ENIGMATIC

Niemen might be striking a Vincent Price pose on the front cover, but there isn't very much of the Gothic or horrific about this four-track collection of organ-dominated progressive compositions. Drawing on the Polish folk music tradition for material and motifs that set this one apart from most organ-centric late 1960s proto-prog, and Niemen's arrangements also slip in a choir here and there to add a little gravitas to proceedings. Slow and stately for most of its running time, this isn't an album which offers up fast-paced Emersonian keyboard wizardry - rather, it aims for the Enigmatic tone its title suggests and more or less attains it.