REVOLUTIONS

A suite in four movements, this is the debut album by impressive neo prog outfit, Magenta. You could not possibly accuse them of not being ambitious, because there are not many bands who would announce their intent to the world with such a sprawling conceptual piece such as this.

It is a double CD, and there are so many influences at play here, it is sometimes difficult to keep up. The bombastic start to Children Of The Sun is somewhat misleading, because the track actually soon settles down into something more akin to folk prog than symphonic bombast, and you will hear clear references and nods to bands such as Renaissance and works by Oldfield contained here.

The highlight, though, is the second epic on side one, White Witch. This is simply incredible, and huge credit has to be given to Christina Murphy's vocals on this - she acts and plays the part as if she were born to it. I also loved the woodwind pieces on this epic, featuring some sublime flute and oboe.

If they had left it at CD1, I would have awarded it a healthy 4.5 to 5 stars, so good it is. However, I am afraid that, to these ears, the momentum is lost somewhat on CD2. It's not bad, far from it, but I found the two epics dealing with the future, Man The Machine and Genetesis, to be far less interesting stories than the two which preceded them on CD1 Certainly, the former contains very derivative passages which at one stage could almost be John Foxx or Tubeway Army, and there is also a long passage which is, to be honest, a direct rip off of an album by a certain band with a foxes head on the cover. The last epic, by the way, is more reminiscent of Yes than the obvious band from the name of the track, and it does at least redeem matters somewhat after the incoherent first epic.

Throughout, though, the musicianship is superlative, especially the guitar work by Reed, Fry, Shellard, and Edwards.

A new decade, and a new name in neo prog. All in all, a very satisfying debut from a band who deserve our respect and attention.

For CD1, five stars. For CD2, three stars, so four overall. An excellent addition to any prog collection, and a must for those who enjoy the early and mid neo of Marillion, IQ, Pendragon, and Pallas, and see how a new force would take it forward.