PROTOCOL V

With no desire to break the traditions of Jazz Rock/Fusion, Simon Phillips gives us a homogeneous, dynamic, exciting, complex -but not complicated- album that steals our attention from the first piece to its inevitable but very satisfying ending. Perhaps the most surprising thing about this work - besides being a strange reason why this one does not bore in any of its 52 minutes - is the ability to establish a single tone* for almost the entire disc - which only seems to be interrupted by the piece " Dark Star", a bit more intimate in nature - making the album flow track after track very naturally and cohesively.

It would be unnecessary to highlight the interpretations of the musicians who are all phenomenal here - without falling into a gratuitous virtuosity that is very fashionable these days - and who integrate and converse in the best way that the genre (Jazz) has accustomed us to. Undoubtedly the best of a rather mediocre year -so far- for what some call Prog Music.

* With regard to 'tone' I mean the character of the album, which in this case is between extrovert and nostalgic, or at least that's how I perceive it.