BLOOD OF THE BERRY

Timothy Pure's Blood of the Berry is a well-crafted neo-prog album with a sound that has one foot to the genre's 80s glory days and one foot in the latter-day Pink Floyd sound. They don't attempt too many radical departures from what's come before, but equally they don't fuss around or waste time on unfruitful musical cul-de-sacs, producing a decent album which plays to the band's strengths but may not stand up to repeated listens unless you are keen on bands who lift a thing or two from the Floyd. Matthew Still's Floydian keyboard playing is a particular highlight of the album, as is the smooth flow of the album between tracks - in keeping with it being a concept album, there's no jarring shifts in tone from track to track, instead the emotional tone of the album being built up logically as the songs progress.