BRIDGE TO FICTION

Another surprising return! MANGROVE the Dutch quartet returns to us almost fifteen years after their previous record "Beyond Reality" which dates from 2009. The writing of "Bridge to Fiction" in question here began in 2016!

MANGROVE is in a way the baby of Roland VAN DER HORST, guitarist above all but also vocalist and additional keyboardist on the new album "Bridge to Fiction". Bassist Pieter DROST has been present since the early years without being original, while drummer Lex BEKKERNENS arrived in 2016 and the new keyboardist Ebert SWART is the fourth member recently, 2022.

The inaugural and eponymous track "Bridge to Fiction" installs or rather reinforces MANGROVE in the neo- progressive fringe of our bedside music with, as we will see, highs and lows qualitatively speaking. So let's proceed in chronological order and we will include this piece in the "correct but could definitely do better" section, a (8/10) which you have understood will not lead MANGROVE to posterity. "Reflexion" the second track, more adventurous than the previous one, is not necessarily better, on the contrary, the disappointment deepens (7/10), a shame in my opinion that Roland forces his voice which while remaining audible n This is not the main asset of our Batavian friends. Third piece "Stay", finally a welcome correction, it's high level neo progressive, without genius certainly but musically and emotionally superb (9/10).

I would modestly pass on the short (fortunately) "Chasing Something" (4/10) of boring jazz rock to remain polite, before tackling "Touch of Light" and its eight minutes twenty-five which starts with a telluric riff of bass guitar (Pieter DROST) to the point that we could be in the presence of a metal band, the piece is instrumental and proves to be a melting pot between several musical categories, metal therefore but also psychedelic or even space rock (the gurgling keyboards around 3:50), not easy to tame (7/10). "Raindrops Falling" whose title will remind western enthusiasts of a certain BUTCH CASSIDY & THE SUNDANCE KID (at least its main theme) is not sung very well by Roland which harms my fragile eardrums for the overall appreciation of the piece (7/10).

The whole record so far is nothing scary, you might say? Absolutely my dear WATSON, we only have one track left, but not the least "A Call to Arms" which clocks in at over twenty-four minutes and we don't feel like we have to listen to the same combo!

Soaring synths which open Pandora's box until the arrival of the six strings and the rhythm pair, all forming a high class instrumental score for a little over three minutes and twenty minutes, and Roland VAN DER HORST who sings well see very well from this moment (which is why I specified "I don't feel like I have to listen to the same combo"! And the rest can only prove me right, here is a nice range from progressive to trendy symphonic which only asks to be listened to and re-listened to until one is no longer thirsty (10/10), so of course a single title above the pot for a record, it's a little light, I don't disagree with that , MANGROVE will have to put the heat on for a possible future album, perhaps shorten the overall duration by favoring a much higher quality I'm going back to listen to "Facing the Sunset"!