Factory of Dreams
Poles Sonic Polsars

by Franco Wissa
Staff Writer

Comments: Portuguese musical genius Hugo Flores stretches his wings yet again with his latest project, a classical, progressive new-age venture called Factory of Dreams. The sound is affecting with beautiful keyboard arrangements and massive towering vocals, ("Gliding Above the Ocean of Memories,") haunting, ("The Sight of a Better Universe,") moving ("Peace Echoing,") heavy ("Electric Boom," that did feature an incredible guitar solo) and surreal at others, ("The Piano in the Sea.") The vocals of Jessica Letho are at times muddled, as sometimes the vocals come across as the holding of notes, instead of individual words does show tremendous promise. The keyboards lay into some spectacular eerie special effects (as heard on the title track, "Factory of Dreams," "Stream of Evil," and "Generator of Illusions." In certain moments the vocals of track 3 "Air Powerplant," did cause a tilt of the head as they didn't quite fit the flow of the instruments.

The overall sound is crisp, and one can tell that no expense was spared in giving these tracks lift, body and a full sound. The keyboards play into the blend well and the guitars and fretless bass of Chris Brown echo just enough sentiment to make this a well defined collection of tracks.

Poles is, in addition, a somber outing and is complex, and almost gothic and eerily harmonious. Especially evident on "Crossing the Bridge to the Positive Pole," for here is a multi layered, explosive track, that heaps layers and layers of piano, guitar solos, soaring vocals that are everywhere, drums, epic bass and as this track picks up steam, is colossal in its deliverance. So much so, that one almost feels freedom at its conclusion as this track sucks this listener into its musical core, and then swirls around until one is just smack in the center of what is truly the highlight of the CD. The fat, muscular hard hitting drums of the closing track, "Generator of Illusions," is a synthesizer's and orchestral lover's wet dream as this track takes the participant of this offering in one tangent after another, as just as one gets used to one feeling, a choir filled vocal arrangement here, a soft keyboard or guitar pluck there, and pounding drums somewhere else lead the listener into a musical journey that only gets better as the track progresses.

Mixing the haunting sounding female fronted bands Tarja, Eyes of Eden, Sirenia or Epica, Factory of Dreams has released a CD that aficionados of this genre should listen to. This was quite good …

Musicians:
Jessica Letho - vocals
Hugo Flores - guitars, bass, keyboards, drums
Chris Brown - fretless bass

Track Listing:
Transmission Fails
The Sight of a Better Universe
Air Powerplant
Gliding Above the Ocean of Memories
Peace Echoing
Stream of Evil
The Piano in the Sea
Generator of Illusions
Electric Boom
Crossing the Bridge to the Positive Pole

Hardrock Haven rating: 7.5/10