Prog Britannia - Album Reviews

"Guitar" opens the album in grand triumphant style with the London Symphony Orchestra playing in all of their full symphonic glory and splendour. Guitar legend Albert Lee is the soloist given a chance to showcase his talents here. This uplifting piece of celebratory music alternates magnificently between orchestral parts, solo electric guitar and also the two combined together for some magnificent Symphonic Rock. It's a tremendous 9-minute opening piece designed to impress with the power and the glory of the music. It's orchestral, it's magisterial, and it's worthy of being played in a cathedral. Jon Lord is the powerhouse behind Deep Purple, and this marvellous music is the Deep without the Purple. In other words, it has the Deep driving force and resonance of a Deep Purple number, but without the Purple Hard Rock element. Onwards now to "Piano", where Jon Lord plays his heart out as if his life depends on it, in a stunning piece of musical virtousity. Wow! Can a solo piano really sound that LOUD! Jon Lord displays his classically-trained credentials here with some dextrous keyboard runs, playing both solo and combined with the orchestra. Even a full orchestra can't overwhelm the sound of a piano though when Jon Lord is running rampant on the keyboard. This is where the Lord of the Keyboard really stamps his mark on the album and announces his presence in full bombastic fashion. And now we come to "Drums", and no surprise that this features Ian Paice, the bandmate of Jon Lord in Deep Purple. Obviously, Ian Paice isn't going to let this track go by without embarking on an impressively long 3-minute drum solo to demonstrate why he's one of the most respected drummers in the world. Finally, When the orchestra re-emerges after being awestruck by the pace of Ian Paice's drum solo, the music sounds like a triumphal marching theme, along the lines of what might be heard as an army goes marching off to war. To paraphrase Mr Bachman, Mr Turner & Mr Overdrive though, you ain't heard nothing yet, because along comes Track 4: "Vocals", a glorious symphonic epic, combining the vocal talents of Tony Ashton (of Ashton, Gardner & Dyke fame) and Yvonne Elliman (best known for the song "If I Can't Have You"). This is a full-blown symphonic masterpiece, guaranteed to awe-inspire you with the power and the passion of the music. Another one of Jon Lord's Deep Purple bandmates, Roger Glover, is given the chance to display his virtuosity with the bass guitar on Track 5, which comes as no surprise as this track is titled "Bass Guitar". This leads us on to the sixth and final number, the 12-minute-long epic, "Organ". This marvellous piece of music is epic in every way. Jon Lord's colourful musical feathers are in magnificent plumage here as he demonstrates his prowess on the keyboards in truly dramatic fashion with some stunningly powerful blasts from his Hammond organ, which will be oh-so-familiar to fans of Deep Purple. A glorious and spectacular end to a symphonic extravaganza!

A magnificent masterpiece of Symphonic Rock!

The album opens impressively with "Morpheus", an 11-minute-long symphonic opus. The sonorous sound of the synth hits you right between the eyes from the first few opening bars. As you'd expect, there's plenty of intricate keyboard noodling and dramatic changes of pace to keep the listener entertained, with a few classical motifs thrown in for good measure. Duncan Mackay could certainly give Rick Wakeman or Keith Emerson a good run for their money with the keyboard skills displayed here. He's a pretty good singer too, which is just as well with him performing vocal duties on all of the songs contained within. The second of the three long suites on the album, "12 Tone Nostalgia" is another dramatic piece and it certainly does have an air of nostalgia about it. It's enough to make you long for the halcyon days of the 1970's when superb prog albums like this were being released on an almost weekly basis. This 9-minute-long epic might be described as overblown, pompous and pretentious by the snooty music press, but who cares!? To true blue aficianados of Symphonic Prog, this is prog heaven! Side Two of the album is fully occupied by the 20-minute-long suite "Song for Witches." A clap of thunder announces the dramatic opening of this epic song. Again, there are alternating fast and slow keyboard passages, combining synths and piano, and it even features a church pipe organ. It's grandiose, it's triumphant, it's magnificent, but above all, it's a marvellously entertaining 20 minutes of classic Symphonic Prog, and you can't ask for anything better than that. As Duncan Mackay announces with some satisfaction right at the end of the album, "I think that might have been it."

