BONFIRE GOES BANANAS

A nice and unfairly underrated album by this Dutch band. They're a quartet playing a very dynamic blend of jazzy prog, completely instrumental, with strong fusion elements and echoes from other Dutch prog bands, like Focus, for the flute presence, or Finch for the rhytmical energy. More than keyboards, bass and drum player stands out here, but the guitarist Eugene Den Hoed is maybe the real attraction of the band, in example on the brilliant opener "Delerium". Anyway, "Bonfire Goes Bananas" is an album that never bore you, because every tracks develops an intricate theme full of contrasts and changing times. In this sense, "Contrast" is the typical Bonfire track, with its large variety of moods, like the long suite "The sage of the running nose", offering some exciting piano/guitar interplay. Surely Bonfire was a talented group, and this good album deserved more fortune.