HAPPY THE MAN

Happy the Man's first album is one of the greatest prog debuts. Every track is superbly sculpted. Simplicity flirts with playful complexity in an environment of limitless sonic detail that threatens to reveal a whole new level if one only had better ears to hear more deeply into it. The music is a jazz-tinged symphonic progressive that summons up a gentle, surrealistic fantasy realm for the listener. Kit Watkins, the star of the recording, establishes himself as the most accomplished (and the fastest) Mini-Moog player. The keyboard arrangements (with Frank Wyatt sharing keyboard duties) summon a magical haze of electric piano and string-synth. Frank Wyatt's woodwinds integrate perfectly with the lush but (amazingly) never-overbearing keyboard textures.

Unparalleled in American progressive rock.