A "Chimera" is described as anything composed of very disparate parts, or perceived as wildly imaginative, implausible, or dazzling, all of which could apply to this complex album. Just as one would expect from such an accomplished keyboard player, this is a very keyboard-oriented album, but it's none the worse for that. It's very much in the style of Emerson, Lake & Palmer and Rick Wakeman, with fast arpeggios, complex keyboard runs and constant changes of tempo. You never know quite what to expect on first hearing the album, and it's worth giving the album several listens to truly appreciate what an accomplished work this is. It's classic Symphonic Prog with long extended pieces that YES or any other prog band of the era would be proud of. It's definitely worth a listen, especially for fans of Symphonic Prog generally.

  1977: Duncan Mackay - Score - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mRtcjJxVfd2yupQ3wDD4bbK2a4IlIy-Os

  1980: Duncan Mackay - Visa - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3EQZTCBdO8rzOBhdP_VPijkg5iGM0IHZ

  1988: Duncan Mackay - Heart of the Machine - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_keoufXAEZfbCbOaCcRd5TfZJGNkoD6Xe8

  1988: Duncan Mackay - The New Explorers - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mBB7KkE8DdlBtoKzGTro3mTDTozlMO76Y

  1988: Duncan Mackay - Forward Vision - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_m0Be5cm5_Zc36KoV0CcK1ZwqNKsGbpH8U

  1988: Duncan Mackay - Data First - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_kECZIQq7etyTYQKOeOBrAEr10iDfW1rYg

  1990: Duncan Mackay - Russell Grant's Zodiac - https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLGsgeCrPZEEydRoG-I8HyEpRcugPHCIOM

The album opens with the brief prelude "Wind-Tales", featuring a light breeze of keyboards floating past the listener like a zephyr in a mellow wave of calming pastoral sound, which leads us into "Which Way the Wind Blows". This song is a gorgeous slice of melodic prog with the familiar voice of Phil Collins reminding us that this song would have fitted very nicely onto a classic Genesis album, although the music is altogether gentler and mellower than anything Genesis have ever recorded. We're travelling back in time to the royal court of Henry VIII now with "Henry: Portraits from Tudor Times", in the first of two long suites on the album. The six-piece "Henry" suite is a glorious 12-minute-long combination of gentle acoustic passages and marching battle themes and it also features a tremendously rousing chorus for the grand finale. The dynamic contrast between Ant Phillip's gentle acoustic guitar combined with his sonorous outbursts from the almighty keyboards are what really sets this long suite of music alight with passionate and powerful intensity. It's dramatic symphonic music imbued with all of the regal power and magnificent majesty of a King upon his throne. Phil Collins returns to vocal duties in a lovely duet with Vivienne McAuliffe for "God If I Saw Her Now". It's another beautiful piece of gentle melodic prog in an album that's positively overflowing with charming and enchanting English tunes.

Opening Side Two is "Chinese Mushroom Cloud" which sounds just as dramatic and doom-laden as the song title suggests. It's a short prelude featuring the rousing and resonant deep rumble of a cello, conjuring up a portentous and disturbing image of some cataclysmic disaster. This leads us into the two-part suite and title track "The Geese and the Ghost". Running at nearly sixteen minutes long, it's an epic masterpiece, combining orchestral, pastoral folk and proggy themes in a timeless timbre of tuneful melodies, which also includes some rousing grand symphonic keyboard flourishes too for our delectation and delight. We get to hear Anthony Phillip's voice for the first time on "Collections", and a very fine singer he is too. The music is a gorgeous flute and guitar melody floating on a sea of sensational strings. The final piece of music "Sleepfall: The Geese Fly West" is as gentle and peaceful as the gentlest of lullabies and it's a perfect dream-like melody to bring a marvellous and masterful album to a close.

"The Geese and the Ghost" is a timeless album full of reverberant refrains and mellifluous melodies combined together in a magnificent melange of pastoral folk, classical compositions and melodic prog symphonies. It's a superb album that should appeal equally to Genesis fans and non-Genesis fans alike. The music has been described as sounding like a "mixture of Vaughan Williams and Mike Oldfield" which sums it up rather well I think.