EYESTRINGS: Consumption CD
Second album and I have to say that they've exhibited a certain maturity of playing and composition on this one. The CD ends with a twenty minute track, but for anyone expecting Yes or Genesis or the like, prepare to be surprised, for this band inhabit a much more down-to-earth approach. The track, 'Lifelines', opens with piano as main lead and this carries on with the guitar more in the background while the solo male vocal soars and flies with a sort of relaxed feeling above the melodic mid-paced leads and strong rhythm section. A piece in six parts, it then moves into a much more lurching section with stop-start rhythms and melodies as the vocal interweaves its lyrics around the ever changing musical landscape, moving from mellotron to guitar lead in a heartbeat, then vocals still taking centre stage and quite varied in terms of range and dramatic approach. There follows a much more relaxed section with quiet vocals that then ascend to a more early Gabriel-like fashion while the piano weaves melodies underneath and the guitar soars all around the back of the mix, all quite pleasant and easy going. The next section introduces a synth lead above more attacking guitar riffs and the ever dependable rhythm section, as synth choirs provide the backdrop, with, ultimately, the vocal returning and the softer side of neo-prog showing its colours before it's then on to the more powerful and almost bombastic majestic finale, as the vocals gather strength, then fade, go all hushed and finally take off with the uplifting sounds of the massed ranks of mellotron, keys, guitar and rhythm section, all cruising toward an final halt. To compare this to any of the greats of the past would be wide of the mark since you can spot the influences but this band play it wholly more original than most, with strong emphasis on the song rather than the instrumental passages. This latter fact is what pervades this album, as it's really quite dominated by the vocals - even the opening two minute track is a song set to a quite sparse backing while the second and nearly twelve minute track, 'Valid For A Week', starts off sounding more like early King Crimson only with more piano.Around two minutes this dies down to reveal acoustic guitar that turns into vocal and piano that turns into prog-rock power as the song moves up a notch amid riffing guitars and strong rhythms, but still that piano taking an obvious role to counterbalance the weight. This track moves through a great many changes in terms of musical setting, pace and dynamics. 'Stagnant' is a five minute ballad with multi-tracked lead vocal while the twelve minute 'Code Of Tripe' (yes, I wondered about that title too - maybe it means something else in the USA!!!) is more like the end track only more progressive and slightly more aggressive - which still means it's more laid-back than most prog albums. With a couple more shorter tracks before the twenty minute closer, this is an interesting album that is designed for anyone with a wide taste in prog who likes to hear something different and distinctive.

INDUKTI: S.U.S.A.R. CD
Lord alone knows what they're putting in the water supply in Poland right now, but after the solid prog-rock of the band Riverside, just when you might have thought things couldn't get any better, a new band have only gone and re-invented King Crimson - and we're talking 'Red/Larks/Starless'-era Crimson at that. Fans will know all to well the quiet intro to King Crimson's 'Larks Tongues In Aspic Pt 1' that slowly builds and then breaks out in a hail of ensemble driven splendour. Well, the opening track here, starts with rippling harp (the stringed variety!) as guitar notes emerge, deep guitar chords well up, a violin lead weaves a magical spell on top - soon cymbal taps are heard, deep bas throbs, then suddenly - KERRRBOOOOOOOOOMMMMMMM!!!!!!!!!! - the band just blasts out of the speakers in a way that Crimso could only have dreamt, all that way back. From thereon, the seven and a half minutes of the instrumental 'Freder' burns holes in your soul as the fantastic instrumentation of two lead guitarists, violin, bass and drums, just soars into life on a track that will have the hairs standing up on the back of your neck, every time you hear it. The sound is of gargantuan proportions, the playing on fire and the production outstanding. Then it's onto the first song of the album - with guest vocals from the excellent singer from Riverside - a four minute track that's also very much in the vein of those songs that King Crimson would put between the roaring instrumentals, only here with a lot of passion and a really solid, hard-prog rocking sound as the band delivers the goods with that soaring violin flying above the chiming, ringing guitars, throbbing electric bass and crunching drums, all topped off with a highly charged vocal as the song builds intensity and just takes off to the heavens in glorious fashion. Thereafter, one more short song and four incendiary instrumentals that are nuclear infernos and yet melodic, tight, flowing and brilliantly played/arranged, just surge out of the speakers with amazing, jaw-dropping effect, the whole band sounding like the supercharged mid-seventies King Crimson that you always wanted to hear, but never thought that you would. This could easily be the best prog-rock album of 2005, although it's come a bit late - but it is essential listening and one of the best prog-rock albums of the last few years, of that there can be no doubt.

