Take A Look (Twelfth Night, 1986)

Once upon a time there were some bands like this one making hybrid music that sounded like IQ meets Duran Duran. I discovered Twelfth Night many years ago and I started listening to their "Twelfth Night" album with mixed feelings. Most of the tracks sounded precisely like new wave stuff and I was ready to store the CD in my pop shelf when the closing song began and I changed my mind. "Take A Look" is a more than 11 minutes epic track, full of changes and pleasant surprises. Fortunately my blog is dedicated to songs, not to albums...

The flushing "Twelfth Night"cover. I like it.

The keyboard effects are a bit dated and the melodies are simple and catchy, but I like the way Andy Sears sings them and I adore the instrumental sections, rather long and complex. Keys and guitars interplay very well and the rythm section supports them brilliantly. This is prog, my friends, arranged in an Eighties fashioned way, maybe, but definitely good prog. I can't help but wondering why they didn't put in the CD one o two more tracks like this one, but this is nonsense... I'll keep on listening to it and leaving all the rest where it is.

Boarding Pass (Edhels, 1988)

I think this is the only prog band born in the Principality of Monaco... but maybe I simply ignore the Monégasque prog scene. For sure, Edhels are an interesting band, something totally different from the main French models, such as Ange, Atoll or Mona Lisa. Edhels' prog is an instrumental one, with strong new-age tentations and a spacey keyboards background. This "Boarding Pass" comes from "Still Dream" and dreamy it is, but if the rest of the album is rather cold and affected, this track has its own soul, mostly provided by Jean-Louis Suzzoni's Latimer-esque electric guitar.

"Still Dream" is the band's third album.

 

This is languidly spread over Marc Ceccotti's keys and Noël Damon's piano, while Jacky Rosati drums on slowly and effectively. Well, don't take my word for the musican's role here: those are multi-instrumentalists playing practically everything, so I'm just guessing or so. Anyway, this is a good, relaxing track with a feeling. Definitely, a "boarding pass" to an open blue sky.

Two Demons (Little Tragedies, 2006)

My... this is a dramatic, flushing, highly dynamic symphonic rock suite! Some 28 minutes of crazy keyboards, bombastic guitars, fiery drums... those Russian musicians (once called "Paradox") don't miss a thing! Taken from their "New Faust" 2-CD opus, "Two Demons" is as devilish as its title suggests, a chain of scales and progressions to leave breathless the more resistant of prog fans. Most of the track is instrumental, but some Russian lyrics enrich the song's sturdy texture now and then.

I can't help but recommend these guys... a force of Nature!

Sure, Gennady Ilyin's keyboards rule, and after all our friend is the band's founder, leader and composer, if you see what I mean. Of course, the rest of rhe crew also works very hard (and very well), they never take a rest for some 15 minutes, I mean it. So, when the beautiful, down-tempo section comes in, the poor listener really needs it. And here he'll fully appeciate Alexander Malakhovsky's dreaming guitar. In short, if your're looking for some quiet, pastoral prog, please, look elsewhere, but if you do like burning lava, fast fingers and strong emotions, with a final touch of melody, well, this is definitely for you.

La terra dell'acqua (Premiata Forneria Marconi, 2006)

"Stati di immaginazione" ("Imagining States" in English) is my favourite PFM's album after their reunion in the late '90s. This "La terra dell'acqua" ("Water's Ground") is the opening track, an istrumental trip of more than 8 minutes intended to comment the images coming from an Italian TV program and concerning Venice and its destiny. Of course, this music can't be limited to a descriptive use and this track is a real prog masterpiece, starting with dreming keyboards and evolving into a polirhytmic and flushing composition with so many different moods and tempos.

"Stati di immaginazione" was PFM's 16th studio album.

I recommend the violin solo by guest Lucio Fabbri and the stunning Franz Di Cioccio's drumming, creative and unpredictable. Sure, I can't forget the electric guitar solo Franco Mussida mounts in the finale like a shining gem in a precious crown. Precious, yes, this is the word for such a beautiful, both romantic and aggressive track, showing once again how great PFM are.

Birthday Card at Christmas (Jethro Tull, 2003)

Well, today is Christmas, after all. And this is a great song, IMHO. It's the opening one of "The Jethro Tull Christmas Album", a band's hardly predictable hit released in 2003. Ian Anderson explained this song title: his daughter was born on Christmas day and her birthday was always on a minor key, as the big event somehow diminished it. So, this is kind of a repayment for her and all the others born that same day.

...And what a beautiful, seasonal cover art!

It's a short and folkish track with a very strong and beautiful flute intro leading to a classical Jethro Tull's ballad. Another splendid flute solo graces the middle section of the song and a third one, tight and windy, closes it. Really, listening to this track is a very good way to wake up at Christmas and it's exactly what I did today... but I'm sure I'll listen again to this long before next december!

Le Cimetière des Arlequins (Ange, 1973)

Taken from Ange's second album "Le Cimetière des Arlequins", this rather long title track features almost 9 minutes of excellent music and biting lyrics. The first sung theme is something like a puppet's music and perfectly represents the topic of the track: the anonymous wheel game of human lives transposed in a world of marionettes. Full of surprises, this song is.

The russian but german-born painter Jacques Wyrs illustrated this cover.

After the puppet's verse, we cross a dramatic chorus, then the first theme comes back and there's the dense, arcane, mostly instrumental second section, featuring a yelled version of the chorus, where Christian Décamps invites the "harlequins" to take their place in the graveyard. A harder riff, also quoting Wagner's Ride of The Valkyries and leading to the final clockwork bruitage shows the miserable crowd's parade towards the final resting place. Strong, that's the word for it.

Fountains (Starcastle, 1977)

An old, challenging question: is derivative music always so bad? Listening to Starcastle's "Fountains", the opening track of their "Fountains of Light" album, I'd say no, not necessarily at least. These American boys were faithful fans of Yes and they did all they could in their career to reproduce their idols' sound. And they did it well, sometimes very well, like in this 10 minutes and more epic. The melodies are catchy, the tempo always changing, all is well set up, from the keyboard and guitar solos to the choirs, let alone Terry Luttrell's voice, so similar to Jon Anderson's.

Starcastle released 4 studio albums in the '70s and another one in 2007.

Sure, the rythm section, although very good indeed, maybe isn't as good as their model's, but I don't think Chris Squire and Bill Bruford had twin brothers, after all. Nonetheless, the song is fully enjoyable, well balanced, never boring, brilliant in spite of a barely acceptable sound quality. Some passages are really worth a second listening (and a third, why not?) and they give me the kind of joy I'm serching for when putting a prog CD in my player. A yes clone? Who cares...