This is the sound of neo progressive rock, this is The Underground Railroad. Their debut album, Through and Through is by far one of the most prized CD's that I own. I can't wait to hear their second album The Origin of Consciousness, out sometime this fall.

Through and Through starts out starts out with the dissonant and jumbled rhythms of the song May Fly. This song, while I feel it is the weakest on the album, still displays the talents of the crew of four in song writing, lyrical writing, and musicianship. No stranger to song writing, Kurt Rongey's vocals and overdubbed harmonies, along with those of Bill Pohl's, flesh out this first song. The accurate and sometimes subtle drumming and solid bass work of John Livingston and Matt Hembree (respectively) prepare us for the rest of this ambitious album.

The second track, The Comprachicos of the Mind, likely takes it's name partly from Victor Hugo's, The Man Who Laughs, which says:

"The comprachicos (child buyers) were strange and hideous nomads in the 17th century. They made children into sideshow freaks. To succeed in producing a freak one must get hold of him early; a dwarf must be started when he is small. They stunted growth, they mangled features. It was an art/science of inverted orthopedics. Where nature had put a straight glance, this art put a squint. Where nature had put harmony, they put deformity and imperfection. The child was not aware of the mutilation he had suffered. This horrible surgery left traces on his face, not in his mind. During the operation the little patient was unconscious by means of a stupefying magic powder."

The "of the Mind" portion of the title, is most likely derived from Ayn Rand, who stated:

"The production of monsters--helpless, twisted monsters whose normal development has been stunted--goes on all around us. But the modern heirs of the comprachicos are smarter and subtler. They do not hide, they practice their trade in the open, the results are invisible. In the past this horrible surgery left traces on a child's face, not in his mind. Today it leaves traces in his mind, not on his face. In both cases the child is not aware of the mutilation he has suffered. Today's comprachicos do not use narcotic powders. They take a child before he is fully aware of reality and never let him develop that awareness. Where nature put a normal brain, they put mental retardation. To make you unconscious for life by means of your own brain, nothing could be more ingenious. They are the comprachicos of the mind. They do not place a child into a vase to adjust his body to its contours. They place him into a school to adjust him to society."