MOSAÏQUE

Being of a certain age, I was fortunate enough to see many of the UK Prog Gods in their early 70's prime - Yes, Tull, Genesis, Gentle Giant, Camel, Caravan, Barclay James Harvest, Greenslade, Wishbone Ash to name but a very few. (For the record, I was never interested in seeing either King Crimson or VdGG - neither was on my wave length at all, either then or now.)

In total contrast, in more recent years, I have regrettably been to very few concerts - in the last ten years in fact, only Pendragon and Big Big Train have succeeded in getting me to stir my stumps (both bands were excellent). That's just the way life evolves.

Across all the years, however, my taste in music has remained relatively stable, and music that seemingly travels, currently, under the generic label of "symphonic/neo-prog" suits me just fine. I haven't the least interest in whether this marks me out as an unfashionable dinosaur - I simply don't give a hoot. I know what I like. And Arrakeen deliver it in spades. Mosaique is an excellent CD, with terrific melodies, soaring guitars, and no duff tracks or fillers. Maiko has a great voice - (if Epidaurus had been able to access her for their Earthly Paradise CD, they might have really been in business). If I rate it as better than the band's first album (Patchwork) it is solely because of their comparative lengths - Patchwork is more of an EP than an LP - but both have stood the test of time in fine fashion.

For what it's worth, not that you're interested, of the multitude of bands and artists that I saw in those far-off Golden Days, the most uplifting was, without doubt, Quintessence; the three quirkiest were probably Tea and Symphony, Arthur Brown, and Principal Edward's Magic Theatre; the greatest crowd-pleasers (with all due apologies to the PA community) were Slade; the loudest (by some distance) was Status Quo; the most tedium-inducing was Byzantium; and the most professional was.....Charles Aznavour (!!) (Bang goes any remaining street cred, but I freely admit to being dragged along by my enduringly lovely wife to see this ageing French crooner shortly after we married, and, whilst I was wholly dismissive and cynical to begin with, in truth he succeeded effortlessly in delivering a completely mesmerising performance. I swear that 20 women sitting near the front of the stage fell pregnant that evening just by listening to him. Talk about the Adoration of the Masses!)

But I digress. Mosaique is just my cup of tea. I loved it from start to finish. Great stuff.