THE GUARDIAN'S OFFICE

While I do enjoy most Fruitcake albums, leader Pal Sovik took the astute decision to have some fun and progress into a different zone and see what happens with his The Guardian's Office (cool name, no?). Its mostly an interesting ride, taking all kinds of liberties with the prog envelope as exemplified by the hardrocking opener "Hit the Ground", a romping piece of excellence that emanates aromas of Uriah Heep, Spooky Tooth and similar hard prog blues adventurists. Guitarist Morten Eriksen introduces some nifty oblique, at times thunderous lines, thus consecrating the prog element succinctly. Keyboardist Tony Johannessen has a stellar voice to tackle such ballsy material (nice Gillan screech), in fact his softer timbres are equally engaging to the point of charming as on the occasionally somber "Dark Girl", a woozy mini-epic that suddenly explodes into a fat, steamy and deliberate groove propelled by a monster bass. The Sovik drums keep things focused, the slithering synths carve out all kinds of deep sinews and the mood is exhilarating. The mellow guitar cradles the arrangement perfectly, a paragon of class. "Play of Your Life" gets back to the rockier side but in a more playful mode than the icebreaking opening tune. This is perhaps a more lumbering track but it grows on you mostly due to the amazing singing and the way the band stretches out the theme with some driving interludes (another cool synth solo as well as some more unusual guitar phrasings ), very original but not as luscious as the first two numbers. "The Room Below" oozes into a different sonic expanse; amazing bass-pedal work usher in a raunchy affair with guitar slashes front and center, more quality vocals and a synthesized funeral mid-section with a blisteringly effective solo. The last segment is almost space rock, a Hawkwind lead guitar barrage (short and sweet) doing the damage. The purely instrumental "Office of Hard Cash" is another highlight winner, a simple riff with minimum effort and the various opportunities to wander into a groove (good idea!), a medieval-sounding synth lament only heightens the overall feel, far from complex or polyrhythmic, it's just plain good. Thousand dollar track! "Loser in the Sunset" reverts to a glorious theme (what a chorus!) that is immediately infectious, a charming piece of power prog boogie, synths ablaze again, the axe fretting sweaty and Tony crooning nicely. Excitedly repetitive yet brilliant, as if to hammer the thought home. But the next one is the killer, picture this: a succulently droning bass pedal motif, a sublime guitar lead , Mason-esque drum beat , hurried into harder realms with crunchy ornamentations , a tremendous musical feast. The closer is all about the Guardian, a Tresspass-era Genesis style ballad with the obligatory eloquent synth excursion, a small guitar foray, more of them bass pedal garnishes and a really cool vocal. This little offshoot Fruitcake project is a winner that deserves its place in a prog collection, especially if Scandinavian prog is your forte. 4 sentinel desks from Norge.