GRYPHON

'Gryphon'. A superb debut album from a folk band that would eventually settle into prog territory. This record is just a collection of fun, relaxing neo-medieval folk ditties, ranging from simplistic and facile to complex and layered. This album I used to ignore (when I first discovered it I was more interested in 'Red Queen to Gryphon Three' and 'Raindance'), but I quickly realized (and by that I mean just a few listens) that that was unfair on my part and I should have put my prog necessities on hold. And this album is not prog. It is kind of experimental, definitely complicated, but not prog. Yet it is still great. The record starts with 'Kemp's Jig', an instrumental track that shows you everything that is to come in the rest of the album: the great percussion, bassoon, crumhorns, harpsichord, and so much more. Three of the best minutes in Gryphon's entire existence. 'Sir Gavin Grimbold', an acoustic medieval ballad about a young man who left home and will never come back. One of the best songs on this album. 'Touch and Go' is my favorite Gryphon song of all time. It is only a minute and a half long, but I find it so beautiful that the length doesn't matter. 'Three Jolly Butchers' just sounds like an older Irish bar jingle. The vocals are not trying to be great, they are there, apparent, fun, and honestly very cool. These oddities are the things that make Gryphon Gryphon. Two minutes in, the melody makes an interesting, dark transition that returns to the original melody after a minute. 'Pastime with Good Company' is basically a two-minute recorder solo. It is very fun. 'The Unquiet Grave', the most serious song on this album, is another medieval ballad about a widower whose wife rose from the dead after the man's oddly specific request of desert-water, stone-blood, and breast-milk. This is the most progressive song on the album. A bassoon solo interlude adds to this factor. Maybe second to 'Touch and Go' in a ranking of this album's tracks. 'Estampie' is a nice little medieval instrumental, much like 'Kemp's Jig'. There is some very nice percussion and woodwinds here. Close to the end the flute explodes. Truly very fun. 'Crossing the Styles' is a beautiful acoustic guitar piece. Graeme Taylor really shows off his talents on this one. 'The Astrologer' is another vocal track about (guess what?) an astrologer who could tell the fortunes of young women. A fun little track, and one of the best ones on this album. 'Tea Wrecks' is too short to say much about, but it's pretty good. One minute of bassoon's alright with me. 'Juniper Suite' is one of the most progressive tracks on the album, with fast- paced acoustic guitar plucks and layered woodwind sections. A great song. The closing track, 'The Devil and the Farmer's Wife'. There are some great lyrics here. One of my absolute favorite Gryphon songs. Anyways, while not entirely progressive, 'Gryphon' is an excellent album to any prog music collection. Prog (folk) on.

Collecting records over 45 years I've got nearly a full discography of such an artists as: Led Zeppelin, Genesis, Yes, King Crimson, ELP, Van Der Graaf Generator, Todd Rundgren, Frank Zasppa, Gentle Giant, Gong and a lot more of prog-art and jazz rock fusion. Looking for something by Gryphon and finally got this double CD by Esoteric Recording. A very nice edition - perfectly remastered with detailed and dynamic soundstage. Liner notes include the reproduction of the original album covers and complete information about the personalities and the places where these four albums (based on the majority of reviews Gryphon, Midnight Mushrooms, Red Queen To Gryphon Three and Raindance were undoubtedly the peak of the band's activity) were recorded. Despite the ommited Dubbel Dutch from Midnight Mushrooms you can get a compact collection of Gryphon heritage. When you have a problem where to find a place for another item in your collection, 4 in 1 from a great artist well packaged and deigned with good sound quality is a reasonable choice for you.

That said, Dubbel Dutch is probably the least inspired tune on that album - the title track and Ethelion, in particular, absolutely blow it out of the water - so I'd say it's actually improved by that one omission. Certainly, it feels like this set contains everything which was truly essential in these first four albums, though admittedly I may be out of step since I think Midnight Mushrumps is the weakest of the four (it sags a bit in the middle, hence the removal of Dubbel Dutch being helpful), which doesn't seem to be the consensus.

Still, unless Esoteric fancy doing one of those nice clamshell sets they do with the albums in individual cardboard sleeves for Gryphon (perhaps throwing in 1977's Treason, the major release of their original run that this is missing), this will do nicely.

