MISTER GREEN

I got this album together with their second release "Skymind" from a friend and really had no expectations. Mainly because I never heard of the band before. I knew that they're from France but their origin doesn't say very much about the music. I listened to the album once and was blown away in an instant. It was something I, on the one hand, never heard before but at the other hand seems to have some similarities to King Crimson, Frank Zappa and due to the classical instruments used from time to time even to Magma. Queer mixture indeed but it works; and how it works.

Well after mentioning the main similarities, wich are by no means real similarities but a way to describe the sound better, we can now go into detail. The first song, 15 minutes long, called "Barbituricus" is a true highlight. It features some funny parts in the beginning but turns to a dark and evil guitar orientated song in the middle, King Crimosn like. After some terrific solos the happy vocals appear again and afterwards the song turns again. Now we get to hear the part I compared to Frank Zappa. A song every Progheas should have heard. "Cornibus" starts with flute and seems to rise. Suddenly it gets faster and faster and still features the flute melody. After a short darker part it changes to a part dominated by classical instruments, mainly violin and cello. The mixture of instruments sounds rather queer but interesting. Imagine classical instruments besides dark guitar solos and King Crimson like atmosphere. I tell you what it sounds like: AWESOME. "Flat Spectre" is muted and slightly mellow in the beginning. Nice Piano and Guitar get darker and darker and some classical instruments join in. Just to give you an impression I advice to imagine a mixture of King Crimson, Anglagard and Magma. Ok, refering to the title "ragtime" you probably can imagine what it sounds like, yes, Ragtime...very nice and odd. "No way!" is a short piece. More a radio play than a song. A guy in a restaurant eats something and is sitting next to a radio. In the radio some odd song. The guy eats and has to throw up after some time, very funny. "Mister green" is the first song with distinctive vocals. The song is hard to descibe, sorry. It is quite queer and features some choir, quite terrific. "Mister Grey" resumes the style of the first two songs but is much shorter. "Aspartamus" features some great guitar playing and again a dark atmosphere wich gets aerated from time to time but always lapses to the dark approach. "Super Flat Moon" sounds more jazzy than the other tracks. The rythm section is really jazzy on this one. In general the song features a lot of classical instruments wich is an enrichment for the sound.

Taal is an interesting band with an interesting sound, it shows so many facetes and different influences. Indeed, Zheul is a part of it but also jazz and symphonic prog with dark atmosphere is provided. All together a great mixture and very unique. "Mister green" is one of my favorite albums and every rating without a 5 in it would be a contradiction to the before said. Taal is not really well known, unfortunately. I think they deserve more attention because they make interesting music wich can enthuse you for a very long time. If you like King Crimson, Magma or Frank Zappa you should check out this album...but wait, you should check it out anyway. It's not very often that I'm thrilled about an album like I was about this one. Highly recommended.