KTU: 8 Armed Monkey CD
This is all instrumental, not a prog-rock album - in fact, I wouldn't know what pigeon-hole to group it under, if I tried. So, it's in this section, because half of the quartet are King Crimson members Trey Gunn & Pat Mastelotto on Warr guitar and "rhythmic devices" (drums, percussion, samples, programmes - you know the usual thing). But where it begins to get a tad diverse - and this is before you've played a note - is with the fact that the other two members of the band - from the Scandinavian group Kluster, play accordion samples and accordion respectively. Then, even MORE bizarrely, you get to the tracks themselves - just five long tracks averaging over eight minutes each. The first one, 'Sumu' starts with what amounts to soundscaping and then gradually builds up into this tornado of a composition as the massed ranks of guitars, drums, electronic drums, rhythms, what sound like electronic whirlpools and the shrill sound of the accordion, used more like a keyboard than anything, all combine to create this huge-sounding driving, pulsing, droning juggernaut of a track that, you have to say, I quite awesome in its effect, not at all what you'd have expected and, once you get over the shock, find it's pretty addictive stuff. 'Optikus' opens with shuffling rhythms, edgy rhythms and voice samples like something off a Fripp album I can't recall the name of, as swirling electronics and bursts of accordion appear. But then the rattling drums begin as this stomach-shaking bass wells up from below, the accordion climbs higher in the mix, the electronics hiss and swoop, as yet another juggernaut of a track starts to roll adding and subtracting sonic layers and huge-sounding searing soundscapes, as it goes, the rhythmic core of the piece totally addictive and just thunderous stuff, a yet another gem of a track unfolds, once again sounding more like a demented '90's King Crimson without a lead guitar, as such, only more multi-textured as this whirlpool of sounds builds and builds over the ever driving, all-powerful rhythmic foundations. 'Sineen' is altogether more sedate and darker, still with rhythms from the drums booming out, only slower this time, as the accordion sounds more like an accordion (just) and bass, electronics and guitar textures swirl all around the core of the track, quite hypnotic, surprisingly melodic and more like a track such as King Crimson's 'Sheltering Sky' in feel if somewhat busier sounding. 'Absinthe', the only composition solely from the minds of the two King Crimson guys, is, somewhat understandably, the closest to thunderous instrumental King Crimson on the album, with the bass-tones of the Warr guitar sounding more like Tony Levin as the drums thunder and a lead guitar scorches and burns on top, the others providing soundscaping that fills the gap, as Gunn & Mastelotto lead the way on one of the best ever tracks that King Crimson never recorded - a stunning and jaw-droppingly excellent eight minutes. The album ends with the ten minute 'Keho', a track that begins in quiet, calm cosmic mode, almost like the intro to Pink Floyd's 'Careful With That Axe, Eugene' as the sounds slowly unfold. Around three minutes in, a lead guitar soars to the top and floats effortlessly above tinkling percussion, deep bass rumble and distant soundscapes. Aroundfive minutes, against an undulating, swaying backdrop, the accordion comes in, very serene and melodic, then disappears as the soundscaping and metalli-percussive tinkling take the stage only for the guitar to soar in heavenly fashion overhead, once more. This combination of guitar and soundscaping takes the track to a slowly fading and quite dark end, perfect for what has been thundering through your head up to now. So, despite what you might think from the line-up, this is one amazing organic and powerful album, using sounds in an amazing way, and way more enjoyable than you're thinking - solid and then some - totally worthy of your attention and much better than you'd ever imagine.

