LET YOUR LIGHT SHINE

It's time for Ruphus to turn the lights down to a low smooth setting and get their freak on! A much different offering than their more traditional proggish approach, this album incorperates lots of jazz and smooth funkish vibes into their prog rock (distorted guitars, hammond organs, the usual), resulting in an interesting but not exactly stellar release.

The opening track actually reminds me a bit of the title track from Renaissance's Prologue album...not as fast, but the style of singing and the general prog meets jazzy approach to the music gives "Sha ba wah" at least enough similar aspects to be possibly inspired by that Renaissance track. The musicians are certainly talented, and the soloing is quite good if not mind-blowing, while Gudny sings like a young and rather unpolished Annie Haslam. A pretty endearing start. The rest of the album bounces around between shorter ditties and longer jams, with the title track being the most memorable for me since it's the only song here with actual lyrics. It's pretty catchy too, and despite the length it flows by pretty well although I should say it's somewhat similar to the opening track musically.

"Corner" sounds like an instrumental take on a Pablo Cruise song with a severe case of "progitis". Clearly this tune is for the proggers who want to show their lovers what tiiiiime it is before gettin' buzzay to a strange time signature on a leopard skin rug (or maybe a rug with a big picture of that Tarkus tank on it). The smooth grooves are followed by the "Second Corner", which is another instrumental with a faster jazzier vibe...gettin' jiggy to this could result in a sprained ankle or something. Be careful tiger.

"Brain Boogie" incorporates lots of funkiness to the prog rock and has a wild chorus with Gudny bustin' out some orgasmic notes without lyrics getting in the way of her controlled caterwauling. You gotta dig the name of that song too.

I found the album kinda fun as a whole, although some of these short numbers really don't add anything except album length. This certainly isn't essential, even by the band's standards, but if by some utterly deranged reason you want to mix prog with your sexual conquests, here is a soundtrack to a night of prog passion. Groovy.