JAGANNATH ORBIT

A prog band from Cuba? Wow, this is new! I was intrigued enough to get their second CD. I was expecting some strong latin influences and maybe a little salsa or rumba to be included. Well, Not so much. There are indeed some hints of those, but in very, very small doses. Anima Mundi is a symphonic prog outfit in the stronget sense of the word, and making no secrecy of their main influence. In fact, they seem to worship Yes above all things and some parts of their music does remind strongly of their Relayer period (sometimes a little too much). But they´re not copycats. They are very talented, skillfull and deserve to receive some more atention.

The production is very good. The vocals are ok, not very outstanding, but not annoying either (in the style of... Jon Anderson, of course!). On the other side, the instrumental parts are terrific and the record is a mostly intricated, complex, melodic, tapestry of sounds. Great, powerful and dreamy keyboards parts are the dominant factor on all tracks, but the rest of the band are not far behind. There are no fillers and the songwriting & arrangements are tasteful and very well done.

Conclusion: Jagannath Orbit is very strong and pleasant album. Even if they have not developed their own style completely yet, they´re surely on the right path. A hard album to rate. I´d be giving them 3,5 stars, but they are good enough to make me round it up to 4. Very promising! I´m looking forward to hear their next works.