JADE WARRIOR

Jade Warrior was one of those marginal bands in the prog genre that somewhat managed to earn a well reserved respect, for becoming such an influential musical force, despite not responding totaly to the typical niches of the most "consistently" prog acts. Their debut namesake album is a bit too far from their finesse and special magic achieved during their Vrigen years, but still is a recording woth trying. Even then it was obvious that their major interest was expanding their musical vision to the sounds of the Far East, India, the Muslim folklore, Northern Africa, in the context of Anglosaxon psychodelia. The presence of electric guitars and several percussive instruments is notable, elaborating tribal ambiences and bluesy atmospheres - and yet, Field's flute passages find their way to shine a light of their own among this paraphernalia. My favourite tracks are both suites, 'Masai Morning' and 'Dragonfly Day', which contain some somber sounds a-la early Floyd and KC, but never been overwhelming... just so subtle, that it makes you wonder if it is real or just dreamt of while you're listening. The same feeling is provoked by the closing number. 'The Traveler' and 'Slow Ride', on the other hand, are much calmer, taking the road of introspective reflectiveness. Ths sound production is not so good, and I feel that the compositional skills of the band members are yet to be polished, despite their undisputed capability to come up with good ideas (specially, ideas about textures and ambiences). Since I can't use a 3 1/2 rating, and 4 stars feels too high, I'll go for the 3 star.