As with Midnight Mushrumps, it's the long track here which is the standout piece; (Ein Klein) Heldenleben is also the place where those medieval folk elements make themselves felt the most, being as it is a journey through every dimension of the band's sound. The album is perhaps a little overlooked compared to Red Queen To Gryphon Three - where Gryphon's blend of prog and medieval folk perhaps found its perfect balance point - but it doesn't deserve that, because it's a perfectly pleasant progressive rock album, albeit not one which progheads will find staggeringly original (though give Heldenleben a good listen and you may pick up on things you miss on a superficial hearing).

"Opening Move" opens the album (quite obviously) with a spectacular riff that is built upon throughout the song with different variations from piano to bassoon. The song picks up at around the 3:00 minute mark, with a great distorted guitar hook, with a timpani build-up, that leads into a total medieval jig section.

"Second Spasm" is an awesome tune. It opens with a recorder/guitar lick that leads into by far the most aggressive part of the album. The crumhorn section is the most notorious part of the song and always puts a massive smile on my face whenever I hear it. It is very Gentle Giant-esque. I'd have to say that this one beats "Opening Move" by just a little bit.

"Lament" is my favorite song off the album. What an absolutely beautiful song it is. Filled with classical guitar, recorder, and magnificent bassoon work from folk-rock legend, Brian Gulland, the song is a 10-minute epic. Halfway through the song it takes a completely different direction with a faster-paced tempo. Of course, it being Gryphon, every 30 seconds they switch from a speedy interlude to a folk lick that sounds like the theme of a renaissance fair.

"Checkmate" is the closer of the album and a superb one at that. With a rambunctious opening riff that flows through many ideas and time signatures until arriving on a flute solo over a medieval drum roll. The song comes to a riff that resembles that of "Second Spasm" dominated by flute and bass, which transitions into a melodic section with piano and crumhorn. As with a few tracks on albums such as ELP's debut, it features wonderful musicianship but can feel a bit structureless at times. Nevertheless, I still enjoy this track greatly.

My only takeaway from this album is that the songs can often get lost in wandering instrumentalism. I would say this is a 4.5-star album but I'll round it down to 4 stars. This is Gryphon's best work by leagues and I love the format of 4 long tracks comprising an album. Highly recomended to fans of Rennaisance and Gentle Giant.

The album starts with the title track of the album. This is probably the jazziest Gryphon song they have recorded with a lot more emphasis on horns and improvisational music that sparks memories of the more jazzy progressive rock of the 70s, almost as a sort of tribute to that style of music. I think in all due respects, this song is great and still keeps up with the more original and experimented-minded direction the group followed with ReInvention, but to me, it doesn't feel like Gryphon. It is not to do with Raindance or Treason where it sounded like other bands that weren't Gryphon, but here it doesn't give me those Gryphon vibes. That witty charm in their music has been lost in this song and even if this may be a new direction for the band to take, I think they need a bit more time before fully going into the more jazzy rock sounds that act like Gentle Giant or Peter Hammill refined in the 70s.

Though those remedies are taken away with A Bit Of Music By Me. We get back into those classic folk sounds that Gryphon has a knack for, and all that charm they had on me with their records instantly comes back. How it is all played so elegantly lets this song be a really good defining moment in this album. It has this more renaissance feel to it, almost as if the band is making music for a Da Vinci painting. It is as elegant as it is beautiful.

So we have the more jazzy side of Gryphon with the title track, and the folk side of Gryphon with A Bit Of Music By Me. How can the band combine these two attributes? Well Percy the Defective Perspective Detective may answer that. We get a fun little melody with this one, combining the more medieval folk with the jazzy 70s-styled progressive rock that was very popular in those golden years of progressive music. This one-two punch lets this quick song stand out very well in the sea of songs by Gryphon. It is unique, bouncy, and incredibly colorful.

This mix does switch around a bit with the folk and jazz, and sometimes separated starting with the song A Stranger Kiss. One of the more folk-attributed songs on this album, we get a more melancholic vibe within this song than most of the songs here on this album. With that, we get a sense of the much-needed break away from the more rocking-out tracks we have gotten, or the more witty and intellectually potent folk tunes. It is a good dividing line between those two attributes of sound that I wish Gryphon did more of.

Back to the pattern, we have Suite For '68. Man, what a lovely little tune, a lot of pretty uses of a more baroque style of progressive folk just make me very happy. It is unique in how each moment it changes around and becomes something similar, but completely new. That is how I like my suites, to be honest. Now I will say, I think it is too short to be considered a full suite of music. For me, the perfect amount of time a suit should be is 10 minutes and up. Five minutes is simply too short and I think this song should be able to benefit from a long length. It may become the best song off here if it was 10+ minutes, but sadly it isn't. Still a good song though.

