Марио Милло. Знакомо Вам это имя? Так я и думал. Что ж, придется пояснить.
В середине 1970-х этот человек стоял у руля отличной австралийской симфо-проговой команды Sebastian Hardie. Записав с ними пару альбомов, неугомонный Марио, прихватил с собой органиста Тойво Пилта и создал коллектив под названьем Windchase, стилистически близкий предшествующему. В 1977 г. новоявленная группа издала прекрасную пластинку "Symphinity", полную изящных клавишных оркестровок и зажигательных гитарных партий в духе Карлоса Сантаны. Увековечив себя в анналах истории классического рока, Windchase распались, и Марио Милло перешел в разряд свободных художников, предпочитающих творить сольно.
"Epic III" весьма удачный дебют австралийского итальянца. Свои композиционно-исполнительские таланты маэстро Милло здесь использовал на всю катушку. Как результат, имеем чудесный диск, включающий восемь номеров, добрая часть которых не содержит вокальных партий. Хотя поет Марио довольно неплохо, что и демонстрирует в 14-минутном заглавном треке, скроенном по законам симфо-фьюжн-рока, а также в тонко аранжированной балладе "Harlequin and Colombine - Waltz Theme", где центральное место занимает дуэт мужского и женского голосов. Проходных композиций на альбоме попросту нет. Синьор Марио не бравирует виртуозностью, однако гитарист он отменный, превосходно чувствующий нюансы различных стилей. И потому одинаково убедителен и в игровом джаз-роке с привкусом латино, и в лиричнейших артовых соло, и в акустическом диалоге с флейтой.
Резюмирую: очень хороший релиз, не рекомендуемый завзятым "технарям", но всем остальным - вполне.
http://soundvoyager.blogspot.com

A fine collection of excellent compositions, played well with plenty of feeling. Although not quite the beauty that Oceans Of The Mind is, still a fine progression from Sebastian Hardie and Windchase. Two songs here are more electric versions of songs from the soundtrack to 'Against The Wind', reported to be Mario's biggest seller. After Epic III, Mario went on to record quite a number of soundtracks, most either being symphonic or acoustic, or both. Epc III explores both jazz and symphonic textures, and is about half instrumental. Those who enjoy his trademark melodic feel will not be disappointed.
http://www.progarchives.com

Finnish Kings Of Modesty have created an interesting brand of metal for themselves. You can find elements of power metal, progressive rock, AOR and modern metal in this package, not to mention some gothic flavours here and there. Virtuoso playing, fine production and high'n proud vocals from Jason Flinck (Brother Firetribe bassist) combined with quite original and catchy songwriting make this album a clear winner, even though there might be a couple of less impressive songs somewhere between the better tracks.

A "winner album" needs a strong opener, and that's what the band have in "Never Touched The Rainbow". It's a powerful rocker with a bit of a Sonata Arctica/Malmsteen meets The Disturbed vibe a times. If you can imagine that. The next couple of songs are fast-paced, metallic numbers which merely pave the way for one of the album's highlights, the haunting "Starin' Eyes". It's a fine song with slightly HIM-like keyboards and a fine chorus. The aggro-metal of the title track fails to impress me, but it's followed by a couple of excellent songs, the prog-meets-hardrock anthem "Suicidal Mission" with its' furious guitarwork and the big ballad "Once Upon A Time".

"Tailspin" is a good song too, although the chorus sounds uncomfortably high for a male vocalist. "We Will March Our Way" is another aggressive track, and it also features some exceptionally high vocal melodies. What next, music that only dogs can hear? "Miracle" takes us back to a more accessible direction, as it is a rather good song with a strong chorus and excellent axemanship. Finally, the closing number is a suitably dramatic ballad "Two Hearts Collide" with almost Queen-like harmonies.
rockunited.com

After cleaning up and winning numerous awards from the U.K's Classic Rock Society in 2003, British progressive band Strangefish followed that by releasing their critically acclaimed debut CD, Full Scale later that same year. Now almost 2 ½ years in the making, the band has upped the ante considerably with their second full length called Fortune Telling. For this CD the band chose to go the concept route and write music around an overall theme rather than worrying about dealing with each song individually. The thoughts and story line behind Fortune Telling basically deals with how the media has seemingly forever had a fascination with both wealth and fame, but that only scratches the surface as the band also takes the opportunity to inject the story line with other subjects as well, such as how man deals with his ongoing search for happiness in today's world of materialism. If it all sounds a bit pretentious and perhaps just another excuse for some soap box preaching and musical wanking, well I'm happy to say that this is definitely not the case.

