Mike Visaggio
Starship Universe

By Dan the Man

Nightmare Records, March 2007
Style: 70s style prog rock.
Links: www.mikevisaggio.com
Rating: 4 stars out of 5

Mike Visaggio is a 54 year old keyboardist from Richmond, VA who is a veteran of bands such as the Ambassadors and the Strokers. In his words: "This CD began when God nudged me to get busy because the time is now, the years would not wait, and help was on the way."

Let's get a few things out of the way: Many of Visaggio's stated influences are from the 70s. This album could easily have been made in 1976. Don't stop reading, though! The depth of this CD, the majority of which is instrumental, rivals classical music. This is something completely different, but very cool at the same time.

As the cover art suggests, a lot of this album has a "spacey" feeling provided by the synthesizers, which account for almost all of the instrumentation on this album. (The instrument credits say that at least seven instruments are accounted for on the main synthesizer, and this doesn't even include the synth effects themselves!) The opening track, "In the Nazarene Church", is an example. However, the strongest example is "2001: Also Rocked Zarathustra", which directly samples from the main theme to "2001: A Space Odyssey". In fact, those famous five notes (yes, you recognize it, even if you don't know the name) are the main theme to this epic ten minute song. The amount of variations Visaggio does on these notes is astounding.  "Blues Variation" is similar to "2001". Visaggio takes the same few notes and finds an endless amount of ways to vary them. He is like a classical composer in this regard. (My extensive classical piano experience gave me a greater appreciation for this.) The song is actually a remake of a song by 70s band Emerson, Lake & Palmer, with solos added. The album is even deeper than this. There are also some jazz influences on "On the Ship of Emotion", and the full range of the type of sounds of the synthesizers is displayed on "The Synchronized Life", including brass and flute. (Appropriately, the song is about synchronizing one's life with God, and the "instruments" here are well synchronized. Imagine a Liquid Tension Experiment song with vocals. "My Elders' Son" is like a straightforward slow rock ballad, minus the guitars. "Music's Coming to Us" is definitely a rock song straight out of the 1959. Replace the synths with guitars, and you could imagine hearing this song in Grease. "Prelude No. 2 for Piano" is a nice, short piano interlude that clocks in at under a minute, and "Starship Universe" is a very cool organ solo. I can't put it any better than the liner notes to the album: "Quiet, then majestic. The universe displayed". The synthesized organ takes you on a trip to a very old church with a huge organ. To me, this and "2001" are the highlights of the album.

The one thing I didn't really like about the album were the vocals. Granted, they show up in less than half of the album. However, Visaggio's voice is not that effective, in my opinion. His range is very limited, and his tone seems off. Also, the background vocals in "The Synchronized Life", are even worse. Those songs that do have lyrics deal with themes such as responding to God, love, and living for God. Don't buy this album for the vocals or lyrics, though. Buy this because it's a truly unique record that has a lot of depth and that you will find something new in and appreciate even more every time you listen to it.