NIACIN: Organik CD
It takes just one minute and fifteen seconds of this album before you have just two words emblazoned on your brain - Keith Emerson!!!
After that it's an hour of incendiary instrumental music from this keyboards-bass-drums trio as you are propelled back to the glory days of The Nice, with the opening track, at just three minutes, rounding off the evocation to a tee as organ, bass and drums provide a steaming composition that could literally have been some previously unissued Nice track - it's THAT close. Now there is a reason for this - the guy is playing a Hammond B3 organ. He also uses the occasional piano and Rhodes and Kurzweil. All of which, across 13 tracks and over sixty minutes of music, makes this the closest thing to early Emerson, Lake & Palmer/Nice that there is. The real differences come obviously in terms of production - which is just red hot as you hear every note and the drum sound is solid, thunderous and crisp - and, in the case of some tracks, speed - there are passages that leave you breathless as you imagine Emerson even trying to play that fast. But, overall, most things are taken at what you would call a normal prog-rock pace and the feel of the seventies is never far away - in some cases, so close you might as well be in a time machine!! Oh - and I tell you something else - on the 'BBC Sessions' album, The Nice did a version of Frank Zappa's 'Lumpy Gravy' - well, on here, the trio do a scorching seven minute rendition, that stays faithful to the pace and melodic structure, of Frank Zappa's legendary 'King Kong' and it's just blinding. Elsewhere, it's Nice/Emerson heaven as track after stunning track endear themselves to you right away yet is still complex while possessing that Emerson ability of being able to compose great melodies, AND it's the sort of music you want to play over an over again, too. You simply can't go wrong with this album if you're anything like a fan of Keith Emerson and crave for the glory days.

RADIOACTIVE: Taken CD
More rock than prog, more AOR than prog, this is nevertheless a rock album that will appeal to a prog audience if only by virtue of the guest list on here that includes Jeff Pocaro, Bobby Kimball, Steve Lukather, Neal Schon, Bruce Kulick, Yngwie Malmsteen, Robin Beck, Kelly Keagy, Vinnie Colaiuta and more. The album opens, or as good as, with 'Taken' an all-out aor attack on the senses with fiery guitar leads above melodic keys and solid rhythmic foundations, as the vocals are sung in traditional metal style. Then comes the anthemic rock ballad in the form of 'Stronger Than Yesterday' sounding more like something off a Bad English album only more overtly European, again, a huge sound expanding right across the horizon thanks to some wicked production, as the multi-tracked harmonies, expansive keys backdrops and acres of guitars, sail into the sunset. From here on, it's an anthemic ride through AOR heaven with huge production, huge sound and plenty of searing guitar solos above vocals that are uniformly excellent and typically AOR, throughout.

RARA AVIS: In Terris CD
The opening track lasts close on 13 minutes and might as well be a classic early to mid-seventies Pink Floyd backing track - or actually to be more precise, a mix of Pink Floyd backing tracks, as there are all sorts of glimpses of things that you think you know, as the piece unfolds - bits of loads of things from 'Meddle' to 'Wish You Were Here' but just glimpses as the totally original composition glides and soars its way through the airwaves. Simply magical, if you're a prog fan who likes it more laid-back, a Pink Floyd fan with a love of instrumental delights and anyone into great sounding music in this vein, then you have to hear this track. The good news is that the album continues in this vein throughout - even injecting some seventies Pulsar magic in there too. Through a six minute song, then a near nine minute building instrumental with strident rhythms and melodies that build to a climax before dropping down to a more reflective and almost darker sea of prog soundscapes. You get a four minute driving song that achieves the same effect that something like 'Have A Cigar' did on 'Wish You Were Here' with its strong vocal and solid lead guitar. Then the album ends with a nineteen minute instrumental that is decidedly their answer to 'Shine On You Crazy Diamond' with some superb work from keys, electric guitar and sax, but even more varied with a stunning driving rhythm and scorching electric guitar work on the final subsection. Overall, this is one amazingly strong album that you'll be playing for ages to come and anyone into instrumental Floyd or similar stuff, will kick themselves if they miss out.

WOBBLER: Hinterland CD
A genuine, bona-fide real prog album, with a track that lasts twenty seven minutes, a couple of twelve and sixteen minute tracks and a brief intro, that's keyboards/synth/mellotron-based, must sound like manna from heaven to the prog masses - best part still, is that it is. But it's perhaps not quite what you might expect - in fact it couldn't be - because, in the twenty seven minute title track, you'll go through, in no particular order, ELP, Gentle Giant, Camel, Genesis and Moody Blues, even, around the seventeen minute point, like something off the legendary seventies Armageddon album, as the influences that become apparent along the way, as this mammoth epic twists and turns, ebbs and flows, drives and relaxes. The crazy part is that it's so superbly constructed that, while you are aware of the influences, at no time does it sound "copyist" - in fact, it sounds more seventies than the seventies. By that I mean the way it meanders through its assorted passages, gives it a decided air of complexity while at the same time sounding flowing and quite natural - it's melodic but the melodies twist and turn, change and nothing ever stands still - you could say it prefers atmosphere to a good tune. Anyway, fact that you can't escape is that this is one amazing, seventies-sounding slice of prog heaven for all those that can't get enough of it and only want something that really does sound breathtaking. The other two long tracks are equally spellbinding, the first of which, 'Rubato Industry', is more aggressive than what's come before but still with its oceans of mellotrons, moogs and tasty use of electric guitar, to the fore. The vocals, as before, come across as a cross between the guy out of Gentle Giant and early Peter Gabriel while the rhythm section does what it should. The flute that appears is pure Camel/Genesis while the keyboards, mellotron and synth work could be any one - or all - of the bands mentioned earlier. The sixteen minute, instrumental. closing track, 'Clair Obscur', is jaw-dropping, with a two minute mellotron intro, assorted ELP-isms, hints of Yes & Hackett, bits of all sorts of seventies prog bands I've forgotten about, and comes across as one seriously amazing slice of pure prog action. Overall, one remarkable album and essential listening for all seventies progrock fans who like their prog pure, perfect and profound, keyboard/synth/mellotron-dominated, and with the tracks a mix of relaxed, strong and dynamic.

