POINT OF VIEW

An Album filled with surprises. A combination of Folk, Symphonic rock, and Canterbury. Sometime, what annoying vocals, but at other time protests fine capabilities.

"The Wilderness": starts off with pleasent folk with cachy lyrics. Later, accelerates, with the rythem section in place, showing incredible skills and great keyboard lines.

"Trapped in The Marsh": interesting introduction. sounds like a harp to me. after that, the vocals come in. here again, very cachy lyrics, with a heavy accent. the piece ends with an avant-garde grand piano solo.

"Prodigy": Great guitar work! the song has great progression. Afterward sound more like GENESIS.

"Out of My Way": Nice riff of the guitars and keyboard. later on sounds more like blues for some reason.

"December: December is a very melencholic folk song. i must mention the vocals here.

"Solution": Here we get a feel more closely to GENTLE GIANT or like other Israeli artists such as SHLOMO GRONICH, MATI CASPI and JOHNNY RECHTER. that, only because of the keyboard lines, and the comparison between the sound of them.

A terrific outfit on its own merits, what is truly remarkable about Israel's Lord Flimnap [the Lilliputian treasurer from Gulliver's Travels] is that it was a trio of teenagers. Drummer Alon Weissman and bassist/guitarist/singer Itay Eyal, both 16, joined with 15-year old keyboardist Ohad Goldbart in 1989. After less than fifty hours of studio time in Kfar Saba, they produced a tight and inspired collection of prog relics that seem to be bursting with the excitement of a time at least ten years earlier. A time these kids had missed but fallen hard for.

The material reflects their fondness for Anglocentric prog in all its forms with much folk, symph and Hatfieldisms, and by doubling themselves on multiple instruments, the band was able to create an incredibly mature and well-developed product released on tape by The 3rd Ear label and later on CD by German prog company SPM. Though glimpses of Genesis and the Crims as well as Greenslade, U.K. and even American band Hands are spotted, Flimnap does not bow to those icons as much as emulate the era it felt had been ruined by an industry. The rub of a cricket's legs and the fall of evening introduces 'The Wilderness' with troubadours Goldbart and Eyal on dual steelstrings, Weissman in the pocket and all three adding their voices to a very decent round of harmonies, the prog spirits coming alive with cool electric guitar lines, strong organ and a smart arrangement. Weird and slow 'Trapped in the Marsh' reminds of Lake and Emerson's dreamier moments. And biographical 'Prodigy' surely reflects the experience of musical wunderkindship featuring the jazzier aspects here with a splendid middle where organ-rock dances with fusion.

Big boy 'Out of My Way' has its flaws; a somewhat disjointed arrangement, less than perfect vocals and a kind of dance rock that doesn't quite suit things. But at over ten minutes has room to offer a few good scraps now & then when the kids just let go and play. Folk lament 'December' creaks along in a weepy Beatles way, and 'Solution' is a walking jazz bit souped-up by Goldbart's lovely classical piano breaks.

A rare item nowadays and certainly one of the more desirable lost prog artifacts, Lord Flimnap's Point of View is highly recommended but not to everyone... if you know what I mean. A very strong three stars.

Not the easiest album to review, this one.

The one and only album from the Israeli band Lord Flimnap is not the easiest album to place in the prog landscape. It is an album which takes a lot of influences from the two first Harmonium albums and blend it with some Genesis, Soft Machine, King Crimson and Queen flavors. Add this to a pretty pedestrian piano based sound and you get an album steeped in the British prog scene tradition.

The problem is the quality...... or the lack of it. The songs are decent enough though, but it never really raise above that. The sound is good though. The songs simply lacks both identity and quality. I simply have problems remembering anything than endless pianos and some organs from this album when the forty minutes is up. And I have given this album a lot of time.

In short; a decent album and that's it.

2 stars

Desperately trying to find something worth of interest here, but I fail at that. Perhaps it's me, or maybe it's this album. Full of songs that are somewhat similar, acoustically mild ballads with a bit of heavier pieces (middle part of Prodigy for example). Except it there is mostly piano and soft voice, some flute is also there. But the important part - the message, is not there. Actually, the music is so soft that it almost makes my head hurts. Don't take me bad, Harmonium's second (the best) is based on the very same principles, but they are doing it right, somehow.

2(+), yet I can imagine how this appeal to someone.