MAGDALENA

It´s not that the CD is a total failure. Those guys were skilled musicians for sure. Yet they were still feeling their way to a very own sound. Production also does not help a lot, being only average at best. But the histrionic vocals are hard to bear. I´m very fond of female singers in prog, I even like Kate Bush (and she is not my favorite kind of singing voice). Tokuhisa unfortunatly goes a little over the top way too many times in Magdalena. And the band lacked enough songwriting skills to compensate this weakness. If they could get over those issues in future times remains a mystery.

I tried hard to like this CD, but clearly Magdalena is one of the few cases of a japanese prog band that I´m not sorry they didn´t release a follow up. This one is recommended for collectors and hardcore fans only.

Yet to me this is a far inferior product than any of the above. The songs here lack any appeal that extends beyond their boundaries, the bombast is executed without a sense of fun or panache, the solos are aimless and the arrangements are forgettable. Megumi neither purrs softly nor lashes out vindictively as she would later with T.S., instead occupying a limited emotional range in her enunciations of the wordless and the wordy.

While I am tempted to add a star simply for the chutzpah of producing symphonic prog in the mid 80s, I would have to dock it because efforts like this could have killed the nascent resurgence before it ever got started. Wholly dispensable.

A friend of mine who likes prog (actually i have seen him only 3 times in my life, 2 in concerts) suggested me long time ago this japanese band which released only an eponymous album, it was strange because in his collection of so many albums, Magdalena created a good taste in him at the point to remember what Magdalena sounds, i mean, my friend owns so many albums that he actually doesn`t know what so many of them sound like, the fact of suggest it to me, made me think of getting thae album, so when i last saw him i asked him to share the album to me, since then i have listened to it several times, and now let me tell you about it.

As i said in the first line, this band called Magdalena comes from Japan, in the late 80`s when prog was not so prolific or that good, they released their only album which contains 7 songs, and since the first song showing a symphonic oriented sound.

This band has female vocals , in their native japanese language, and actually when i first listened to it, and i think every day i listen to it i think immediately in some japanese cartoons, the vocals remind me at the first time like if it were a original cartoon sountrack or something, very typical sound from Japan.

The band has not an "extra" instrument, i mean it has the traditional instruments, none of them with an outstanding sound, but all pretty nice, the third song for example doesnt`sound as classic as others, it has a darker atmosphere since the beggining of it when guitar plays and then keyboards joins with it`s atmospherical sound , also if you want a comparision ( a silly comparision) the vocals remind me a bit of Kate Bush`s tones and it could be annoying sometimes.

In "Waltz" she shows us her dramatic and opera voice, with a soft and dark sound at the same time , the music is average, very nice guitar riffs during it. "Omen" could be the best song in this album, it`s the longest of them all, and the most different between them, not so conventional , but actually nothing innovative to the music that we know, its a very nice song which has a nice acoustic guitar and melodic keyboards , which is progressing and making a better sound during the song , also it has kind of backing gregorian vocals, and a clear symphonic sound, giving us some pretty changes.

Despite being a symphonic album, with it`s different influences, i think japanese symphonic prog has it`s own influences and it`s own sound, this Magdalena`s sound has nothing to do with Ars Nova for example, i would say this album is less complex and less innovative or challenging, maybe average could be the word, of course it`s enjoyable, i like it, and i recommend it if you wish to have a good time with a new horizon, but nothing to be proud of, so 3 stars for me, recommendable - yes, essential - no.

Not unlike another Japanese bands as MUGEN or VERMILLION SANDS, MAGDALENA uses classical music influences with keyboards and guitar important presence, adding a female almost operatic singer, Megumi Tokuhisa. Precisely, here is a weak point, IMHO: she sings (in Japanese) like Kate Bush, but sometimes her voice seems strident, distracting attention from beautiful music.

Three longest tracks are the highlights, but melodically the whole album is impeccable. If you are searching for very refined symphonic music and don't care about shrill or excessively sharp voices, you'll find this album very enjoyable.