THE INNER DRAGON

Silver Lining has been a silent favorite ever since I got my grubby hands upon its release. While I am no fan of spoken parts in between symphonic interludes (unless there is comedy, like operetta), I can only waive such maligned thoughts when realizing that this is a project led by a prog magazine music critic/editor Thierry Sportouche of Acid Dragon. The original progressive movement was targeted towards eventual annihilation by frustrated non-musicians, led by the late Lester Bangs in 1977, introducing instead the lovingly Wagnerian "the Sex Pistols", the obvious "the Vibrators" and the fittingly named "the Damned". Mellotrons replaced by bags of vomit! What injustice! But guess what? We are baaaaack! So our admittedly modest prog editor decided to reverse 33 years of injustice by putting together this unusual concept album, daring the impossible by handing the lead to the violin, knowing full well that only a handful have ever been successful: Ponty, Goodman, Lockwood, Jobson, Tsuboy & Cross, among others. Annie Morel (yes, a female virtuoso!) is a splendid player, full of verve and élan, soaring over the usual prog stalwarts on keys (the delicate Pascal Indelicato) and electric guitars (the clever Nicolas Mourashko). "Opaline" has enough proggy rudiments to crawl up there with the "Spectral Mornings" of the Prog World, a sultry instrumental excursion into sheer bliss, with Morel fiddling uncontrollably while dueling with a lofty guitar flight that would make Hackett proud. All the tracks sort of blend into another, interspaced with the accented narrative which can and often does detract from the overall quality but when the mikes are turned off and the band kicks into a groove, this is some of the finest symphonic prog you will hear anywhere, with massive swaths of melancholia, melodic hooks that immediately grab your senses and a resounding violin that adds so many emotions to the mix. "Castaways"," The Morning Dew", "The Inner Dragon", "Lovestalgia" all the main tracks offer up some fresh excursions on a fairy tale-like ride that evokes the child in all of us. I just hope their next offering will concentrate on the music and less on the narrative. This is another winner from France, who have been dishing out some fine prog lately. I am looking forward to finding the DVD ,for seeing is believing. 4 puffs of fire