The band does have some comedic routes in their music, and The Brief History of a Bassoon explores that in a funny little tune. It is sort of a tongue-in-cheek song about one of the prominent instruments of Gryphon's whole career, that being the bassoon. The joke here is that there is no bassoon present in this song. Believe me, I went through it over and over again, and still no bassoon. I even looked up videos of what a bassoon sounds like to double-check, and yet no bassoon. I find it kinda hilarious. It is like studying for a math test and instead of getting the equations, you get the answers and only the answers. Rather funny how things work out like that. A fun little tune that ties some knots in the album and experience Gryphon brings.

Krum Dancing also plays into the humor of Gryphon, retaining the folk instrumental factors, but also sort of making this song almost a dance track. I can almost certainly see people dancing to this in pubs of some kind. It is almost funny how when Gryphon does things right, they do them right, but when they try humor, they do it with class that doesn't devolve the music.

While in their last album they had a tiny psychedelic edge, Forth Sahara expands on that with a more space edge to the sound and higher use of keyboards than ever before. It certainly reminds me of the greats of Eloy and Nektar without fully becoming them and ripping them off in sound and focus. You can still tell they are still Gryphon by their sound and focus, but with new stuff added on to make them stand out a bit more from their previous efforts. Certainly a fine song.

In a flip of the coin to one of the first few songs of the album, Christina's Song takes some of the same notes A Stranger Kiss did but sadly doesn't do them as well. I do not get a sense of melancholy with this song, and while I do like the song it never strikes my fancy enough for me to fully LOVE it if that makes sense. It is a neat song, but sadly I cannot say it is really special.

One of the weirder and more proggy songs on this album, Normal Wisdom From the Swamp... (A Sonic Tonic), does something similar to Percy The Defective Perspective Detective where they combine the jazzy progressive rock with their folk sound, however this time elongated and done quite better if I may add. This may be the band's most experimental song yet, combining new techniques into their sound that allows them to stretch their legs more, and create something very special. It is a very fun and enjoyable song, and one that I think will be regarded as a modern-day classic with time and patience.

Ending the album off is Parting Shot, and?My god, what a song to end this whole Gryphon journey. I know the band is still going on, but man once I heard this song I knew this would be one of my favorites off here. It is so emotional, so beautiful, and so rewarding. Even after the mixed reception all of Gryphon's albums have brought, I can still see them as being enjoyable to some capacity, even with Treason. To me, Gryphon is a fun type of progressive folk. Hearing and reviewing them has been incredibly enjoyable, and while some of their songs aren't the best, if they may not strike lightning in the bottle all of the time, they still have a place in my heart with a lot of other bands. Their music is one of the best out there, and they need some more recognition. Parting Shot represents all of that, a beautiful song that closes the curtains for now.

A strange, but an incredibly enjoyable album. While it wasn't as profoundly magical as ReInvention, it is still a great album they released in this century. Hailing back to those fun times in the 70s and truly embracing their image in the scene was a great move they pulled with ReInvention, and they still keep it up with this album. It is an album that slowly but surely became one of my favorites from the group, and I do think it should be recognized as a great release from this group.

It may be their most masterfully done album yet. The starting track of Pipeup Downsland DerryDellDanko starts the album back into the familiar territory of their days of old. It has a very similar approach they had with their debut album, but with slightly better sound quality and wit. It gives me Kemp's Jig vibes, which is a song that I do think was one of the best of their first album. The album starts with this song and lets the listener know that the band is back to its folkways, though with some modern tweaks.

The first song was a mere taste of the juicy meal this album has. Continuing the folk attributes of the first song we have Rhubarb Crumhorn. What I love about this song though is the sheer optimism it has. It has this Irish dance folk sound that makes me imagine people dancing around in a wooden bar. It is just incredibly happy and fun and reminds me quite a bit of the harvest season. The beauty of fall is something that always gets to me, and after going on one of the most beautiful drives listening to this song, more specifically this album, I just got washed away with the joviality in the music. This new take on Gryphon's sound is the best we have seen since Red Queen, and the fact this is only the second song adds to the charm this band can have when they do things right.

