THE BIG LAD IN THE WINDMILL

This is their first album, a nice debut for a British prog band who started in the mid 80's! The songs may be quite hard rock, if you consider the rather aggressive omnipresent electric guitar. The tracks are loaded, and the lead vocals are excellent, reminding me Derek Shulman of Gentle Giant and Peter Gabriel, seconded by TONS of excellent backing vocals, giving the ensemble an American pop sound; but be reassured: the songs here are not simple at all! The bass is very interesting: it has the Wal sound, and I wonder if it is not fretless; the bass is complex enough to produce very catchy rhythms. Actually, this album relies very much on rhythm and lead & backing vocals. The keyboards are varied and contribute to the overall rhythm, as reveal the horns-like arrangements, sometimes falling into a lite big band style, like on "Whole new world", on which the horns are probably genuine. The songs are joyful, catchy and very accessible; thus, I really think this band should interest a broader public than the conventional prog rock fans. All the songs are very good, and no band until now sound like them: they are very unique, dynamic and original!