HARMONIE (France) no. 44 (April 2002), 43

I will be a lot shorter in discussing En Route than for the last album of mister Ed Macan, upon which I pontificated last time . . . Having said all that I think of the good fellow, of his science of writing, of the merit of his statements and of the respect for his music, I will agree just for the moment that it is necessary to declare one more time, Hermetic Science are like a skeleton of progressive! You do not see here any mark of contempt or of misplaced condescension, just a dispassionate observation that Macan avails himself to keyboards and percussion instruments in order to adroitly prepare a �scientific� canvas, demonstrating the construction of a work of progressive rock.� It lacks (voluntarily?) flesh, the marrow, and the juice, which make of progressive this pleasurable conglomerate so dear to our melomaniacal ears.� Superbly equipped (Hammond, Micromoog, Fender Rhodes, harpsichord, electric piano), Macan reconstructs with the fervor of an archaeologist, drawing upon a network of progressive themes that one will believe one has heard before.� Assisted in this by Jason Hoopes (bass, guitar, sitar, piano) and Joe Nagy or Matt McClimon (drums), Macan, after having served a boneless reprise of �Mars, the Bringer of War� by Gustav Holst, opens a very long suite of 44 minutes, 32 seconds, En Route, based upon the re-creative progressive manner of the �classical music� variety.� One recognizes the touch of the writer-musicologist in regretting that his rigid love for the progressive genre doesn�t give him the desire to be more exuberant despite the evident riches of his knowledge.�������������������������� Bruno Vermisse