MIDNIGHT MUSHRUMPS

This second album is a large improvement over the first one. While the debut was basically pure medieval Folk music, this is more eclectic and instrumentally more interesting. I hesitate to call it Prog rock, though. There is not much rock in it, even if much more so than the debut, of course.

The all instrumental 18 minutes plus piece has a Mike Oldfield structure; it jumps from one theme to another, and then to another, and then to yet another - but it does not really progress. It is full of interesting musical ideas, but it is utterly directionless. You get the feeling that they set out to do a long piece just for the sake of it, and it does sound a bit forced at times. While there is no doubt about their instrumental prowess and their ability to spit out many fun musical ideas, they had a lot to learn about composition and arrangement (same with Oldfield at the time, I think).

The second half of the album consists of shorter pieces more in line with the debut album, but clearly more developed instrumentally. Some of these have vocals and they generally work a bit better than the vocal pieces on the debut.

Not really my cup of tea, I'm afraid. For fans only.