For their sixth album in eight years – which is almost approaching Steve Hackett in productivity – Spock’s Beard spin-off Pattern-Seeking Animals may well have found the perfect balance between progressive rock complexity and melodic accessibility. Grimalkin is an album you could play to people who claim to hate prog rock. And they’d probably love it.
Formed in 2018 by current and former SB members Ted Leonard, Dave Meros and Jimmy Keegan to perform the music of longtime SB songwriter John Boegehold, P-SA have concentrated on creating lush symphonic prog packed full of catchy choruses while avoiding the lengthy epic tendencies and crunchy rock approach of the parent group.
Similarities are inevitable, of course, particularly when both bands have the same lead singer in Leonard. But where SB want to display the virtuosity of their line-up, everything Pattern-Seeking Animals do serves the songs. So Leonard’s lead guitar focuses on languid, melodic phrases while Bergehold plays tasteful keyboard strings, with bass and drums providing only what is required to keep the music moving forward. The result is an album that combines a commercial 1980s prog approach with the bitter-sweet warmth of Big Big Train, the keyboard soundscapes of Wind And Wuthering era Genesis and the movie music of the classic soundtrack composers – including a nod to Ennio Morricone.
That doesn’t mean Grimalkin is full of radio-friendly three-minute wonders in straight 4/4. In fact, four of the eight tracks here bust the seven-minute mark, and sneak in some tricky-dicky time signatures. But such is the skill of these musicians that you notice neither the length nor the occasional 7/4 lurking about – mainly because you are too busy enjoying the catchy, singalong choruses.
Take the opener Maybe All A Dream – it grabs your attention from the very first notes as the guitar and strings combine to create a slow, mournful melody that could have come from a black and white Bette Davis weepie. Then a quirky synth phrase ushers in a driving beat over alternate bars of 6/4 and 7/4 under Wind And Wuthering-style mellotron playing a repetitive three-chord pattern that shifts up and down throughout the first half of the song. The title is repeated several times to make sure you don’t forget it. The chords subtly change, the time signature settles down into a constant 7/4 and Leonard sings repeated melodic phrases that lodge in your ear like musical wax. Towards the end, the song slows to let Leonard play more languid notes while what sounds like a flute flutters gently over acoustic guitar and gentle piano chords, bringing everything to a gentle conclusion.
Maybe All A Dream encapsulates what Pattern-Seeking Animals do so well – making complicated songs sound simple and effortless, while packing them full of irresistible melodies.
The 80s vibe is full-on in A Flower Yet To Grow, thanks to Leonard’s American rock vocals, punchy drums and dramatic keyboard stabs like Duran Duran doing a James Bond theme, while Break Away features moody vocals over bubbly synth before a triumphant chorus of ‘I turn my back…I just can’t break awaaaayyyyy!!!’. Think Gallagher and Lyle meeting Foreigner. As for the concise and incredibly catchy closing track I Dream The World, I wouldn’t have been surprised if it was revealed to be a cover of a big hit by a 1980s American AOR band.
It’s not just all tasteful guitar and synths. Jade Sky opens with what sound like plucked violin, Traveler On The Wrong Road adds mournful Mexican trumpet as it conjures up visions of the Man With No Name riding slowly through the desert in his poncho, and Slowly Falls The Flying Man channels the 1580s with Tudor-style recorder and baroque keyboards (and you know what they say – if it’s not baroque, don’t fix it) 😉
Boegehold’s lyrics are dark, angsty and personal but can sometimes come across as Jon Anderson-like word-salads. ‘My peregrine heart was made for rainbow weather’, he forces Leonard to sing. Yes, he has the cardiovascular system of a falcon. Elsewhere he is a ‘bitter barracuda’.
But there is one song where, lyrically, he can be pretty proud of himself. On Things I Don’t Do – the shortest song on the album at under three minutes – he lists the things he no longer does now that he has lost his love. You think it’s a break-up song until Leanord sings ‘I don’t stop to leave you flowers at the stone beneath the tree’ and you realise it is darker and more tragic than that. Sung over simple piano chords with delicate string backing, this is a gentle and effective song made all the more powerful by the denser music that surrounds it.
Grimalkin is not an album for those who want intricate, challenging music that makes the neighbours bang on the walls. But if you appreciate well-crafted melodic prog then this is for you.
By the way, the album title refers to a witch’s feline familiar referenced in the opening scene of William Shakespeare’s Mac…sorry, the Scottish play. And that’s perfectly appropriate because, for me, Grimalkin is the cat’s whiskers.
TRACK LISTING
01. Maybe All A Dream (8:54)
02. A Flower Yet To Grow (7:30)
03. Jade Sky (4:50)
04. Things I Don’t Do (2:40)
05. Break Away (7:22)
06. Traveler On The Wrong Road (4:48)
07. Slowly Falls The Flying Man (8:33)
08. I Dream The World (3:34)
Total Time – 48:24
MUSICIANS
Ted Leonard – Lead Vocals, Lead & Rhythm Guitar
Dave Meros – Bass, Backing Vocals
John Boegehold – Keyboards, Synthesizers, Mellotron, Programming, Guitar, Mandolin, Backing Vocals
Jimmy Keegan – Drums, Percussion, Backing Vocals
ADDITIONAL INFO
Record Label: Giant Electric Pea (GEP)
Country of Origin: US
Date of Release: 21st August 2026
LINKS
Pattern-Seeking Animals – Website | Facebook | YouTube | X | Instagram
