First Impressions: Hidden Village by Steve Katsikas
In a word: recommended.
I thought I’d do a bit of a preliminary album review of Hidden Village by Steve Katsikas. Having met Steve several times and spent time talking to him, it’s somewhat difficult for me to review his music. I’m not a professional critic, so there’s that, but also when you know what kind of person is behind the music it can be difficult to separate what you know from where they went in their heads to create a piece of work.
Katsikas first came to my attention as the lead singer for Little Atlas. When I first heard that band on progressive rock internet stations, I didn’t realize I only lived an hour away from them. They were based in Miami and I was living in Sunrise in northwest Broward County. A friend of mine pointed out their proximity and I went with him to some of their shows. I also saw Steve sit in with Man on Fire at the Rites of Spring Festival when it was in Phoenixville, PA, and it was there that I spent more time chatting with both Steve and his wife Joanna, and found out what great people they are. They eventually moved to Kentucky for Steve’s "real job."
I’ll endeavor to give at least my initial thoughts on Hidden Village, and this is essentially a first listen all the way through, so…again, it’s not a professional critical review of the album so much as my first impressions. I’m no Greil Marcus or Robert Christgau as far as music reviews go, but then again, I never want to be that far up my own ass.
The album itself takes a village, as Katsikas uses something like 18 fellow musicians across the course of Hidden Village’s 11 tracks, including his Little Atlas bandmates. The mood through most of it is dark and earnest but without being oppressive about it.
OK, enough preamble, let’s get to the songs:
“America” is the album opener and it serves as a strong starting point. It presents a somber tone with Steve supplying plaintive vocals. The word ‘haunting’ comes to mind. The fact that guitarist Roy Strattman is no longer with us adds to that feeling. If I have a criticism about the song it’s only that the production on the drums seems a bit thin to me. That’s not a knock on Jeff Gard’s drumming, though. The mood seems appropriate to how many people feel about the direction of our country but I haven’t done a deep enough study of the lyrics to really discern the full meaning.
“Life is a Movie” provides a consistent tonal connection to “America.” There’s a beautiful darkness to it. The individual parts seem simple by themselves, like the recurring few piano notes, but they fit together nicely. I can’t quite put my finger on everything Steve is trying to do here but at times it reminds me of Steven Wilson and other times I can almost hear David Bowie in there. This is solely stylistically. His voice doesn’t sound like either (I mean, who sounds like Bowie, really?).
When “Solitary” kicks in, there’s a fantastic rhythm from drummer Mark Whobrey (Little Atlas) that sets the tone. Combined with Ricardo Bigai’s (Little Atlas) bass, there’s a great bed for the rest of the music to lie upon. There’s all kinds of interesting things going on in this one. At times it seems like older Porcupine Tree and then there’s a hint of something sinister in the way King Crimson or Van der Graaf Generator can be sinister. There are industrial sounding guitar stabs and violin, and Katsikas changes up his vocal style throughout. I feel like this is a song I’ll continually find new interesting things on repeated listens. Katsikas also throws in an interesting sax solo, which helps the King Crimson-y vibe.
“Authors and Architects” is a short, soft piece that starts out with just Steve’s voice and what sounds like electric piano. Cello and violins join in about a minute into the song and the overall effect is a gorgeous and melancholy mood and the lyrics seem like a lamentation or sense of regret. Again, I’m going on first impressions here and haven’t dissected the lyrics.
An unexpected Beatles cover follows, with “Across the Universe,” which is positively bouncy compared to what came before. It’s not a by-the-numbers cover. Katsikas puts his own stamp on it. I love what he’s done with the keyboards specifically and the punchy and upbeat refrain of “nothing’s gonna change my world” is fun. It’s the “happiest” sounding song of the first five tracks but there’s still an underlying vibe about the verses that keeps it tied into the overall album mood to this point. I particularly enjoyed hearing Diego Pocovi (Little Atlas) on drums. In fact, the lineup is a Little Atlas reunion.
The sixth track, “Sleep is for Longer Days” begins with a lengthy opening of keyboards and a bit more of that King Crimson / Steven Wilson vibe. If Steven Wilson sang it, it would sound like something that came off his Insurgentes album. I don’t know what Katsikas’ inspiration for this track was, but that’s what it reminds me of. And I can’t convey my delight at the title. What a great sequence of words. I can’t wait to dive deeper into these lyrics.
“Fall” is a cool little shuffle with outstanding keyboards, great brushstrokes of a drumbeat by Dan Katsikas, and supportive bass from Gary Swiontec. It’s one of the shorter tracks on the album but I like Steve’s voice here. It feels like a bit of a palate cleanser but it’s not a skipper. I feel like this one might one of those that grows on me even more with repeat listens.
The next song sounds like it could have been on a Little Atlas album. “Shoulders” has a bit more of the traditional Little Atlas vibe to it and I don’t think it would have been out of place on the band’s Surface Serene album. The best part of this song to me is the way it picks up steam as it goes along, adding to it as it rises to a crescendo.
[Edit: Holy cow, a version of "Shoulders" was actually on Little Atlas' first album, Neverworldly, under the title "Little Atlas." No wonder it sounded familiar. It's been a minute since I've listened to that one. Stupid 24-hour days!]
“My Song Goes On” slows things down a bit and returns to the more somber tone of the first few tracks. Little snippets of lyrics like “time is a long frozen pond” bring an immediate smile to my face. I tend to gravitate toward phrases and lines often. It’s rarer that a song’s full lyrics grab my attention, although it does happen. I think this is one of those songs that I’ll need to hear more to formulate a full opinion. The first listen was pleasant enough but I feel like there’s more going on than I caught the first time around.
“The Gunner’s Dream” is the second cover on the album, springing forth from Pink Floyd’s The Final Cut album and getting a new treatment by Katsikas here. I never fully warmed to that particular Pink Floyd album, which is essentially a Roger Waters solo record, but there are some moments of greatness on it. This song was one of those and I love the spin Katsikas puts on it. My God, the strings really sell the hell out of it. It also ties well into the album’s overall mood. There is a fantastic guitar solo on it by Whobrey that brought the saltwater to the front of my peepers.
The album ends with “The Clock Restarts,” which unsurprisingly comes off like a Man on Fire song. That band’s Jeff Hodges not only plays keyboards and drums on the album, but also produced it. Man on Fire’s Eric Sands also plays electric guitar on the song. It answers the question of what Man on Fire would sound like with Katsikas as the lead vocalist. I like the crunch of it and it stands alone well, but it sticks out a bit. I don’t think it fits particularly well with the rest of the album’s mood, but it works well enough if you think of it as a bonus track.
Well, there you have it. Those are my stream of consciousness track-by-track thoughts on first listen. With so many services nickel-and-dime-ing me these days for music and television streaming, I have to carefully consider my musical purchases these days but I feel good about spending on this one and about supporting an artist (and friend) like Steve Katsikas. I recommend Hidden Village and hope it does well for him.