TALES FROM THE BOOKCASE

Red Bazar formed in 2007 with Andy Wilson on guitar, Paul Comerie on drums and Mick Wilson on bass and keyboards. The trio released their d'but instrumental album 'Connections', in 2008, and followed it up with 'Differential Being' in 2010. After they released the three track EP 'After The Ice Storm' in 2013 they realized the increasing use of keyboards was making it harder for them to play live, so looked for a separate keyboard player, which saw the recruitment of Gary Marsh. With his addition, the band thought that possibly it was the time to try something different, so started a collaboration with singer Peter Jones, (Tiger Moth Tales), and this 2016 album is the result of that.

I haven't heard the earlier albums, so can't comment on what they sound like, but this is solid neo-prog, with a heavy guitarwork, so that at times they do remind me of the original Freewill line-up when they included keyboards. But, this is neo-prog as opposed to prog metal, as there are plenty of times when Peter assists them in taking it down a step and to move more into IQ territory, but it's just that when Andy puts the hammer down he really does! It is a diverse album in many ways, with picked guitar almost as prevalent as riffs, and the production is quite superb, allowing the space between the layers to be felt really cleanly. It does comes across as a lost gem from the Nineties as opposed to the present day, but speaking as one who was solidly immersed in that scene at the time I'm not viewing that as a bad thing at all! This is something that progheads should be seeking out.