A vintage Kansas sound is certainly present on Kansas’ 16th studio album The Absence Of Presence. This is the band’s foruth studio album without founding member lead vocalist, keyboardist Steve Walsh (the band only features two original members presently — drummer Phil Ehart and guitarist Rich Williams). It is their second album with lead vocalist and keyboardist Ronnie Platt and guitarist Zak Rizvi. And it is their first with keyboardist Tom Brislin, replacing former keyboardist David Manion.
As a formidable seven-piece these days, Kansas mines the deep vein of musical tropes they are known for. There’s lots of upfront organ wailing, a layering of vocals (the band presently features five singers), and instrumental turns of blistering staccato heavy riffing. The opening trio of tunes, including the anthemic title and longest track, features that mix of voices. Williams’ heavy noodling is evident on “Throwing Mountains,” while David Ragsdale makes his sailing violin presence known.
“Propulsion 1,” the instrumental that sits about halfway through this collection, truly makes its mark. Featuring Kansas’ locked and loaded present rhythm section, Billy Greer flicks a low metallic end while Ehart mans his toms and then offers some crazy fast playing near the end of a song barely over two minutes.
It’s not that I don’t appreciate Ronnie Platt’s sweet, strong voice or Brislin’s lyrics (in many cases he was working from the inspiration of Phil Ehart’s suggested song titles), it’s just that with Rizvi and Brislin pretty much penning all the tunes, The Absence Of Presence sometimes sounds like a duet album with a-list players behind them. Songs like the over-the-top piano power ballad “Never” showcases this, and there are a lot of moments when the band is trying too hard to sound like Kansas — if that makes any sense. To that end, The Absence Of Presence isn’t missing anything really, but this is an altogether different Kansas these days. For good or for bad? You’ll have to carry on and give this collection a listen to make that decision.
~ Ralph Greco, Jr.
