THE FYREWORKS

According to Reed, the main goal of the project was to capture the feeling of the 70's Prog legends and present a work filled with the fundamentals of vintage Progressive Rock, as Cyan was sounding more like Pendragon than any of the bands of the 70's.The result was quite satisfying in my opinion, as Reed & Co. managed to combine the clear production of the modern era with the strong analog sounds of the 70's.The album is filled with references to the music of GENTLE GIANT, GENESIS, JETHRO TULL or YES, pretty unoriginal music, but the arrangements are mostly beautiful, elaborate and adventurous.Actually the album has little connections with Cyan's music and recalls the future work of Reed with Magenta, this is polished and retro-sounding Symphonic Rock with nice interplays, some intricate melodic passages and plenty of breaks.The music is heavily driven by the analog sounds of Reed's keyboards, including organ, Mellotron, synths and piano, the flexible work of the Edwards/Chang duo on guitars with elegant GENESIS vibes and complex GENTLE GIANT-like grooves and the powerful flutes of guest musician Lee Goodall, not far from JETHRO TULL'S IAN ANDERSON.In a few occasions The Fyreworks' music even contains some great violin work in the vein of KANSAS, delivered by Billy Thompson.

This is a very good tribute by The Fyreworks to the majestic Prog scene of the 70's, covering almost the whole spectrum of the biggest acts ever to play this music.Not very original, but certainly fascinating and demanding music.Strongly recommended...3.5 stars.

3(+) and I don't like adding another 3-stars rating, but either there's nothing so interesting, or it's well hidden, or it will reveal itself after more listens. Maybe it's hidden pirate treasure, who knows.

Noticeable in the first track are the dominant flute and also the presence of Ezra's Andy Edwards which is not so strange since Robert Reed also played in Ezra. Anyway Master Humphries Clock is immediately the best track of the album to me because of it's versatility and energetic approach. Great vocals by Andy by the way. 4,25*.

The War Years is a short, less captivating track. More ballad-like. Not bad but not great either. 3*.

Stowaway is a bit better again with the return of the flute. I like this feature of Fyreworks. 3,5*

Balloon is again a not too significant, average track. I can hear the presence of a violin on this one besides a virtuoso flute passage. Melodywise it's not outstanding though. 3,25*

The Consequence of Indecision is a short piano-instrumental. Nice little track. 3*.

The epical Broken Skies is the other highlight of this rather short album. I had hoped for something slightly better but it's about everything you might expect from an epic. Good variation, interesting instrumental passages with contributions of violin and saxophone amongst others. Just in the melodic department I've heard better and this happens to be important to me. Still 4* seems fair to me.

Last track is comparable to the second, pity that it's one with the hidden track foolishness. So instead of 7 minutes you get 4 minutes of music which is a bit of a shame really on a 49 minute album. The only fun thing about it is that the last minute features ..... fireworks ! 3* for this track.

So all in all not a bad effort by mr Reed. Still I prefer Cyan and also Magenta. Maybe Ezra is on the same scale as this The Fyreworks. It nearly had a shot at the 4 star rating but just didn't make it. So three stars it will be though severely rounded down (3,4) !

But if this is recommended by almost every neo progheads I know, then it must be a good one in that genre. Definitely not original, IMHO.