Band:	State Urge
Album:	White Rock Experience
Style:	Progressive rock
Release date:	March 25, 2013
A review by:	Ivor

01. Third Wave Of Decadence
02. Preface
03. Time Rush
04. Long For You
05. Illusion
06. Tumbling Down
07. :Gaze
08. All I Need

The amount of good music that some countries seem to produce sometimes baffles me. However, if there is a country that has ever gone past the point of no surprise for me, it has to be Poland. "Hey, listen, man, I've just found this great prog band! - Let me guess, Poland, right? - Umm... Yeah!" I really have no idea how they do it. Now, once again, I've come across a prog band to my liking and, yes, they are from Poland.

Commonly I spend my working hours listening to music. When I was first going through White Rock Experience I probably wasn't paying close attention to it for whatever distracting reasons. Hence, it went somewhat under radar. However, I distinctly remember noticing various moments - a guitar melody here, a nice driving sound there, then a vocal line, or an ambient background at another time - and thinking that I have to remember to listen to this album again with more thought to spare. Naturally, I took my time which is another way of saying I simply forgot about it for quite a while.

Then, at some point I was looking for something to listen to and came across this album again. There I was, looking at it and getting only vague non-memories and a surprisingly pleasant feeling. Something was amiss. If it was good, I should by all accounts remember it, right? Play! The second pass proved to be some sort of a revelation. The intricate melodies of the album started unfolding themselves and I found myself in a world of beautiful prog rock with a feeling.

Any Polish prog band would eventually get compared to the etalon of modern Polish prog - Riverside. So, let's get this one out of the way. Specifically "Illusion" sounds like something that could be a mellower part of the "Reality Dream" suite. However, the rest, not so much. And while the beginning of the album is leaning on the heavier edge, lots of it is going back to the good old times and classic sounds and riffs. On the whole, however, it leaves an imprint of a specific mood and an emotional state rather than something you can remember by distinct moments through and through.

The thing with this album - and probably the reason why I initially forgot about it - is that it seems to do its magic in the background. I'm listening to it, I'm hearing the great tunes, I'm noticing the details, but at the same time I'm failing to register them consciously. It just falls through to the subconscious level. Then, on repeated spin, it all gets pulled out, realigned with the ongoing listening experience, and it is once more confirmed that the album is indeed a worthy one. After that, a feeling of content of having had a good time. Again. White Rock Experience seems to be getting to me from inside out. And to think that this is only a début...