Art Rock Show – Ebb – The Mirror (Week 5)

EBB (oorspronkelijk de Erin Bennett Band) is een Schotse 6-koppige progressieve rockband die sinds 2022/2023 doorbreekt met een theatrale, eclectische sound. In hun werk combineren ze melodieuze passages met stevige, soms experimentele uitbarstingen. Daarmee sluiten ze aan bij een bredere traditie van Schotse rock, zonder zich vast te pinnen op één subgenre. Zowel op plaat als live legt EBB de nadruk op spanningsopbouw en emotionele impact.

Darren Walker van The Progressive Aspect : “Having previously heard a few of the tracks from this album as part of their live sets, I had been impatiently awaiting the new album from EBB. What I had seen on stage could have been seen as musical amuse-bouches, tantalising appetizers which made me hungry for more and the album did not leave me disappointed.

Often, in the live shows, the songs can come a close second to the costumes, back projection and the antics of the band members who go full steam ahead to deliver performances that will stay in the mind and memory. But with the album it is a chance to appreciate the talent of the musicians and the grandeur of the pure music without any sensory distractions, as pleasurable and entertaining as they always are.

The Mirror is a collection of songs that would make it impossible for me to make a list of top albums for 2025 without it being included and me putting it pretty close to the top of my own private chart. A tough call for the number one slot but this is a definite contender.

The first track, Evenfall, at a little over two minutes, might be short but that doesn’t take away from its beauty. Painting an evocative and almost melancholy picture of self-reflection. A revelatory theme that seems to run through the whole album. (…)

Finally, rounding off the album, is Geneva. An upbeat tale that seems to continue the over all theme and mood embedded in the whole of the album. Raw lyrics which combine the pleasures and pains that can be found in the light and darkness that life gives to us all. A stunning denouement that ends the album’s story with optimism and hope.

Nobody could ever accuse EBB of being predictable and this album reinforces that. I might have thought that it was too long since their last release, but The Mirror has been worth the wait. But the metaphorical meal, which I used at the start of my review, continues as they left me hungry for more.”

Naast Ebb (The Mirror), Big Big Train (The Likes of Us), Bent Knee (Shiny Eyed Babies), Major Parkinson (Blackbox), Glass Hammer (Chronomonaut) & Steve Hackett (Beyond the Shrouded Horizon).

• Thursday/Donderdag 12.00 – 24.00
• Friday/Vrijdag 12.00 – 24.00
• Saturday/Zaterdag 12.00 – 24.00