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Milo's Craving is mainly singer Kathrin Elfmann - she also played some guitar parts, bass and additional keyboards - and keyboardist Klaus Rausch, but for this recording they invited some musicians to help them out and so guitars are played by Thorsten Kern - who also co-wrote some songs - and drums been done by Thorsten Bugiel. Some other singers added backing vocals and joined the choir. Only Astrid Andresen did some additional lead vocals.
Milo's Craving is not signed to a label and so the songs were written and recorded between summer 2004 and spring 2007. On their website they use to describe the music as sophisticated progressive songwriter oriented art rock... Somehow this description fits, at least I have no better way to put it. Some parts remind me of Diana Krall... But Milo'’s Craving is art rock and no jazz!
The album The More You Know kicks off with the more then 18 min. long track Prince Of Darkness which is divided into 3 chapters. Kathrin Elfmann's vocals are up-front and are accompanied by drums, guitar and keyboards. With tempo changes they keep the listener's attention and also the varying vocals of Kathrin do their part. At some point she sounds a bit like Kate Bush... Some instrumental parts have reminiscences to Yes... Others let me think of Tangerine Dream... The symphonic prog rock sounds are combined with interesting and partly catchy melody lines.
The short instrumental Time Machine is taking you down memory lane to 70's symphonic prog rock... The intro to Pictures And Voices made me think of some 80's pop song... In the beginning some distorted vocals, but then Kathrin's clear, deep voice takes over again. The song has some pop rock parts and a catchy hook, but is too complex for air play. For some prog heads it will be too much pop, purists should look for something different!. Its a walk on the edge... I like the tune, but I listen to a lot of different sounds, so... The first lines of Wings Of Stone are probably sung by Astrid Andresen as its sung much higher then the rest of the material, but that's just a guess. The song shows that they are influenced by Kansas, but also fans of symphonic prog rock should like this on. Come Out is a quite short tune, straight forward and with a pop appeal. More interesting in my opinion is the piano-based ballad Will You? which has a touch of Tori Amos... The adding of another female voice adds something special to this one. Towards the end of this one it even gets jazzy!
The lyrics are poetic which isn't quite surprising when you know that Kathrin is also writing novels, short stories, columns, scripts and straplines and ads. Words are her business and that's obvious when you take a closer look.
The album was also produced by Kathrin Elfmann. But when you work for such a long time on songs and record over a period of months its sometimes good to get some fresh ideas from someone outside the band. There are parts where probably some reduction of the keyboards would have made it more intense.... But without having the chance to hear different versions of a song, you never can be 100% sure about the turn out. This is no background music, the songs demand the listeners attention! Perhaps Prince Of Darkness is presenting Milo's Craving best - with all the different facets of their sound.
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