Back to a more folk swing, we have A Futuristic Auntyquarian, which goes back to the more thought-provoking folk that the band is sort of known for. It breaks away after the fun moments we had with Rhubarb Crumhorn, but instead of it creating a poor taste in my mouth, I get happier and intrigued with how the album goes. The flute is a great highlight of this song, having this Celtic flair to it that makes it almost like a song made by a Piper. The percussion here is also very much a highlight. Small and rhythmic yet extremely well put together to where it fits well with the music. It's like a mix of Red Queen with Midnight Mushrumps, having the folk acoustics of Midnight Mushrumps with the progressive flairs of Red Queen. Some very nice stuff personally.

One of the best songs on the album is up next, that being the 10-minute ensemble of Haddock's Eyes. Man, this song is such a treat. It has a very progressive rock flair to it, but without spoiling the music entirely. It starts with their folk sound until it goes to a folk rock melody then to a groovy and more electric-flavored proggy sonata until it returns to the folk-rock that then goes back to the folk sound and style they had at the start. How it all progresses without forcing any of the more progressive rock stylizations is so refreshing. It is new and something I have never experienced from Gryphon. They are doing their take on this style of music instead of ripping off their contemporaries like with Raindance and Treason, and after listening to those two half-baked albums, it is refreshing hearing this one. They took what already worked and made it better, and that is how I like my Gryphon. Always innovating, trying new stuff, and making it work out in the end. It is some of the best work they have put out in a hot minute, so I cannot deny my infatuation with this song.

We get more excellent progressive folk in Hampton Caught. This song did make me think how far we have come from their lukewarm debut to this song here. They have grown up, had awkward puberty, and are now fully-fledged adults (or old gizzards) they have settled down and completely made their beauty of sound. We get a lot of that charm and wit Gryphon has had over the years and such shows true craftsmanship in the instruments they are handed with. Some excellently done progressive folk rock is done right here.

The strangest title here is Hospitality at a Price...(Dennis) Anyone For? which is also incredibly weird too. It is almost avant-garde in a way but in a good way. It has some very Disney musical vibes. Stuff from The Princess And The Frog or The Aristocats comes to mind due to the theater and almost jazzy wonder. This mixture of their progressive folk and the nice happy sound of a lot of musicals have just made this give me the biggest and dumbest smile. It is just an incredibly fun song that I think has become my favorite off this album. It isn't poppy, it isn't too proggy either, it is completely new. I love it a lot and would love to hear a Gryphon album like it since it just brings an intrinsic beauty to their sound that I never thought was possible.

We return to the more baroque folk prog with Dumbe Dum Chit. I just love how medieval it all sounds, almost like music that'd play in a game of Dungeons and Dragons. Gryphon's music does fit pretty well with the more adventurous side of fantasy. It is some nice Celtic music that is fit for adventure.

With a psychedelic twist, we have Bathsheba, which has an almost soft rock flair without being too soft or too rocking for the standards Gryphon has on this album. The best production here gives me some psychedelic vibes that I didn't expect Gryphon to do. Early today as I am writing this is decided to Agusa's En annan värld, which has a similar psychedelic tinge to the more folky sound similar to here. It is a unique experience, to say the least, and to say the most this album has been the most creative the band has ever gotten in their career.

Continuing onwards we have the second longest song off the album, that being Sailor V. If you thought Rhubarb Crumhorn was very Irish, you haven't heard anything yet. This song just invokes that traditional Irish folk experience so well that it almost makes me want to dance to it funnily enough, even though I am not of Irish descent (heck I am from Spanish and German descent mostly). Oh, and that ending having this almost operatic guitar melody just melts me. It is so well executed, this entire album has been so well made that it just leaves me wanting more. It is whimsical, it is fun, and it is so creative that it has been something I needed since my first listen to Raindance.

We get some more Celtic progressive folk in Ashes. There is nothing much to say about this track, it is just more well-made folk music that I think has an intense charm to it.

Rounding it all off we have The Euphrates Connection. This is a great track to end things off with since it has everything on here. The calm and thought-provoking folk, the whimsical progressive rock, and the lovely progressive folk the band has been using since the dawn of their career. Not only has this whole experience been a redefining moment for the band but saved them from the mediocrity of their last 2 records. This song right here is an emblem of this glorious achievement in their long and winding road, and with every song here being so well made leaves me to believe this is the masterpiece that it should be called. Just really amazing.

Some great progressive folk here. I am satisfied with what Gryphon has done on this album and I want more of it. It is probably one of the most lovely folk albums I have heard to come out of the 21st century, and I am surprised it came from Gryphon of all bands. This 2018 release the band put forth is a shining achievement, and I hope with their next and so far last record they would make something just as good as this. This new Gryphon is as good as ever.