ELECTRIC ASTURIAS: TRINITY

My first question is: How, and I'm serious, HOW can someone rate this album a one star effort?!! It's not even a matter of taste, one cannot help but recognize and, hopefully, acknowledge the mastery on display here.

My follow-up second question is: How many one star raters here can compose and play at this level of proficiency??

1. "Closed World" (7:13) opens with some aggressive classical piano arpeggi before full rock band joins in with violin repeating the same opening sequence of arpeggi. The melodic pattern is engaging enough to keep the listener pinned while other instruments take turns soloing with variations on the main theme or, with stops and starts, going into other movements. The weaves of the three lead instruments gets clever with harmonized threads and chords. Very pleasant, clean, interesting, and engaging song start to finish with, of course, very high caliber skills in the composition and musicianship departments. (13.5/15)

2. "Wuthering Heights" (5:54) bouncy, peppy, though a little straightforward with melodies that become a little tiresome no matter how many different ways they play them. sounds like a song from GENESIS And Then There Were Three... without the lyrics, of course. (8.25/10)

3. "Skelter"(4:38) opens with a reversed piano chord á la YES 1972 before the band comes crashing through like a train out of a tunnel travelling at top speed. Great melodies from Tei Sena and support play--especially from the piano of Yoshihiro Kawagoe. The soloing skills of guitarist Satoshi Hirata are great though his lines aren't quite as melodic or emotional as Sena's. (Is it just the nature of the instrument? I think not.) (9.25/10)

4. "Crow" (8:08) sounding part classical, part jazz, and part country from the very start, this one could be a song from Edgar Meyer's Goat Rodeo or Jean-Luc Ponty's less electric albums. The weave begun at 1:29 is awesome but the rhythmic emphasis in the section beginning at 1:46 is amazing! Such skill! Such beauty! All this and the real meat of the song doesn't begin to reveal itself until 3:18 and 3:49! Great bass sound. Great whole-band weave. And then there's the awesome tension build in the second half of the sixth minute before the gentle tease and full dénouement for the seventh minute. Could've gone higher, but, still, I am happy with the gentle, gorgeous ending. Probably the best song on the album! (14.25/15)

5. "Rogus" (8:46) strings and tango-jazzy piano open this one before full band join in and electric guitar establishes the lead melody with violin playing second fiddle. The two trade variations on the melodic theme established first by the guitar over the first couple minutes as bass, piano, and drums float like waves in support. A quiet section exposes the piano for another tango-like movement as chunky bass solos in time with drums. Nice! I love the piano play! Dirty guitar enters to solo. Quite skilled and jazzy if still not as emotional as the violin or piano. There are a lot of similarities to this guitar sound and play to MIREK GIL and STEVE HACKETT. It gets better and more under your skin as the song progresses. Great song! Just love that tango-piano foundation! (18/20)

- Suite Of "Gorgon" : 6. I - Medusa (5:11) slow chord shifting church organ opens this one before bells join in. Ominous and awesome! Then about a minute in the full band jumps in with its own classical Phantom of the Opera-like theme music. Very Italian in it's dramatic set up. (Except for the organ opening, this could be either LA COSCIENZA DI ZENO or INGRANAGGI DELLA VALLE here). (8.9/10)

7. II - Sthenno (7:30) opening with heavily distorted bass, delicate cymbal play, and then violin before piano introduces the real pace and form at 0:50. The song is very chunky, very thick like WOBBLER and angular like ÄNGLAGÅRD. The dirty violin solo in the fourth minute is very wild and frenetic. The KOTEBEL-like music that follows ushers in the return of the heavily distorted bass as the violin seems to dance around it. Then, at 4:45 there is an emptying as the bass is allowed to repeat the opening section. Great complex and tightly performed symphonic prog song. (13.25/15)

8. III - Euryale (8:51) opens with some deliciously supported violin play--amazingly gorgeous melodies. The music switches to a little more chop in the second minute--including in the violin and guitar melody play. It's good, just quite as powerful as the opening section. Very nice technically-demanding weave in the fourth minute. The violin puts on a show in the fifth minute while the band beneath gets heavier and switches to minor chords for a little bit. I take it that the violin is representing Perseus and the electric guitar the gorgon. Quite a struggle! Won, of course, by the violin--which leads to a final section in which the powerful and plaintive melody of the opening section are repeated and reinforced. (18/20)

Total time 56:11

Five stars; a minor masterpiece of beautiful, technically skilled jazz fusion/progressive rock music.