YARGOS: To Be Or Not To Be CD
You see, for progressive-metal to work - and work well - it has to have keyboards and synths - not some distant afterthought, but there - right up in the mix. Then you have to balance that with some fiercely grungy guitar riffs while at the same time having lead guitar work and solos that are not only heavy but melodic, and light up the sky with electricity. Then there's the rhythm section - bass and drums have to thunder but not so fast it's in your face, while at the same time being able to take on those important prog-rock time signiatures and chord changes with seeming ease and fluidity while still running the gamut of powerful and dynamic. Then there's the vocals - above all this huge-sounding and positively massive instrumentation, you have to have a guy who can sing, with a voice that's right up there and fits the music like a glove - even better if you've also got a powerful female vocalist to act as a counterbalance to the main vocal performances. So, with ALL these ingredients in place - welcome to the metal-prog world of Yargos and a set of rock solid, metalli-prog compositions that will have you rocking in your chair or, if you're of the athletic variety, leaping around the room with head-banging abandon. This is one massive sea of prog-metal and anyone into the likes of Threshold and, to an extent, Dream Theater/Labrie, simply can't go wrong with this one - a stunner and then some.

PSYCHEDELIC/SPACE-ROCK/STONER:
AMPLIFIER: The Astronaut Dismantles Hal CD
Only 35 minutes, but then it's only £8.99, so you can't argue - especially as it's a song-oriented slice of magic. The opening track lasts eight minutes and sails in on a wave of chiming guitars and shuffling drums, throbbing fuzz bas and soaring vocals that doesn't really sound like any space-rock you know, but then it erupts and this fantastic slice of solid driving future-rock strides out. It's got the feel of space-rock, with appropriate sci-fi styled lyrics, but it's still got its feet firmly planted on planet earth. The song dominates and while the guitar work shines out, there's little room for extended instrumental work although the combination of climbing, chiming guitar that suddenly goes nuclear in a blitz of riffing guitars and thunderous rhythms before returning to the main body of the song, is a section worth the price of admission on its own, on a near nine minute track that is simply sensational. Then we dive headlong towards 'Into The Space Age', a track with a wicked mix of riffing and searing lead guitars over thundering electric bass and crashing drums, as the soaring vocal leads the song into outer space, confirming that this band wants to be space-rock, but simply can't leave planet earth just yet - there's just too much great rock music to be played!! - as this incendiary five minute track goes to prove. The more reflective but no less solid 'For Marcia' simply goes to confirm that what you've suspected all along - that this band is remarkably close to a keyboard/synth-free Porcupine Tree - as its chiming guitars ring out, the lightly phased vocal is so close to Steve Wilson as to be amazing, while the backdrop is full of wall-to-wall guitar textures and the lightly crashing rhythm section, the song slowly flowing to its fading end, just over four minutes long. A one minute subdued soundscape of guitars and bass segues into the deep thunder bass and chiming guitars, scorching droning guitar riffs and crunching drums that introduces 'Everyday Combat' as the band then suddenly take off and burn, the song soaring into life with solo and harmony vocals on top of the awesome guitar and rhythm section-fuelled background. Around the four minute point, the vocals drop and the band play this red-hot instrumental passage as the guitars just shine out of the solid rhythm section, with bass thundering, and a seemingly unending layer of guitars driving on, then the song returns to a military rhythm as the piece just stops. Superb!! The final track, 'Live Human' erupts on a now familiar flow of intensely solid guitar, bass and drums, as another abrupt change drops the intensity and takes you into another Porcupine Tree-esque vocal and song structure, as the red hot riffing and scorching massed guitars return over the bone-crunching rhythm section, an effect that is simply stunning, as the song drives forward, intense one segment, soaring with passion, the next, and simply jaw-dropping to the five and a half minute point. But it doesn't end - you get five minutes of silence before a "hidden track" is revealed, this time a more electro-acoustic song that is well within keeping with what's already gone down, this time adding a huge almost string-like guitar dimension to the backing and clattering rhythms and deep bass, as the vocals really deliver the goods with anthemic class that totally endears itself to you, on a four minute track that makes you feel it's a shame they had to "hide" it - but a welcome extra four minutes to the thirty four minute main running time, all the same. Overall, truly superb and highly recommended.

