Barrett. Syd - Barrett (1970)

 

The second and final album from this artist from Great Britain.

Syd Barrett did the guitar and vocals here.

He got help from a handful of guests who added drums, percussion, guitars, piano, organ, harmonium and tuba.  

This is the follow-up album to the far more well-known The Madcap Laughs album. An album I reviewed last month in this blog.

The fate of Syd Barrett is one of the biggest tragedies in the history of modern music. A fate that robbed him and us of some great music.

Barrett is clocking in at forty minutes. 

The music is psych rock. The music is a lot more electric than on The Madcap Laughs. The music is also more like proper compositions and the production is a lot tighter. David Gilmour have to take a lot of credit for this well produced album. 

Syd Barrett's vocals are a lot better this time around. He was never a good vocalist but the vocals here are still pretty good.

The music here is surprisingly pretty good. I had some low expectations to this album based on The Madcap Laughs and these expectations have been exceeded.  

This is a charming, pretty good album. Check it out.

2.5 points 

 

lamanai - Hunt For The Golden Dragon (2026)

 

The debut album from this band from USA.

This band was a one-man-band with Thomas McLean on drums, bass, guitars and synths.

A handful of guests added male and female vocals.

This is another one of these one-man-bands. Beggars cannot be choosers, as the prog rock genre is not overflowing with new bands... However, I have my reservations.

This album is clocking in at thirty-five minutes.

The music is nominally symphonic prog. There are a lot of neo-classical music here too. 

Mike Oldfield and Yes are both good references. Take a blend of those two entities, then add in some old Pink Floyd and you will get the music on this album. 

There are some good vocals here in addition to the mainly cascades of synths and keyboards. The synths has a good mellotron sound.

There are some cheesy neo-classical music here too and I believe the composer have composed some of the music with a tongue-in-cheek attitude. A sense of humour in other words.  

The result is a more than acceptable debut album. This is also a pretty good album. Despite of my reservations against one-man-bands, I hope we will hear more from this band.

2.5 points  

 

  

Marbin - Strong Thing (2019)

 

The seventh album from this band from Israel & USA.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars and saxophone.

The band returned again one year after the Israeli Jazz album. A good album I reviewed last month.

Strong Thing is clocking in at one hour. 

Let me first add that I love the art-work. Moose is also a common animal in Norway, the country I grew up in. Big animals and pretty dangerous if they attack you. Something best avoided. 

The music here is not as dangerous as a moose, though. 

The music is guitars based fusion. The saxophones are also high in the mix.

The saxophones are melodic. The guitars are a blend of dissonant and melodic.

The music is a blend of fast, mid-tempo and slow. A great deal of variations, in other words.

The music is not particular eclectic despite of the at times dissonant guitars. The saxophone solos is both warm and melodic.

The result is another good album from this band and one to check out.

3 points 

Jazz Q - Hvězdoň (1984)

 

The seventh album from this band from the Czech Republic.

The band was a quartet with a lineup of drums, bass, guitars, piano, electric piano, synths and vocoder.

Two guests added percussion and trumpet.

The band returned again after a five years long break.

Hvezdon is clocking in at forty minutes.

The band was and still is one of the best bands from the eastern part of Europe. Back then, the band were isolated from the rest of the world due to this Berlin Wall. A tragedy that divided Europe into two parts. This band was one of its victims.

The music is mid-tempo to slow jazz. The music is more ballads type here. Ballads but still pretty intense with some good electric piano, guitars and trumpets.

The music is really understated here. It is also at times beautiful.

This is not one of their best albums. Nevertheless, this is still a good album from this great band.

3 points