Little King – Lente Viviente (2025)
Progressive rock band Little King has been releasing music with shifting personnel since November 1996, when singer-songwriter and guitar player Ryan Rosoff formed the group. Over the years, they have built a reputation for complex song structures that don’t compromise their aggressive hard rock aesthetic. Now they have released the seven-song album, Lente Viviente.
Clocking in at 25 minutes long, the new album recalls Rush in the early ’80s when the iconic Canadian band was releasing epic songs in radio-friendly terms. Little King operates here in unusual time signatures (quick: name the last song you heard in 7/8) and stark harmonic changes that take listeners through abrupt changes in structure with little or no warning. There are very few “choruses” or “hooks” here, in the usual sense. You won’t find yourself humming anything particularly catchy unless it’s “Don’t mistake my kindness for weakness” from ‘Kindness for Weakness’. But the songs are impactful, all the same. Rosoff guides the listener through short, emphatic emotional journeys, each with their own climaxes and releases.
Unlike much of prog-rock, especially in its heyday, Rosoff doesn’t work with the stuff of myth and legend, but reality. Love, memory, contemporary tensions, and modern landscapes inhabit his songs, lending grandeur to life’s more accessible moments. ‘Catch and Release’ opens the album with an unexpected tribute to fishing. The listener is treated to Rosoff’s love of tricky time signatures right out of the gate, but one gets the sense that it is not just for show. The 7/8 signature balances the drawn-out apprehension for which fishing is famous with rocking moments of triumph that are, of course, all too short.
Lente Viviente is replete with this kind of thoughtful songwriting. ‘Who’s Illegal’ documents Rosoff’s feelings about the immigration crisis in the United States as one whose rehearsal space is located in the border town of Tucson, AZ. Here, the band creates vivid contrasts of major and minor sections as he sings of “Prejudicial pride/Ignorant of time.” Rosoff has something of a penchant for these kinds of contrasts, which appear throughout the album. ‘Pass Through Filters’ is in G major, but Rosoff uses a G pedal tone to shift to the minor on verses that deal with “mild paranoia/ All this time/ Probably messing with me.”
Little King’s line-up on this album includes David Hamilton on bass and cello and Tony Bojorquez on drums. Bojorquez is an admirable drummer who does more than just navigate the structures. He can find a driving pocket or allow space to exist where it is needed in the course of a song, such as Rosoff’s recollection of childhood on Mercer Island in Washington in ‘Dawn Villa’. If there’s a foundation for the band, it’s probably Hamilton. His rhythmic approach keeps things moving, allowing both Rosoff and Bojorquez to explore different rhythms without compromising the flow of the material, and his chunky tone makes a nice bottom end to Rosoff’s guitar work.
Lente Viviente (which is the title of the final track, “The Living Lens” in translation) is a thoughtful and engaging prog-rock record from a seasoned band that is remarkably trim. You get all the benefits of the style with none of the excesses.
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This artist was sent to us by Rogue PR