NEUTRAL MILK HOTEL: In The Aeroplane Over The Sea CD
Now I know I've reviewed some bizarre things here, but this one is simply stunning. Thirty mine minutes of mesmerizing song-writing, strange lyrics, a universe of arrangements and songs that range from folky to sonic overload. Take the first two tracks as an example - 'The King Of Carrot Flowers Pt 1' is a two minute track with an acoustic guitar, deep bass and nasally Americana vocal that sings the utterly surreal lyrics as a sort of accordion backing appears from nowhere, the whole thing a dead ringer for another band who, for the life of me, I just CANNOT recall as I write this (possibly a bit Mellonova only more folky but that's not what I'm thinking of), but it's just superb! There's a magic to the way it sounds, a "feel" that is so transfixing and heartfelt, yet it's so darned ridiculous. To the dying strains of the drone, it segues directly into 'The King Of Carrot Flowers Pts 2 & 3' as a cascading electric mandolin appears, then the vocalist just soars into the intonation about Jesus as deep bass wells up from below, a sudden burst of electric guitar appears, drums crash from the skies and the track starts to drive. Then out of nowhere this trombone blares out as the whole thing rises up and - boooooommmm!!! - this immense fuzz bass and scorching fuzz guitar spark into the life as the song drives forward in an unholy mix of sound like some demented bizarre psychedelic sea shanty - fantastic and then some!! The title track starts as another acoustic song with more of those heartfelt yearning vocals as the rhythm section slowly slides in, a soaring organ backdrop sail up and down the mix, the trombone returns and it's now like a psychedelic brass band marching to glory with superb vocals leading the way. The brass then drops as the wailing theremin-like sound that was an organ moves up in the mix, the brass returns and the whole canvas of sound marches on in a haze of soundscapes, the mix of instruments both daring and utterly hypnotic, melodic and quite insane. There's another 8 tracks after this and it's all similar stuff - from the acoustic Americana with almost out-of-tune vocals on occasion to the burst of brass to the fuzzed-out attack of explosive psychedelic surreality, of which 'Holland 1945' practically has all three, this is one monster of an album that will have you metaphorically scratching your had every time you play it, as you can't understand why you like it so much but just KNOW that you do - songwriting was never this strange, arranging this crazy, but it's melodic, powerful, tender, bizarre and from the heart - fantastic!!

ORESUND SPACE COLLECTIVE: OSC CDR
Almost the same as the band on my Dead Earnest label from the USA called Secret Saucer but here from Scandinavia and with a similarly high pedigree plus equally adept playing skills. In essence we have members of the bands Mantric Muse & Bland Bladen (2 instrumental psych/space-rock bands from the area) and Gas Giant (a psych-stoner band) spending time - in this case many hours - jamming and improvising together in the studio, then playing it all back and sifting out the best bits for a potential CD release. The results, according to this CD, are outstanding as over seventy minutes of instrumental space-rock serves to testify. But, before you start thinking "heavy" or even Hawkwind, let me tell you that this set of music features some of the most chilled-out space-rock around, but that's what makes it work so well. It's almost like revisiting some old, long-forgotten seventies Krautrock album, so much so that the spirit of the most uptempo tracks on the first two Cosmic Jokers albums, appears in your head on many occasions along the way. At the other end of the timescale, so does the 'Spacefolds' series of CD's from the American group Quarkspace with which some this also compares. With a line-up of 8 players on guitar, effects, synths/guitars and effects/bass/bass/synth/Fender Rhodes and synths/synths/drums - and with all 8 playing together most of the time - you'll hear a deliciously flowing, multi-layered, multi-textured sea of instrumental magic, music that just transports you to a different dimension in time and space but so easily. There's nothing here that's going to blow your brains out, but in turn, nothing here that's going to bore you into submission. The spirit of seventies Krautrock is what pervades most of the music with that all-important human feel to what ensues and a warmth, a sense of cohesion and people who are playing for no other reason than because they want to. With three lengthy tracks between fifteen and eighteen minutes, plus a clutch of tracks around the six-seven minute mark, there's nothing on here that's less than absolutely riveting listening pleasure, the sort of space-rock to which you float silently in space rather than power up the engines and go supercharged into the cosmos. A gem, all the same.

