A DOORWAY TO SUMMER

MOON SAFARI are a new talented band coming from Skelleftea,a small city in the north of Sweden.Starting in 2003,the band recorded a 4-track demo,which was sent to Tomas Bodin and was enough for them to gain a contract with Blomljud Records and release their first full-legth album ''Doorway to summer'' in 2005.

MOON SAFARI are perhaps the closest band to THE FLOWER KINGS I've heard so far...like in the opener ''Doorway'',which is a mellow prog track with a guitarist ripping off ROINE STOLT both in his acoustic and electric style and a fair amount of harmonica and TOMAS BODIN-like moog solos.''Dance across the ocean'' is more of an art/pop/prog track like a cross between THE FLOWER KINGS,BEARDFISH and IZZ,with sweet multi-vocal harmonies,heavy acoustic doses and nice moog synths all over.''A sun of your own'' is a track I can't remember of a while after its listening.An overlong boring ballad with a very relaxed sound of little interest.Heading for the grand opus of the album,the 24-min. long ''We spin the world'',the YES influence becomes clearer.In the first seven or so minutes you think if STEVE HOWE handles the guitar,delivering some rocking material and complex breaks with TOMAS BODIN being the man behind the keys.Later the track obtains a slight GENESIS-feeling with melodic guitars and some pastoral flutes in the way,before turning into a THE BEATLES vocal-led musicianship and finishing with a decent mellotron-choir and a sensitive melody.Not a masterpiece,but definitely a very decent and well-executed arrangement.MOON SAFARI choose to close the album with ''Beyond the door'',which starts with classical-inspired piano and moves on to more of the same...a YES-like structure with excellent vocal harmonies and magnificent work on Hammond organ and moog,even some tubular bells pop up in here.

''Doorway to summer'' is actually a really strong and challenging debut.The question is:are you hungry for more YES/THE FLOWER KINGS tunes?...If yes,you should hurry and grab it now!If not,then you will propably get a bit tired by this one...The answer is yours...