LOOKING FOR JOHN MADDOCK

Holland is a small european country with a big (and well deserved) reputation concerning rock bands in general and prog groups in particular. Flamborough Head nowadays is one of the most interesting and powerful dutch essembles that carry the prog torch with pride. Although they face quite a big competition in their homeland, their music is still going strong and ever developing since their excellent debut in the mid 90´s. No two two FH sound too much alike and Looking For John Maddock is no exception.

As soon as I heard their new CD I knew it would take some spins to get used to it. The band´s sound is becoming more and more complex since the new millenium started. It is still quite melodic and accessible to many ears, I guess, but their elaborated, subtle arrangements show a fine tapestry of intricated, well crafted tunes that grow on you with each listening. Edo Spanninga´s keyboards lines and the band in general seem to be influenced by his side project Trion: half of the tracklist is composed solely by instrumentals. The strong use of the Hammond organ, Margriet Boomsma´s flute (more proeminent than ever) and the very fine guitar solos often reminded me of Focus in their 70´s heyday. Margriet´s slightly jazzy vocals are a bit underused but are highly effective when they do appear.

As usual Flamborough Head keeps the high standards: there are no fillers, each track a gem on itself, but the album highlight is doubtless the epic, 19 minute, title track. Never have they sounded so symphonic, elaborated and bold: starting with a unsual keyboard line, followed by a slow section with recorder and mellotron, it goes through many intrumental moods and changes, giving us some of the CDs best´and most emotional vocals and finishes with climatic guitar and keys interplay. After all those years the band shows what a tigh group of skilled musicians can do when faced with some strong songwriting. They make complex music disguised as simple, like only the great ones know how to deliver in the right doses.

My final rating was something very difficult to decide: it is hard to label it as a classic or essential masterpiece in such a short time after its release, especially when compared to the band´s already brilliant discography. On the other hand I cannot close my eyes (or ears) to its sheer quality. Between a 4,5 and 5 star rating, I´ll round it up to 5. Highly recommended!

Those interested in this band already know that Tarcisio is devoted fan of this band. He said his part, I'll say mine, much shorter this time than at two albums before. This time, I was firstly confused. This didn't sound how I expected it to sound, how I wanted it. But this is not how it works, this group progressed again. It's a good work and only time will prove if it's worthy masterpiece rating, but so far, I don't feel it. But it could achieve this status, this album has everything needed for this. And as always, this exactly is example of light side of neo-prog (where for example Marillion is dark side).

4(+), easy album to listening, it's opposite side of death metal, this one will be maybe hard to notice, but if you listen closely, you'll be rewarded. Anyway, more volume needed.

Only my second review of a Flamborough Head album and that's strange since this is a high profile Dutch progrock band playing neo hinted symphonic prog. So that should be my cup of tea really but somehow I don't quite click with this band. Sometimes it's because of the lyrics and it also has to do with the way the guitarist plays his instrument. I had this same problem with K2 where Alan Holdsworth did his job. Technically it was great but I didn't like the sound. And that's the same thing here. Eddy Mulder is a very fine guitarist but I like it more smooth and clear sounding and that's not the case here. But mind you, that's just a personal thing.

What I don't have a problem with is the instrumental and melodic aspect of the compositions in general. That is absolutely of the highest quality with this band, also on this album. But I do have a bit of a problem with the lyrics at moments. They sound very cliché and I can see the words coming at miles distance. Maybe it's not easy for a Dutch band to write original lyrics in English and maybe I'm making too much of a big deal out of it, but it just annoys me a bit.

So some positive and negative aspects here but surveying the whole thing the positive prevails in the end. The musicianship is marvellous (flute and other wind contributions !) and the melodic compositions are great and inventive and deserve much respect. I'm a bit ambivalent about Margriet's voice. On itself it's a great voice but again here my personal feel for it is just not quite there. Hard to explain sometimes but it is what it is, can't help it. But again, the positive aspects are so strong the balance is turning to the good side and I will give four in the end (3,75). Also because I have a strong feeling many progfans will enjoy this album.

Though I was quite taken with Defining the Legacy, I rather thought that subsequent Flamborough Head albums failed to really manifest any musical development over that one, and Looking For John Maddock hasn't rid me of that impression. It's decently performed neo- prog (with the slightly mediocre production quality which regularly seems to hamper the Head's albums), and there's some real neat instrumental performances on here, but on the whole it doesn't feel like anything that neo-proggers haven't heard a dozen times before from a dozen second-string bands. It's an entertaining listen but unless you are a particularly loyal Flamborough Head fan it probably isn't worth going out of your way to get.