MY MAGNIFICIANT INSTABILITY

Debut album by the excellent prog act Dagmähr: their sound combines a clear sense of melody and an intense expressiveness, over a foundation of cleverly inspired compositions and intricate rhythm signatures. Performances are very solid and energetic, without reaching an exaggerate level of aggressiveness; on the contrary, the band prefers to exercise a certain amount of constraint in order to build an adequate sense of tension. Their major influences are "Red"-era KC, second-era VdGG, "Moving Pictures"-era Rush, and Fish -era Marillion (in fact, in their early days, they used to cover material from these three bands, mainly). But it's not copy-and- paste what you find in this album, but a particular approach to all these sources instilling them into a modern sound, a sound sustained on a tight, precise rhythm section and enhanced by effective melodies, riffs and solos on guitar, organ and synth. To state it simply, the repertoire comrpised in "My Magnificient Instability", is a perfect sample of all the musical aspects already mentioned. Tracks like 'In Every Failure' and 'Destiny' serve as appropriate statements of the band's progressive direction: prog complexity, inventive compositions, a well balanced sound production. 'Just in Words' is also a ver ygood song, though not as notable as the two I've previously mentioned. All in all, the highlight is the closing 16-minute suite 'Leaving For Paris', which comprises lots of diverse musical motifs, mood and tempo shifts - in many ways this is some kind of mixture of the emotional density of 'Incubus', the reflective enthusiasm of 'La Rossa', and the evocstive mystery of 'Red Barchetta'. A short string section guests occasionally on a few tracks, not for symphonic purposes, but to add subtle colours that help to increase the sense of passion that is so inherent in the band's material. There is even an exclusive string section performance for 'A l'Aube de...', which kind of serves as a prelude to the dynamics exposed in 'Leaving for Paris'. Before that, the brief, somewhat bizarre grand piano duet 'Paradox No. 1' lays a bridge of academic exquisiteness between tracks 1 & 3. Overall balance: an excellent addtion to any good prog collection, and certainly, one of the most interesting prog recordings for the late 90s.