DESCENDING

Norwegian prog band Gargamel their debut album entitled Watch For The Umbles was released on Swedish Transubstans records in February 2006 and received great reviews in the international progrock press. Since 2002 Gargamel has gone through some changes of members. Gargamel has played at both OsloProg festival 2002 and 2005. In 2009 Gargamel released their second album entitled Descending.

1. Descending (9:55) : First a slow rhythm with distinctive electric piano runs and passionate English vocals, then a Pink Floyd sounding organ joins the party, followed by mellow synthesizer flights. Halfway a propulsive bass with a distorted, spacey guitar solo and a warm organ sound, culminating in a compelling final part that sounds like "Fleetwood Mac (Peter Green guitar) meets early Pink Floyd (dynamic drums and hypnotizing organ layers)", a good start!

2. Prevail (13:59) : A bombastic atmosphere with raw electric guitar riffs and powerful saxophone that first turns into mellow and then experimental, pretty adventurous but to me it sounds a bit fragmentic. In the second part I love the acceleration featuring violin-Mellotron, fluent drums and fat guitar riffs, it reminds me of fellow Skandinavian Anekdoten. After a psychedelic interlude with soaring organ and a great Hammond sound, this track is concluded with, surprise, a trumpet solo!

3. Trap (5:31) : This song (evoking early Pink Floyd and King Crimson) is wonderfully coloured with vintage keyboards like the Hammond organ, Moog synthesizer, Fender Rhodes electric piano and Mellotron along powerful electric guitar solos.

4. Labyrinth (17:40) : After an intro with the unsurpassed Mellotron, we can enjoy a lot of variety, from a slow ? and swinging rhythm to experimental with strong work on harder-edged guitar and vintage keyboards (Hammond and Mellotron), the final part is Prog Heaven featuring a bombastic climate with choir-Mellotron, propulsive drum work and fat guitar riffs, Gargamel at their best!

Unfortunately it turned out that this was their final effort, from promising Norwegian prog band with an adventurous and varied approach.

My rating: 3,5 star.