraine.
Luckily, decades after prog helped to shape the musical consciousness, there are bands that clearly understand the intensity and beauty of the style and the pitfalls of taking it all too seriously. Faint Signal is clearly among that intuitive group. On their new album, Formula, the band – essentially the core duo of Henri Eisenbaum and Randy Campbell along with a rotating cast of vocalists and musicians – have constructed a set that bows to some of the aforementioned titans of prog without scraping, offering tributes that honor past glories without sinking into the swamp of ego-driven excess.
Formula features all of the elements that were the hallmark of nascent prog at its finest; extremely tight musicianship, a keen sense of pacing, arrangement and structure, and quality production values. With 13 songs clocking in at a little over an hour, Formula fits the prog template of a lengthy sonic statement – in 1972, this would have been a double vinyl album – but Faint Signal's gift is in extending a song's arrangement without unnecessarily padding it to achieve that expansion. While a couple of songs break the seven minute barrier, everything else on Formula is in the four-to-six minute range, and none of it ever seems overlong and overworked.
Formula is actually an apt title for the album. Although “formulaic” has become another pejorative term in the rock critic's grammar arsenal, a formula is nothing more than a recipe for creating something. As long as the use of the formula's ingredients is creative and spontaneous, the result will be creative and spontaneous as well. Eisenbaum and Campbell are well aware that they stand on the shoulders of giants, and they invest Faint Signal with little musical Easter eggs that dot the soundscape without overwhelming it. Languid Pink Floyd saxophone solos, Robby Steinhardt violin passages that sting or soothe, Ian Anderson flute measures, keyboards that nod to Keith Emerson and Ray Manzarek, guitars that would make David Gilmour smile, thoughtful lyrics, rock solid songwriting; these are the threads that Faint Signal weave into their prog tapestry as complementary accent colors to their unique presentation. In prog, the cardinal sin is boredom, but Faint Signal avoids that transgression with dramatic bombast (the good kind) and a Vistavision sonic perspective that touches on but never wallows in the genre's illustrious history. And that's what constitutes a perfect Formula.
Music Critic Brian Baker, CityBeat
I got a taste of Faint Signal in the months leading up to the release of their debut album back in 2013. The band was appealing to me as they were certainly "prog" but not over indulgent. They were melodic and emotive with songs that got to the point a bit more quickly than a more traditional prog band. My kind of style. I enjoyed the debut quite a bit but I knew the band had another level in them. Now, five years later, comes the follow up, Formula. I am so happy to say that I was spot on about that next level. The band has upped their game not just one level - but into the next entire category of levels completely here. This is a cohesive collection of 13 songs that run the gamut of progressive rock sub genres. Once again, the band keeps the songs shorter and to the point - though there is a great three-song suite called 'Groomed for Success' that is quite fantastic. The album starts with a wonderfully proggy 5000 Years - complete with a gorgeous female lead vocal and surprise sax solo. Sax in prog?? Yes!! My favorite track at the moment is the next track, the mostly instrumental Led By the Moon. It takes you on a mini-journey in seven minutes - the kind of journey that only the best executed prog can lead you on. Gorgeous. The album continues to satisfy as you get deeper in - with instrumental track Terra Incognito another standout. The final track is another great journey - Zero to 55 with a gorgeous closing melody that takes you home with a smile. KUDOS! Faint Signal has delivered one of the best of the year. They definitely got the formula right on this one!
Jordan Bernstein, Former host of Jawdy's Basement