The bands sound is symbolic of the newer elements of progressive rock yet it retains more than a passing nod to some of the finest classic bands of the genre. At times Strangefish sound like a combination of Spock's Beard and Genesis, which is definitely the best of both worlds of progressive rock. Your ears will perk up at the fantastic keyboard passages by Paul O'Neil as his solo's bristle with Tony Banks like enthusiasm and skill. Likewise guitarist, Bob's (no last name?) fretwork at times can also have visions of Hackett era Genesis dancing around your eardrums, and yet he's able to fire off many of his own distinctly sounding melodic and restrained chops in his own style. The rhythm section of drummer Dave Whitaker and Julian Gregory hold down the bottom end with apparent ease and it should be noted that while Gregory's primary instrument is the bass, he contributes some fantastic violin work to Fortune Telling and does an absolutely brilliant job on the CD's closing cut "Lighthouse Jig". This all instrumental track is one of my personal favorites. Last but not certainly least is vocalist Steve Taylor; there's obviously a good reason why he's won 3 consecutive awards from the Classic Rock Society for Best Male Vocalist. His vocals are primarily in the mid range and he doesn't stray that far stylistically, but his voice is the perfect match for the music and I heard echoes of Morse and Fish in his overall delivery.

The overall sound and production on Fortune Telling is another area where the band excels, it's clean and crisp but never comes off sounding too slick. In fact there is an overall feeling of warmth in the sound as a whole and the CD has a bit of an analogue feel to it that I really connected to, but don't ask me why. The overall packaging and layout should also be commended as it appears the band spent a lot of time ensuring that their musical vision was matched visually as well; not to mention the fortune teller fish that was included was an absolute riot, all I can say is that it's tied in to the cover image. Strangefish should definitely be mentioned in the same breath with the best of the neo-progressive bands of today and fans of prog will eagerly want to add this one to their collections. The band has a true winner with Fortune Telling, tight musicianship; top notch songs and great overall graphics and design that make for one of the best complete packages of the year so far. Let's hope we see them over on this side of the pond very soon.
http://www.seaoftranquility.org

When I bought this CD, I didn't really know that it was a Soft Machine spin-off. That fact might have been tucked away in my subconscious, but it was seeing the fairly cheap $9 price sticker on it at a prog festival vendor's table, and recognizing the band's name that made me decide to give it a try. If I had realized that Robert Wyatt was the main vocalist, I might have skipped the disc since I'm not very fond of his voice. Fortunately the album is largely instrumental, and what vocals there are don't really bother me much.

The album kicks off in a fairly experimental mode, with "Starting in the Middle of the Day We Can Drink Our Politics Away". The song consists entirely of the title sung over a repeated piano riff. Each syllable of the lyrics is held for so long that it takes the song's entire two and a half minute length to sing the title once and then again about half way through before the track abruptly ends. Oddly amusing.

The next four tracks all segue, creating what seems to be one long piece of music. The eight minute "Marchides" starts out as a blistering jam that wouldn't sound out of place on a Soft Machine album. It has a distorted keyboard (or is that guitar?) solo in the middle that gives way to a quieter and more composed sounding closing section that could still pass for Soft Machine. The album then shifts seamlessly into "Nan True's Hole", which produced an odd feeling of deja vu the first time I heard it — it turned out to be because The Muffins had snuck an instrumental cover version of it into their ProgDay set a year or two earlier. The main riff of the song is memorable enough that it stuck with me. This track in turn shifts into "Righteous Rhumba"; I wouldn't have noticed that it was even a new track if the lyrics hadn't suddenly started saying something about the Chinese. And finally the album side is rounded out by "Brandy as in Benj", a four minute piece with some catchy guitar riffing and lots of electric piano soloing. Very Canterbury sounding.

"Gloria Gloom" starts side two off with some very slow building, very spacey synthesizer experimentation from Eno. After a few minutes that gives way to a section where the balance of volume fades back and forth between a Wyatt-sung song and what sounds like three conversations going on at the same time. The overall effect is like listening to an annoying bootleg where the audience chatter often overtakes the band that everyone came to see but nobody's listening to. Finally for the last couple minutes, the song shifts back to Eno's spacey synth noodling.

"God Song" is a ballad sung by Wyatt over acoustic guitar and bass. The lyrics seem to be some sort of sarcastic advice to God, which normally I'd probably find amusing but I just can't concentrate on them because Wyatt's voice really rubs me the wrong way. "Flora Fidgit" returns to instrumental music that sounds more than a bit like Soft Machine. After a few minutes it goes annoyingly out of tune and then gets overlapped by the beginning of "Smoke Signal", another jazzy jam in the Canterbury style.

Overall, there's enough good music on this disc to make me glad that I bought it. But it's not one that I've gotten the urge to listen to a lot since I picked it up, and I doubt it's ever going to become a favorite.
http://www.progreviews.com