SMELL OF INCENSE: Through The Gates Of Deeper Slumber CD
The first psych/prog-rock crossover album I've heard in ages, in many places coming over like a sixties/early seventies answer to 'In The Court'-era King Crimson, laced with touches of Moody Blues & Curved Air but infused with a decidedly psychedelic flavour that gives it an identity that's both early seventies yet almost timeless as well. Take the last track - thirteen minutes of 'A Word In Season' - with more mellotrons per square inch than you'd imagine, harmony vocals, dual male an dfemale lead vocals, multi-tracked female vocal harmonies, chiming guitar, sinuous violin and train-ride rhythm section, the first six minutes is just glorious. Then the rhythms stop as the guitars and a brief sax refrain lead into this awesome blend of soaring mellotrons, as the sultry female vocal emerges to breathtaking degree, the sax twists and winds once again, while the guitars ring out and the rhythm, albeit slightly slower, re-enters, the effect both beautiful and utterly magical. The vocals then become multi-tracked for greater spellbinding effect, the soft male voice enters and then both fly upwards amid this wondrous backing of mellotrons, guitars, sax and rhythm section - like early King Crimson in a psychedelic dimension and just superb. The track ends with an instrumental outro and that's it - just stunning. Before that, the album begins with no less than a twenty five minute track called 'A Floral Treasury'. This time, as well as being mellotron-drenched, it also exhibits a more Eastern flavour, with touches of sitar and tables providing a distinct feel of early seventies Popol Vuh as the female vocals add to this comparison and soar upwards to majestic extent, the whole thing a reflection of the band's name to perfection, and it couldn't be from any other era than the early seventies (even though it was recorded in '95!!!!) As you'd guess from such an epic, and mostly instrumental, track, it moves through various changes but also flows to a degree that will amaze and delight. The female vocals are a treasure as the guitars soar, the flute swirls, the sitar rings in the background, the mellortrons cover the horizon and the rhythm section takes on a distinctly early seventies Krautrock flavour, a it all moves forward in a huge-sounding cauldron of sonic delight that is nothing short of jaw-dropping. With plenty of instrumental space, this take you to a universe inside your head that you never knew existed. About half way through, in comes this mighty drum rhythm that tears the roof off as deep bass, swirling guitars, miles of mellotrons, wah-wah guitars in the background, solid sequencers in the foreground and a huge sounding rumble down below all combine to take the track on a rocket ride to space. When it gets into space about five minutes later, the drums subside, the bass rumbles on, the mellotrons evoke deep space and a gorgeous glissando guitar adds the spice to what is a most amazing soundscape, dominated by the mellotron. This takes you through mellotron heaven to the twenty minute point where a mellotron choir, lilting bass and ringing guitar provide a setting that is pure early Pink Floyd, as the female vocal returns and combines with the male vocal to create a breathtaking scenery that takes the piece to a glorious sounding conclusion on a sea of choral mellotrons, space synths and keys before the very end arrives via a circus like burst of keys, in the form of a deep, dark and haunting electronic space bass atmosphere, the perfect end to a truly awesome and epic track. Between the two come two six minute songs the first of which, 'The Song Of The Queen Of The Meadow Fairy', possesses all the best qualities of the two epic tracks with plenty of glorious vocalising, acres of guitars and mellotrons, an almost Byrds-ish tinge to the songs only a lot more seventies prog-sounding and a truly magnificent track. The second, 'Columbine Confused', is more early Yes-like in terms of its arrangement but here the acres of mellotrons dominate the musical landscape with the female vocals right up front to gorgeous degree, while the band provides the perfect early seventies soundtrack of jaunty rhythms and multi-tracked instrumental magic. Overall, a stunning album that you'd never believe didn't originate in the seventies, but which are thankful that it is as it is, since the production and sound are simply fantastic.

Continued……

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