DANCE OF THE GOODBYES

They're not from County Kent, they're not even English, but the Canterbury forms and sounds here, often subtle or slightly adapted, are undeniable and quite enjoyable. Someone in the band is even caring enough to provide many of the Daevid Allen pixiness with talking diatribes beneath the music and backwards or otherwise effected guitar tracks beneath the other music as Allen and Steve Hillage were fond of doing.

1. "Dedicated to us, but we weren't listening" (3:50) opening with some GONG-like effects and then adding some melodic ALLAN GOWEN- or STEVE MILLER-like keys, smooth RICHARD SINCLAIR-like bass, and PYE HASTINGS- or PHIL MILLER-like guitar and you've got yourself a melange of Canterbury Scene musicians making . . . quirky Bohemian Canterbury jazz!? (8.75/10)

2. "Perfumed garden" (9:43) opening with the breathy voice of María Toro is, I must admit, a bit of a surprise--a welcomed one, as it turns out. The closest thing I can come up with this music is today's INNER EAR BRIGADE or REGAL WORM. There is SANTANA-ness to the instrumental section in the fourth and fifth minutes, but then the music breaks down into a slow, smokey torch singer lounge jazz not unlike ANNE PIGALLE or KOOP. But the flute-led instrumental section following María's vocal is Canterbury, pure and sublime. However you categorize the music of this song, let's all agree on one thing: it's gorgeous! (19.5/20)

3. "Turbulent matrix" (10:47) the superlative music that all artists Canterbury would be making today if they were to do it all over again. This is a gorgeous piece of fun, melodic, quirky, even flawless jazz. Incredible arrangements, tight cohesion, and fantastic drumming, all built over two piano chords! (20/20)

4. "Blessed water" (12:26) opens with sensitive, plaintive solo piano before Mellotron, bass, and the delicate voice of María Toro enter, continuing the same emotive pattern and theme, the music has a bit of ANNIE HASLAM-JON CAMP RENAISSANCE feel to it, even into the slightly built up instrumental section--which quiets down for the arrival of the alto sax--who lays down a beautiful solo. María gets the next turn, this time with flute, over some psychedelic guitar play and JOHN TOUT-like piano. A slightly heavier force enters as ELIANA VALENZEULA-like vocal passage of María's plays out. There follows a nice medium-yet-insistently-paced section over which electric guitar and saxophone perform very nice solos. The bass, drums, and piano are so smooth, so together! Everybody starts pushing the intensity up one notch at a time so that in the eighth minute things are peaking just before a ninth minute lull in which María returns to a sensitive SARA ALIANI (LAGARTIJA)-like voice, but hen she finishes the band launches immediately into a full-on blues-rock exposition in support of the electric guitar. Remember THE DOORS?! Big 'tron choir supports the next section as the song plays out over the final two minutes much like CARAVAN does in the orchestra-supported second half of "L'auberge du Sanglier/A hunting we shall go/Pengola/Backwards/A hunting we shall go (reprise)." Brilliant! Brings me to tears! (24/25)

5. "Qwerty" (0:49) did we mention that María plays a mean flute? Fun uptempo Canterburified jazz. (5/5)

6. "Flight to nowhere" (23:39) (44/50) - I. Endless magic spell -- those could be considered GONG-like sounds and effects in the opening section with a similar STEVE HILLAGE guitar effect to the lead guitar as the music falls into step, but as soon as María begins singing I am once again brought back into the realm of torch singer lounge jazz. Magic spell indeed! - II. A bleeding mind -- I don't really know where one section begins or ends but suffice it to say that a musical passage with crazed multi-languaged or clipped vocal dispersals lying beneath the music begin and continue over a span that I'm guessing might be representative of "a bleeding mind." - III. A walk along the tightrope - IV. Bubbles of dellirium

Total time 61:14

Five stars; one of the best Canterbury style albums I've ever heard or reviewed, old or new; a true masterpiece of joyful, creative, amazingly well composed, performed, and recorded music.