PUT YOUR MIND INSIDE MY MOUTH

Originating from West Michigan, US, Johnny Unicorn is a talented multi-instrumentalist, composer and singer, who started his career back in 2006 from Seattle, recording two albums, ''Dates or non​-​dates'' and ''Riversongs'' a year later.It was about the same time he started collaborating with Phideaux Xavier's regular project Phideaux, playing as a guest musician on ''Doomsday afternoon''.In 2008 Unicorn released his third album ''Put your mind inside my mouth'', the first time he collaborated with another person in a solo album of his own, and that was Audri the Great on spoken parts.

Unicorn's work is pretty bizzare.It sounds like a Progressive Rock album partly built around programmed instruments, sound effects and Electronics with little help from natural instruments, like the piano, various keyboards and the saxophone.The album consists of two long tracks, over 16 minutes each, split to each other by a single minute of silence.The final result is a quirky, ultra-modern Prog/Art Rock in the vein of THE RASCAL REPORTERS with a bit of GENTLE GIANT and E.L.P. flourishes in the keyboard parts, mainly instrumental with little contribution by vocals, still very complex at moments and full of irritating electronics and keyboard acrobatics.The occasional piano interludes have obvious Classical references and the few sax lines add a nice and fresh air to the digital music.Unicorn's overall performance sounds often outstanding, delivering plenty of breaks and complicated themes with fast playing, but the programmed instrumentation along with the annoying drum machine prevent a full appreciation of his music.Even this way in plenty of his passages there is a strong love for the 70's pinpointed, with semi-symphonic keyboard textures and good, dramatic instrumental plays, that would have sounded really better if performed by a regular band.

One of the most unique albums around, very hard to be defined.No excess, this whole listening experience seems like it has been entirely performed by a computer, but to my ears, even with its cheap sound, it sounds very charming and interesting.Recommended.