DESCENDING

Second album from this Norwegian group and FWIW, second gem of ac retro-prog album. As much as I am careful with the initial enthusiasm that most retro-prog album evokes in me, I usually come down from my cloud fairly quick, but with Gargamel, I must say that the excitement lasts on quite a bit longer, mostly due to different influence or models taken. And just like the debut album, the group seems intent of playing up VdGG's aisles, with a twist of Crimson

Indeed, some of the most obvious VdGG moments come from Uglebakken's vocals, strongly inspired by Hammill's gutsy delivery, but the songwriting sometimes dares also a few Graaf- esque The group's vintage instruments is the standard one, including a guest cellist and two horn player, since Uglebakken also play sax and flutes. Just four tracks on this second album but two lengthy epics including the excellent and moody Prevail The Sea with the guests doing their bits to make it truly interesting: when the trumpet comes in, the drama is at its utmost; but the awe starts right from the opening power lines: you'd swear you're onto ITCOCK's lost track.

The short trap presents almost a burlesque face with its extremely bizarre time sig and presents a slight Gong/circus atmosphere with a Hackettian guitar and a closing Banks- ian 'tron line to die for. The other epic is the 18-minsLabyrinth, a much calmer and spacier track, but unfortunately its intro is marred by a Watcher Of The Sky sequence (double infamy it is repeated another time), but once the intro dealt, the track settles into a space void where the Theremin induces scary voids and Floydian guitars (circa Saucerful Echoes) evoke time warps, than a rising saxophone is paving the way for a wild instrumental feast where the organ is blasting its power, urging the guitars to spit out the venomous chords, until the whle thing drifts into chaos and then into oblivion

Gargamel's second album confirms their debut's success and the group is now solidly in the Scandinavian circle of great retro-prog bands and can look up Anglagard and Anekdoten from eyr-tu-eye.